Water we gonna do now?

[MrChocky]

The clip that holds the otterstadt in place can fail. Its happened to me and others before me. In my case I was going 55mph on the freeway and another driver pulled up beside me and warned me I was leaking gasoline badly. My gauges all looked fine and I couldn't really see anything wrong in the mirrors but I pulled over immediately to the shoulder to find my clip had come loose and the otterstad had been forced out of the pipe and was hanging by the wiring harness.

By securing the otterstadt with a cable tie in addition to the the standard clip - this won't happen. I know there are other obscure options for otterstadts that screw in as well, but this works fine.

I was very lucky. We don't have a radiator fluid level sensor, just a fluid temp sensor and I can tell you for sure that it won't tell you a thing if you have a sudden loss of all of your coolant, you're engine will just overheat and stall out within, I'm glad I don't know for sure, but maybe 3 miles? I've had top side coolant leaks where you can see steam in coming off the top of the engine cover in the rear view mirror, and in those cases the remaining water temp rises enough to give you an indication on the temp gauge that something is going on, but when 2 gallons shoots out at 15 psi straight down under the car at highway speeds you will likely only know when the engine overheats and locks up.

I have now been running cable ties on the advice of someone here for more than 10 years on two Deloreans, and I sleep much better knowing they have been there. I can post a diagram if my description isn't clear but there is one somewhere on the board already somewhere.

Ron is correct, my description above was not clear. The pipe gets rotated so the sensor is down. The otterstat gets rotated so the parallel terminals are lined up pointing to the left and right sides of the car. That way when you wrap a cable tie around the pipe it can go between the two terminals on the otterstat. Then you plug the wires onto the terminals over the cable tie.

T

Am I required to be the person who points out the various spellings here of "otterstat"

But anyway, yes, I found my clip hanging out in the wires, when I replaced it. I've since put a single zip tie. I've seen a fair bit of talk about
using two ties instead to avoid pressure on the fragile middle section, but I've yet to find either a photo or a good description of
the exact technique. Anyone?

My new project car has none of these problems - the pipe is installed upside down, and it seems the otterstat is not
wired in anyway!

And as you point out, DeLoreanGo offer a more secure screw in option.

[mhanch]

This was a great tip. I checked my Otterstat and no zip tie. Took about a minute to add and nice to have the safety. This should be on the new owner checklist.

[FABombjoy]

Am I required to be the person who points out the various spellings here of "otterstat"

Another pertinent question could be: Why 'otterstat' when most of the known universe calls it a 'cooling fan switch'?

[LB78]

Couple weeks ago I posted a thread about a potential failed water pump. This is a follow up thread to that.

I've found that I either made an error, or there was previously some type of modification to the stock configuration of the water return pipe. I cannot recall exactly how it went when I took that piece out of the VOD. I did, however, label a single bolt "pipe under K-jet" and I put it in a bag. Knowing myself, this is what I would have done, not having known the actual names for each part when I took them out.

I've studied several diagrams both from my workshop manual and a few online sources, and each of those diagrams calls for an M7, 1/2" nominal length bolt for this purpose. The single bolt I pulled and labeled is narrower and ~2.5" long. Neither the new bolt included with my hardware kit (part #104173 on delorean.com) nor the bolt I labeled seems to be appropriate for this situation. The mounting point on the block in the VOD is too large and not threaded. The bolt I am pretty sure I pulled is too narrow. The new spec hardware is far too short.

Anyone have any ideas?

[MrChocky]

Couple weeks ago I posted a thread about a potential failed water pump. This is a follow up thread to that.

I've found that I either made an error, or there was previously some type of modification to the stock configuration of the water return pipe. I cannot recall exactly how it went when I took that piece out of the VOD. I did, however, label a single bolt "pipe under K-jet" and I put it in a bag. Knowing myself, this is what I would have done, not having known the actual names for each part when I took them out.

I've studied several diagrams both from my workshop manual and a few online sources, and each of those diagrams calls for an M7, 1/2" nominal length bolt for this purpose. The single bolt I pulled and labeled is narrower and ~2.5" long. Neither the new bolt included with my hardware kit (part #104173 on delorean.com) nor the bolt I labeled seems to be appropriate for this situation. The mounting point on the block in the VOD is too large and not threaded. The bolt I am pretty sure I pulled is too narrow. The new spec hardware is far too short.

Anyone have any ideas?

I'm not sure if this is going to help or not, but the Y-pipe is held down by 4 M7 bolts of 2 different lengths (102147, 10214. These bolts are only partially threaded, since the Y-pipe has no thread, only the block.
On my car, the top right hole was severely corroded and I had to rethread, I think it's an M10. It's this hole that the heater return pipe tab is also attached to.

The #104173 part is indeed quite short, and there's no way it'd be long enough to go there, although the diagram suggests it also does.

PXL_20201019_202246061.jpg

[LB78]

OK, so I found the original bolt and was able to reuse. It's definitely not an M7, nor was it a half-inch long. I'd guess M10, 1.25" or thereabouts.

I'm really really struggling with the manifold. It was a cast-iron you know what to get it out the first time. The edges kept getting caught on the clips that hold the spark plugs in place. I hoped putting it in would be easier. But, it's not. Also, come to find out there's a very serious corrosion problem in the bolthole for the right rear manifold bolt. I noticed a little more difficulty compared with the other 3 bolts when I took it out, but the threads in that spot are so bad I am unable to thread the new bolt into the hole. I don't want to damage the casting.

At the moment, I'm allowing the open hole to soak in PB Blaster overnight. If this doesn't work to improve the usability of that hole I'm going to pick up the proper tap and see if that will clean it up enough to get the manifold bolted down. As an extreme contingency plan, I'll re-drill the hole to a larger size, and then tap a new thread and use a larger bolt in that position. Hopefully it won't come to that. But, luck favors the prepared.

[Helirich]

OK, As an extreme contingency plan, I'll re-drill the hole to a larger size, and then tap a new thread and use a larger bolt in that position. Hopefully it won't come to that. But, luck favors the prepared.

Heli-coil not an option?

[LB78]

Believe it or not I'd never heard of heli coil before today. So that'd be a better choice if it comes to it.

[LB78]

I replaced the water pump on my car. Everything was carefully and meticulously removed and labeled, compared against new hardware, and then after a nearly perfectly thorough flush, reassembled with new parts, including all new hoses, clamps, pump, thermostat, housing, etc. The cooling system in the engine bay is 100% brand new at this point. After burping, I got the car started and it immediately pissed coolant straight out of the weephole behind the pulley. This is exactly the same symptom that caused me to start this whole project in the first place.

As I see it, there's a short list of things that could be happening:
1 - The new pump is bad in exactly the same way the old one was (I do not find this to be very likely)
2 - There's some other cause that I do not know.

So, I am back to the drawing board. Anyone have any ideas? What's going on here?

[Stainless]

Can you post pictures or a video of the leakage? That may help us provide better directions.