Intelligent Tinkering: Water pump versus head gasket failure

Sunday, January 15, 2023

Water pump versus head gasket failure

Camry owner: Can someone confirm my suspicion of this being a 5SFE water pump failure?

Coolant was low earlier today so I filled to the top.

Later this evening in a drive thru, a bunch of white smoke comes out of the passenger side front of the hood.

Shut it off and wait a while. I add coolant to the top after 25 minutes and start it up. Temp reads 2/3, hot air in the interior blows cold, and I start driving home 10 minutes away. Even though I added coolant to the top, and I’m driving on the highway in cold winter storm weather, the temp creeps up to the red again so I pull over and wait another 15 minutes for it to cool down. I eventually make it home after 2 cooling rest stops.

The coolant is slightly below the minimum level when I get back.

Could this be anything other than the water pump? Gotta fix this ASAP.

Intelligent Tinkering: Might have a cylinder head leak: coolant into one or more cylinders. Not hard to test for: Sniff the exhaust for a whiff of coolant. Pull the plugs. Look for one or more cleaner than all the others. If it whiffs and if you have a clean plug, borrow or buy a radiator pressure gauge kit and put it on the radiator cap. Radiator pressure too high and pulsing with engine running is head gasket leak.

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Fixing and the future

As Matthew Crawford pointed out in "Shop Class and Soulcraft," there is nothing more pathetic than a modern man or woman mystified and infantilized by the high-tech gadgetry he or she owns but can't repair or even understand. We have become by historic stages the owners and users of powerful technology, gadgets of all shapes and purposes with previously-unimaginable labor-saving abilities and convenience, but we can fix none of it ourselves because fixing -- learning how to use tools and reason to make things that have stopped working work again -- is unfashionable. We are told by modern culture that gainful employment requires a college degree. Apart from a few science labs, that degree will be almost all taught in the classroom or worse, online. And children thus spend their apprenticeship years, the years they should be learning to use their hands and brains together, using only their brain and only a small part of the brain at that. It's no surprise that only a small minority of folks ever learn to fix anything more complicated than a Lego set. This is a major problem for society in many ways. Most importantly, it creates a kind of aura of invincibility and invisibility around technology that few penetrate. And then we wonder why there are so many conspiratorial nutcases and Q-freaks around. They don't understand "normal" society because, never having been taught or learned anything about our complex society and the technology that runs it, they make stuff up about in their heads and share it on the Internet. The answer is to relearn how to fix -- to learn again to use reason and logic to repair things. Including society.

About me

I'm a former renewable energy scientist that got into this as a pastime, through the various FaceBook Groups for the different cars, trucks, and pieces of farm and renewable energy equipment I own and maintain, and decided that I enjoy giving advice -- when I'm not busy fixing things. I was trained by the Royal Air Force as a jet engineer and rescue troop and worked on training planes and the awesome F4 "Phantom" fighter. After demob in 1985, I came to the states and worked as a mechanic before going to college here (at the age of 28) and becoming a scientist. Once I got my PhD, I did a lot of weather and renewable energy science fieldwork that required tinkering, and trained students for the renewable energy industry, including various lab, design, and engineering classes. My former students run and staff solar, wind, and energy audit firms, and do energy policy work for non-profits and the government around the US and in Europe. Then after retirement, I became interested in mechanical work again. I have my own well-equipped shop and auto lift. Sometimes I will make videos of various procedures and post them here too. Many decades ago, I got interested in the philosophical thought of Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and apply insights from Zen Buddhism and Quaker Faith and Practice in my work. Most of the time, when something can't be fixed, the short circuit is "between the ears" and so knowing yourself is key to fixing things.

Intelligent Tinkering

Fixing things and the future of society.

Sunday, January 15, 2023

Water pump versus head gasket failure

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