Coolant system issue
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Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2005
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Coolant system issue I have an 2002 z28 i bought a month ago that has 105k on it... lately i have noticed that my coolant hoses have alot of pressure when its hot... like it feels like its going to pop... it keeps blowing coolant past the clamps on the bottom hose. ive changed the t-stat, rad cap and lower hose with two new clamps and it still does it. the heat works fine and it doesnt over heat. there is no coolant in the oil and it doesnt blow steam or smoke out of exhaust. any ideas?
have you checked pressure going in and out of the heater core? might be possible that the core is getting clogged and the pressure is building up through the water pump and into the hoses. however you did say you got good heat so yea.. thinking out loud lol
Teching In
Joined: May 2011
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From: MA
that is confusing but do the hoses become soft when cool? Since you said you replaced those parts and that didn't fix the problem I would say your radiator is clogged but if it was your lower hose would have less pressure than the upper but not by much (or vise versa). the other thing is what color is the coolant? GM cars need the "red stuff" and if your car has the "green stuff" or a mixture of the two, you have a cause for corrosion and need to flush the system.
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 52
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it seems like the bottom hose it getting it worse because its the only one wanting to let go... i only use dex cool... if i can get a radiator cheap enough i might throw one in to see what it does... i am all out of ideas and i really dont think its the head gaskets.
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id maybe try runnin it with the radiator cap off to see if coolant blows out of the radiator neck..good sign you possibly have a failed internal head gasket leak. theres also kits you can buy that will go on-top of your radiator inlet where the cap goes on to detect combustion chamber gases in the cooling system.
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it keeps blowing coolant past the clamps on the bottom hose. ive changed the t-stat, rad cap and lower hose with two new clamps and it still does it. the heat works fine and it doesn't over heat. there is no coolant in the oil and it doesn't blow steam or smoke out of exhaust. any ideas?
Can you post pics and the part numbers of the parts you installed? If everything is tight, you might have a blown head gasket. (That would create overpressure faster than your radiator cap could bleed it off.) My understanding is that a coolant pressure test can confirm this.
I have an 2002 z28 i bought a month ago that has 105k on it... lately i have noticed that my coolant hoses have alot of pressure when its hot... like it feels like its going to pop... it keeps blowing coolant past the clamps on the bottom hose. ive changed the t-stat, rad cap and lower hose with two new clamps and it still does it. the heat works fine and it doesnt over heat. there is no coolant in the oil and it doesnt blow steam or smoke out of exhaust. any ideas?
But in both cases the coolant will exit through the radiator cap, into the over-flow tank and it will ultimately boil over out of the over-flow tank cap....
You may be worrying about nothing, as those hoses should be pretty friggin hard and plump when the engine is at normal operating temp. Mine are very firm.
Or possibly a tiny blown head gasket letting very little air into the cooling system and you have the wrong radiator cap (18psi is normal) and its holding that pressure. ((doubt this is the issue))
Putting the heat on should change the pressure in the system because it drops temps pretty good, and pretty fast too.
If you're not overheating and you have the correct 18psi radiator cap.....and you say you have flow when the radiator cap is off meaning you also have all the air out of the system.....
I think you're just fine.
Radiator and heater core "clogs" are almost non-existant, you would almost have to drop something into your radiator to get a clogged condition......there's nothing in the entire system that can break free and clog the system either. Unless your Dex is 14 years olf and one of the bad engines that gets real bad gunked up Dex.....thats not the clog either.
Also, I hope you're not running 100% Dex....thats just wrong.
I'd say nothing is wrong with if your temps are normal.
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