Hoog. So the Mini’s had some sort of overheating problem. That is, it had one, single overheating problem, and that was that the radiator was empty. Empty? Yes, empty. Not a goddamn drop. Well, that is, there was liquid in it, but by the time I got to a place where I could stop the car, there was a lot of steam when the cap was opened (with sufficient protection, thanks for asking), but no liquid.

That seemed odd, yeah? So after filling it up, and driving it home, I realized that there was actually a leak somewhere. Water was spraying onto the engine block, and steaming up. It’s impossible to see while driving, and so when you stop, you end up with steam pouring out from under the hood. Yet, I couldn’t see where the leak was.

So, finally, after putting it off for ages, I tried to flush the radiator today, and check for leaks. I was only able to access one point towards the bottom of the radiator – it’s *really* cramped in the engine compartment, but was able to loosen a hose (if I had taken it off, I would have had to pull out the entire radiator just to get it back on) to let some water out, but then just undid the inlet to the radiator at the top from the block, and ran water through the whole thing. Not sure if that’s the *best* thing to do, but it seemed to clear things out. Once the water ran clear, I ran the engine for a bit (after putting the proper hoses back on, thanks for asking), and did the whole thing again. Whee. Then, I took the Mini for a spin around Piedmont, loosened that hose again to blow some of the hot water out the bottom, and topped the radiator off with coolant. I’ve probably got a relatively high water to coolant ratio, but it’ll have to do for now.