Plums71

I recently fitted a cam (about three weeks ago) and it's been running well since the install. The cam is a TSP Torquer V2.

Today I encountered a very strange and worrying problem. The car flashed up the "Engine Hot" fault and the temp gauge started quickly going off the dial.
When I opened the hood there was coolant spewing out the overflow and going everywhere. The resevoir bottle was chockers full and the system was pressurised very highly (the radiator hoses were very taught).
The problem was that there was no coolant in the radiator It was like the system had filled with air somehow, but I know I bled the system really well a few weeks ago. The car has been running beautifully up till now.

After it had cooled down a bit, I poured another 4 litres of coolant back in and now it is back to normal again....

Has anybody experienced anything similar???? Help....

conan

iTrader: (5)

I've had it take over a hour to bleed out all the air after removing the radiator. Some times I have had the same thing happen while the car is in the shop... I will be running fine and then I hear a big "gurggle" in the radiator and then the car gets hot, I remove the cap and the radiator is half empty again. After I get done with my projects i will check the radiator level when its cold every day for a little while to make sure its still full.

Plums71

Update:

The car has been running fine since this "little hiccup" a few days ago.

Just a thought, is it possible to have a very minor imperfection in a head gasket the causes the compressed cylinder gas to force itself into the water jacket???? This could explain the air filled cooling system..... Would this be possible or am I dreaming??

I still don't trust that this won't happen again, but this time it could let me down at a much worse place than my own driveway....

the_merv

iTrader: (88)

When I bleed the System I fill up what I can, then start the Car with the Cap off and wait for the Thermostat to open, I watch the Radiator drain, and then fill it up accordingly, until the level stays constant. Then I cap it and watch the level in the overflow.

I like doing these Cars cause the Steam Tubes help push the Air out of the Heads and the System bleeds pretty quickly.

99345hp

That sounds like a big air pocket. When there isn't any water on the thermostat it wont open up. I would just keep an eye on it, but it sounds like you should be fine now.

GMRL

Make sure your coolant hose are in the correct location.
On the radiator cap where the two small hoses go, make sure the one going into the overflow tank is the one on top, and the one going into the engine is the one on bottom. Its very easy to get the two mixed up, I did that on my last cam change and it would cause it to fill the overflow tank with coolant and spew everywhere.

Plums71

I think I've got the pipes around the right way. The lower fitting on the radiator goes to the head coolant bleed metal line (used to go to the throttle body but I bypassed that). The uppermost outlet goes to the steam vent inlet of the resovoir.

I think I might change the thermostat as a precaution..... just in case!

bczee

iTrader: (12)

I would also check the T-Stat, maybe it is failing and locked up closed, you can try one of those fail-safe ones that fail in the open positions... Fail-safe "Motorad"
http://www.motoradusa.com/products/f...rmo/index.html

And like everyone else said.. air pocket.. pull off the upper radiator hose at the radiator and fill from there, one it tops off, reconnect and top off the radiator. Then once you start up the motor, purge the system by rev'ing up the motor to about 2k for a about 10-15 sec and slowly let off and then top off radiator. Do this a few times.

Good luck.