Smoke and no Coolant

boonmariachi · Post by **boonmariachi** » 03 Jan 2012, 20:18

i have a 97 850 non turbo and running into a strange problem.....when i get the car up the normal op. temp., there's a sound of hissing or boiling coming from the vents, then smoke or mist will come out of them, i'll turn off the car and look to see that there's no more coolant in the reservoir or the running through the upper radiator hose. what do you all think it might be!! let me know

Post by **JDS60R** » 03 Jan 2012, 20:45

Your heater core has blown. Replace with a Behr unit or buy direct from Volvo (also the same Behr unit). Replace the behr heater core and refill coolant with a 50/50 mix of Volvo coolant and distilled water.

Lots of heater core replacement posts here. Use search feature above

Post by **JDS60R** » 03 Jan 2012, 20:47

Do not drive the car until fixed as the glycol acts as a nerve agent. The car will only tolerate a very short trip before overheating and hurting the motor. They are easy to change on a left hand drive car.

Post by **pkc303** » 03 Jan 2012, 21:20

The repair is on this website. We found it very helpful. I would suggest that you change the vacuum hoses if you can get to them while you are in there. It is definitely your heater core, and you should not drive the car until it is repaired. It could ruin your engine if not fixed soon.

boonmariachi · Post by **boonmariachi** » 03 Jan 2012, 21:22

okay now what about a coolant, it says volvo 50/50, is that the same as dex-cool you could get at autozone, or zerex g-05 over at napa. and i just bought this car, the original owener was putting in peak green. so what should i do!!!

Post by **precopster** » 04 Jan 2012, 06:27

It's better to drain & refill all the coolant from the petcock at the bottom of the radiator (usually 6mm allen) and then refill with anything ethylene glycol with a concentration of 100%. In other words if there is a quart of ehylene glycol in the bottle there has to be an equal weight of the active ingredient as though it were 100% weight.

In Australia with metric measurement the good stuff is 1060g/ litre Ethylene Glycol which is 100% proof.

You then add 50% distilled or de-mineralised water and that is what you top up with.

Pennzoil produce a pre-mix at 50/50 which is ideal for Volvo's recommended concentration levels but remember you are purchasing 50% purified water so do the math against a concentrate.

boonmariachi · Post by **boonmariachi** » 04 Jan 2012, 22:32

PENTOFROST NF (with silicates).......do you think this would be a good coolant to use, it's a little cheaper and says it's okay to use for all volvo models. i called volvo dealer and said 1 bottle would be about 25 dollars

Post by **JDS60R** » 04 Jan 2012, 23:03

Spend the money and get the Volvo coolant.

There are compounds in the Volvo coolant that are not always found together in other coolants. Some of these are sebacic acid and silicates. The Pentosin you picked does have some silicates but I do not have a data sheet for it so I can not tell the rest.
Regular EG coolants are considered an OAT (Organic acid technology) coolants. The Volvo coolant is a HOAT. Do not mix the two.
HOAT are the common coolant for tractor trailers and are formulated to withstand the high amounts of local boiling casued by high compression turbo diesel motors.
Don't gamble on the motor for $10 savings in coolant. The car will not need more than 1 gallon of the Volvo antifreeze as you mix it 50/50 with distilled or demineralized water.

I have done my own testing here on some high performance motors and the Volvo coolant does perform better as it controls localized boiling better. Try putting different coolants(no air) into a few a glass containers with a sealed metal end. Then make sure the coolant is pressurized to 22 psi and heat up the Volvo coolant 50/50 and a regular OAT coolant 50/50 (feel free to do one with OAT 50/50 and water wetter as well). Heat them up equally , monitoring temps as they rise and see the difference.

This topic always brings out controversy over which coolant to use. My experience is not to gamble the seal compatibility, heat transfer and localized boiling damage for $10. I promise you that using the coolant Volvo selected for your car will not hurt it. Do anything else without being assured of its ingredients and you are gambling. There are reasons the reservoir says Volvo coolant only. Part of it is to sell more coolant, the rest is because its the right coolant for your car. By the way BMW coolant is exactly the same coolant without a bittering agent to keep the dogs from licking up spills. Mercedes coolant is a different coolant.

boonmariachi · Post by **boonmariachi** » 05 Jan 2012, 22:00

okay well have decided to do the work this weekend, waiting on parts. but before i order everything the part number for the o-rings for the heater hose firewall side and orings for the heater core are the same part number just listed differently. my question is do i need 4 of the part number 3545586 or just the 2

Post by **JDS60R** » 05 Jan 2012, 22:29

I believe at the fire wall coupler there are two on each line on each side. The heater core has one on each line.

To just replace the heater core you need 2 orings.

To replace the seals on the interior side of the coupler you would need 4 for the coupler +2 for the heater core.