Coolant Leak- top hose
 

Always a problem with this one, eh? For those that can do with all the wall of text below- I’m stuck in a rural cottage 2.5 hours from home in NYC. Coolant is leaking out of the thermometer housing on too of engine after over heating. specs: B20b/ open system with expansion bottle.
Beware the messy grammar and words from phone.
This is one of those wow-is-me- and the car, - is my car hexed? Am I that terrible a car owner, amateur hobby mechanic? Well, it’s 4 AM in a holiday cottage in the Catskills for my birthday. Beautiful running car. 1600 miles into my rebuilt engine. And now I have a problem made more difficult by being all the way up in the country.

No problems with the smooth drive , 3 hours last night to Hudson and 2 hours this afternoon to this remote cottage. This dirt roads was pretty well hidden. In the dark we were looking for the landmarks from the owner to find the place. Thinking we might have passed it I didn’t want to try and turn the car around in this narrow road if we had not gone past.

I grabbed the flashlight and ran back a bit. Partners in the car and I left the car running. The engine was running a good temp with mildly cool weather. Forums the place and ran back to the car. Turn around. Careful with this very rough road. As we turn into this driveway. We scrapped the floor a bit, but it’s not relevant. Suddenly we had smoke- wait, thanks, steam coming from under the hood. I pull her up 30 feet to the house and with emergency adrenaline I poo the hood. Coolant was obviously boiling. And not just out the overflow! The steam was from the thermostat housing on the front of the engine. Engine end, not on the radiator end.
I’m thinking this may be bad but I am fortunate to have my tools and a spare gasket for the thermostat. I can do this! I spend all my spare time mucking on her and I have the right to spend Saturday working on this without being obliged to sight see or brunch stuff. It’s MY weekend :))
I decide to do it before sleep. I’m wide awake anyway, quite a night owl and doing some pottering about her.
I’m disappointed now. Should have done it in the morning because it isn’t fixed and I’m in a terrible place to do more. I drained enough coolant to pull the housing off the engine. I had hoped a new rubber ring around that thermostatic switch would fix the immediate issue. No good. I reassembled and washed down the engine. Dried it so I would see any leak. I filled her up from tvs expansion bottle. When I checked a few minutes later I am seeing fluid leaking out of the housing- where it mates with the block. I guess the heat warped some piece of metal. The engine mating was ground to flat by the excellent machine I found to do my hard metal work.

Excuse treating this forum into a blog post. It’s better than sitting in the dark with thoughts. The over riding one is I may be beat. I e gotten bad turns with this girl every time, every step. From getting swindled on the bottom end I purchased, first accident in 35 years is this one being rear ended at a stop light. I’m creamed man! It’s all fine if I can find the way through it. I don’t see it! Wife has to rehearsal Sunday at 2:45 in NYC. I can’t get to a parts shop, but what would they have Of any use to me ( except I need coolant or distilled water and a ride to find a store).

As moaning as this sounds, I do disaster recovery engineering, so if I can sleep I may get that ‘I can fix it” wind. Dang it, I don’t see how! Too many complications to handle on top of repair. This car does NOT want to live! I ain’t a professional mechanic but I’m not this bad! I just let the engine idle for maybe ten minutes after cruising highway speeds for two hours. Warped something?

Thanks for to box to rant! I think at least this ramble will get sleep round 2 going. Maybe I will repeat process I just did (spring water OK since I’m out of coolant and distilled water?) and look harder for mage, anyone know of a resource just south of the Catskills ? Spare thermostat at the discount Aldi shop? No idea what to do. And truly, pardon the self pitying post What else have I got now! :). It’s helped.

At first:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Second: this will be zero minus zero problem to you
If the gasket at the bottom of the thermostat housing does fail you will build your own.
Made of leather, does work very well if boiled in grease after cutting to size, or made of thick paper made of he front/back of a book. Not the unflexibel hard cover, made of the smaller books.
Both you will cut in form with a sharp knife or a scissor for nails.
If it will leak still drive with open coolant system. No pressure noch leak.
Next gift to you should be some JB-weld. Magic stuff to survive without old cars.
And a tube of a tire of a bicycle.
Best survival stuff in many cases.

Good luck, happy return to NY and this Amazon will stay forever with you :-)
Regards, Kay

Any water will be ok.
Spring water will be ok too

If you need to make a new paper gasket then grease it before installing:~
A stuck thermostat may have caused the overheating? Test in a pan of water as you bring it up to temperature—as a short term measure the stat can be removed and the car will run but the temperature will remain on the cool side.
Check all hoses are ok & secure.
Have a better Birthday!
Good Luck
Bob.

Gasket easily made from a food packet, pizza box etc. Smear of grease both sides is good. Anything, a bit of the wife's hand cream for example. If the housing is corroded they are available new for reasonable money. Make sure it is the correct one for the B20 which fits the larger diameter hose. Emergency coolant can be anything, bottled drinking water is fine. Collect water from puddles if you have to. Thermostat should be for these engines with the bypass plunger underneath. See pictures here.
https://www.classicvolvoparts.co.uk/...ts_and_Housing

Still Morning
 

I almost wrote a book! Thanks for reading and suggestings.

The J.B. Almost stayed in the car, but it pulled out that crate from trunk at the last minute. But these ideas encourage me to be brave with fixings.

I think the leak can be tested and tolerated to some degree in the immediate area. It will take some confidence to test anything going into the city as I can’t avoid some traffic delays. But if I can get to an autozone or hardware store I will be able to cure a seal by tomorrow.

I can only think that some piece of metal warped at high heat. Is there any problem with pull the thermostat for the gauge out while cooling system is full? That’s a high point in the system so it won’t act as a drain. Unless it might make the spot into an air bubble.

I’ll update in a bit with progress. This golden pond is shimmering like in the movie. Maybe I can just ignore the problem? Anyone have luck with that method?

Not too bad
 

I think we can get home so long as we work to reduce the amount of time sitting in back to back traffic. I drove 10 miles with a good chunk at 55 mph. I wouldn’t know there is a problem. Looking at the area there is some leakage. Most of which evaporated quickly in that heat. The pump and thermostat is cycling fluid I to radiator as I see the temp drop at times you would most notice, such as on take off after being parked and increases in rpm at in changing driving conditions. Looking close in the sun I can now make out a hairline crack on the rear carb side of housing. At least that explains what failed. Better than
Imaginations will come up with.

I got JB Weld for thermostat supposed to withstand heat and fluids up to 500 degrees. I threw in an emergency rad repair gunk as a helpful palliative on the road. (For me in the first rush of adrenaline and fear). Extra coolant in the trunk and all hands on deck know not to freak if steam starts pouring from the
Engine bay.

At home I have an old housing for b20 and b18. Others pop up for cheap on eBay.

Thanks to this I discovered I’m missing a bolt and busing from the bottom of my front right shock. How the heck did a nylock nut go away? And recent, too. No spare bushing with me but I have correct nut and variety of washers. This should avoid the shock jumping up and out of wishbone. The bushing inside is correctly positioned. Missed NAPA by 5 minutes! Closing at 2 pm on Saturday. In the countryside?! In my day the rural boys wouldn’t tolerate that. At 49 I’m allowed to make up false histories, right? Too soon?

All Fine
 

Just want to provide a follow-up. I smeared the JB around the joining area of the housing as well as covering the crack on the rear side. 2.5 hour drive home without any issue. Thankfully a cool and wet day. A few areas into the city slowed down but didn’t stop. Not a drop, no boiling.
I guess caution should be considered about idling for 5 to 10 minutes after a long highway drive. The failure and the fix was easier than the time spent getting there. A reminder that one must be ready for unexpected failures with aged cars being run as if they were contemporary. It’s worth it to keep these on the road and out of museums.

Congratulations!
The best possible birthday:
A problem appears and you could solve this beeing McGuyver :-)

Plus 1 to use old cars instead of to store them.
The youngest car I own and use is 30 years now!
Have a nice week, cheers Kay

Richard;

...a bit late to the party, but I'm happy you got this sorted enough to make it home...it is not clear to me if Tstat housing itself is fractured or if gasket around Tstat somehow failed, or what the precise manner of failure was (remember also for future minor Cooling System failures, that simply removing the Pressure Cap is sometimes enough to stop a pressure leak, and allow continued driving - while monitoring engine Temp carefully)

...in any case, be advised that the rubber gasket sits around Tstat and is preloaded to seal by the recess in Tstat housing...there is NO further gasket required (or should be installed!) between Housing and Cyl Head...in fact, installing one would decrease the preload and intended sealing ability on the rubber Tstat gasket, so don't install one! Do however tighten the Housing securing bolts evenly and don't overtighten, as the cast Alu Housing is brittle and can easily be broken in this manner!

Cheers from Connecticut!