Monday, September 26, 2011

Putting antifreeze in the radiator



September 26 was a beautiful day. My son Dave and our friend Jim had breakfast at Colt Station Pa and headed up to the museum to put antifreeze in the Whitcomb. I connected the battery and started the engine. I had put 5 gal of grease in the transmission the day before. That only brought the tranny fluid level to ‘low’. I still had a hard time getting the drive train to stop moving so that I could shift the transmission into gear. I finally got it in gear and backed up to remove the chocks. I had 110 lbs of air pressure, now more than I want, so I have to adjust it down. We set the switches and moved up to the water hose. I drained the radiator and each cylinder block and both water cooled manifolds. Then I put all the drain plugs back in. Jim and I mixed antifreeze and water 50/50 in 5 gal buckets. I handed them up to Dave who poured them in the radiator. We put in 24 gallons of mix and did not fill up the radiator but we felt that we were close. I went up to the hardware store and bought 2 more gal of antifreeze. We mixed that up and added it. We were still not full but decided to stop there. I started the engine and moved up to the GE 2501, then we parked the Whitcomb and went to lunch.
The Whitcomb engine has an oil leak due to a stripped threads on one of the bolts on an engine access cover. It needs more oil, gas, grease and antifreeze.