Heaps of condensation in my falcons exhaust

jason18, Aug 6, 3:58am
Is this normal. Say I stop for half hour it has heaps of build up. Is this normal. It uses a little coolant but not that much so dont think its a head gasket. Have found a couple of leaks where thermostat is and have fixed them. Cant find any other leaks. 1999 AU 4lt

crzyhrse, Aug 6, 4:02am
Do you make a number of short trips! That'll see the mufflers full of water in no time.

jason18, Aug 6, 4:08am
Not really Altho I have been doing alot of warm ups to test for leaks etc so that could build up the water quickly. It has extractors so would that run hotter than normal manifold.2.5 inch exhaust. Also it seems to have way more condensation than the wifes primera but would that be because its twice the engine size!.

jason18, Aug 6, 4:10am
Say when you fill it to max when its cold then warm up will the coolant expand! And then when the car cools down again it retracts! Have I got that right! So its on max when warm and under max when cold!

crzyhrse, Aug 6, 4:30am
The reason I ask about a number of short trips is that cold starts exacerbate the problem of water in the exhaust because of cold start enrichment. Water is a by-product of combustion.

Yes, coolant expands. The MAX line on the pressurised surge tank is as high as you ever want it hot.

jason18, Aug 6, 6:47am
Oh k sweet as mate. Cheers for that

unbeatabull, Aug 6, 8:11am
Small O-ring pipe in behind the water pump by the exhaust manifold is quite common to weep coolant as well, easy n cheap to replace.

I generally ignore the Max line, it has an overflow, it will chuck out what it doesn't need! Better to have too much then not enough.

We do get quite a few AU's/BA's that do a lot of short commuting that get quite wet in the exhaust.

jason18, Aug 6, 8:33am
Cheer
s mate. Just bought a new muffler insert section as mine was rusted out.

jason18, Aug 6, 8:50am
Cars done 204kms. unsure when diff oil was last changed what should I fill it with! Also would it be wise to put a new O2 sensor in! How do I tell if it needs a new one!

jason18, Aug 6, 9:50am
choice man thanks for that

jason18, Aug 6, 6:31pm
Damn those links got deleted.!

johnf_456, Aug 6, 10:14pm
The mods are doing there job, didnt see what they posted though.

ema1, Aug 6, 11:12pm
With a lot of cars that have their mufflers at the rear end or towards the rear anyway, that's generally the coolest part of the exhaust system.
Short running -by that I mean anything less than say 10-15km traveling or 10minutes or less of engine run time, condensation will build up and won't have much chance of being dried out particularly on cold days or days when humidity is high.
When I was in the motor trade years ago we often ran some braze weld there on the lowest point of the rear muffler and drilled a small hole to allow water to exit the muffler.
I always did that on my cars with muffler at the rear end and they tended to last a lot longer as well through not having water laying around in the mufflers.
Interesting thing I saw once was a car some old engineer fitted a grease nipple into the exhaust front pipe and it got a shot of graphite grease every odd occasion and this had the effect of protecting the guts of the exhaust from corrosion .
That particular car had over 300,000 MILES yes miles and still had it's original exhaust system on it the owner said, also he had the car from new over a 25 year period.amazing!
Sort of was part of him I reckon and no one could persuade him to sell it, I know among others.I tried.
I guess it would make sense having a grease nipple in the exhaust system to protect it a bit!.

unbeatabull, Aug 6, 11:19pm
Standard diff or LSD! Should be a tag on the filler bung.

02 sensors normally throw a fault code/engine light on the dash when need doing.

jason18, Aug 6, 11:36pm
Ok No fault codes, I think its a standard diff. only spins the single wheel when doing skids.ah i mean stuck in mud.

jason18, Aug 7, 1:33am
Diff oil was a muddy brown so glad I am changing it. Going to use 80/90w oil.

jason18, Aug 7, 3:27am
Cleaned out throttle body and Idle control valve so thanks for the links nave12. Managed to trace it back via my history.

unbeatabull, Aug 7, 9:37am
80/90 is correct grade, we use Castrol Multitrax at work for Falcon Diffs.

jason18, Sep 20, 1:44am
Cool Also added some nulon additive for the hell of it see if it makes any difference