Heres my dilema

I was recently driving my rex on the way home from work and is started smoking from under the hood. Fortunatly, I was only 2 blocks from my house. I popped the hood and my radiator hose had come off going to the radiator (scared the crap out of me) So I put it back on and let it cool down. I was getting ready to pull off my turbos anyway because my secondary turbo was shot. So i got those replaced and i went for a test drive. I let the car warm up to 85 on my PFC and hit WOT. Boosted great, then i think i had and air pocket cause mr temp hit 125 right away. I went back home and refilled my coolant. Now when i start up my car end let it idle it runs fine but when it gets to 80 degrees it start to shoot steam out of the top of the radiator around the endcap. I not shure whether it is a blown water seal or just the endcap?

 

How would having a bad coolant seal shoot steam out of the radiator endcap?

Yes, your radiator is bad and you may have other problems. Is your cap still good? Thermostat working properly? These are things to check. While you are at, the other hoses in the system should be checked. Do you go to Rotary Performance for maintenance?

Bad coolant seal symptoms include: billowing white smoke out of exhaust that smells like coolant, hard warm starts, you have to keep refilling coolant, etc.

 

If i had a bad seal, i though it would over-pressurize the coolants system and shoot steam. No smoke though, and yes I do go to RP. There is a 2 week waiting list to get in and Chris Ott is alomst almost impossible to get ahold of. He did mention water seals but said that it is most likey just the radiator. If in fact it was the seals I'm screwed.

 

oh yah, the thermostat is only 2 months old.

 

OK, 80C (176F) is right where your thermostat is opening, allowing coolant into the radiator, and that's when the boiling occurs. And you really mean radiator end tank,along the top of the radiator itself, right? Endcap doesn't mean filler cap, right? In this case, time for a new radiator. I shouldn't wonder if this is why your temp shot up when you boosted after turbo replacement. The pressure leak compromised your coolings systems ability to do its job. You didn't burp the system?

Your temp spiked to 257F, WAYYY more than the engine can really tolerate and not warp. Be very watchful for the sysmptoms rynberg mentions wrt exhaust.

 

The Chris Ott at RP said it was a air pocket since i just drained my system to pull out my turbos. yah i guess i do mean endtanks, there shouldn't be such a thing anyway as all radiator shoul be 100% ALUNIMUM!

 

For some reason I can't spell on this forum, F7 where's F7