Scary Moment last night, need some suggestions. (LONG)

brandonhgt

Registered User
I started up my barn queen last night after a month of sitting and let it idle about 10, maybe 15 minutes. I had the hood open when I turned the car off and I heard a hissing sound, turns out I had coolant boil out of my coolant overflow tank after I turned the car off(looked to be about 12-16oz). Motor and IC tubes seemed unusually hot but thing that really freaked me out was the upper radiator hose actually sucked in on itself after I turned the car off! I opened the radiator cap to see if I could relieve the pressure and it made the hose go back to normal. 10 pages of searches have me a little confused on what to do next or what the problem is, specifically dealing with the hose. Here is a list of things Im gonna check out before conceding to the HG monster, any suggestions?

OVERVIEW
- upper and lower radiator hoses, heater hose, aftermarket thermostat all replaced within past 10,000 miles
- looks to have original radiator (black plastic), has been flushed in last 10,000 miles
- no white residue on oil dipstick, no sweet smell from exhaust, no white smoke, no mysterious loss of coolant, no leaks, heater works, didnt even drive the car, just let it idle like I always do and it got hot really quick

DIAGNOSIS
1) have radiator cap tested/replaced with 16psi

2) take out and boil test thermostat

3) check overflow resivoir tube for blockage

4) burp the system

5) spend the 50 bucks and get my exhaust (or whatever they check) analyzed

6) replace radiator (likely need new one anyway at 167,000 miles)

7) HG hell- plenty of good info on this already out there


I know this topic has been beat to death but I did not find a whole lot about the hose compressing in particular, any suggestions are greatly appreciated, THANKS.

Brandon
 
Sounds like the cap is bad. You said that water was pumped out into the reservoir so you know that the cap relieves pressure and the hose passes fluid. However, in order for the system to work correctly, then as the engine cools it must be able to draw water back into the motor. The cap is a 2 way device and it is supposed to allow water to be drawn under vacuum back into the motor. It may be working fine under pressure but not under vacuum.

If it doesn't work under vacuum then the motor may have developed an air pocket which will hamper the flow of coolant and cause the car to run hot.

It could also be a bad rad hose. If they get really old and flimsy they will crush easily under any vacuum at all. A new hose will be stiffer and stand up to a little vacuum before collapsing like that.
 
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