Not sure if I'm in the right section, but I am stuck at work with my stationary FD...
Will have some pictures when I take my lunch break.

Here's my week recap:

One day I left for work and my car was overheating 2 blocks from my house, so I pulled over and I was low on coolant.
I took it to my buddy's house (he has a garage full of tools) to do some work. Decided to replace 2 of the coolant hoses and re-do all of the metal couplings that fasten them down. While I was at it, did a coolant flush and found that the previous owner had used stopleak or something of that nature instead of replacing the leaky hose. when I opened the filler cap, the coolant always looked green, so I didn't look into it... when I opened the drain plug, It looked like I took a liquid dump in a bucket.

Did the full flush until it was crystal clear and called it a day. went for a test-drive and it was still overheating only a block or two into the drive. When I parked it at my buddy's house, I started walking away and the coolant hose that runs from the driver side right next to the sparkplug wires up to the heater (6-8 inch J shaped hose) EXPLODED and steamed everywhere.

Ended up replacing thermostat which looked nasty, 2 more hoses, MORE new coolant, did an oil change, replaced 2 pulleys and both belts. Finished last night.

Drove it to work today and it very rapidly rose in temp as I got here. That J hose on the driver side EXPLODED again but this time it snapped off a bit of the end of the plastic port that it fastens to next to the sparkplug wires. I am confused as hell now and very sad

No leaking from the water pump housing, and no noise coming from water pump. spins very smoothly.

*had some oil in the engine bay, but not much. My careless friend who changed my oil while I was re-assembling my piping, did NOT put my oil cap back on, so it was kinda chillin on top of the filler neck under the strut bar.

PLEASE HELP! I am at wits end and my wallet is starting to ache a lil bit.
ANY input helps, as I need to have my baby fixed ASAP before I have it shipped to Dallas in a month. I'm moving.

HELP HELP HELP!

 

Did you flush the whole system?

That stop leak stuff tends to be a huge headache, and cause blockages in small passages. I would make sure you have flow throughout your entire cooling system. You can either do each component separately or the whole system at once. Be sure to have the heater controls open (hot setting) and if you can remove the thermostat so the water can flow freely.

 

Previous owner added stop leak?

Sounds like a quick one was pulled on you. Guarantee it needs new coolant seals so a rebuild should be on your list now.

But just in case it is indeed just a leaking coolant problem test your cap. It should be a 13 lb cap.

 

I looked and it's not leaking from the cap. There was a leak in the one of the coolant hoses that I found underneath the car, but I replaced.

 

well, when I flushed it, It came out dirty for the first cycle, then it cleared up in the next 2 cycles. the coolant that sprayed out of the busted hose in the back was green, so I think the circulation is good, but it's building WAYYYY to much pressure and I don't know why. I even bought a 180 thermostat so it would open earlier. (it's hot most of the year here)

 

no champagne bubbles. just too much pressure on that back hose.
The car was running beautifully up until I got to work.

Come to think of it, I did notice a strange sound when I was on the throttle towards the end. I was losing power too.

 

How old is the pressure cap? Maybe it's not opening at the right pressure.

 

I have seen that stop leak stuff block up the overflow line and cause excess pressure. Make sure you can blow through that hose.

 

I am not saying check your cap for leaks. The cap should open at 13lbs if it does not function correctly the system will over pressurize. Also check the line going to the overflow as someone mentioned as it could be blocked.

 

I checked it out, I found something that seems counter-productive that the previous guy did. He put a coolant catch tank instead of an overflow.
The line coming off of the thermostat goes to the catch tank and stops there INSTEAD of recirculating to the radiator BUT I haven't had a problem in the year that I've been driving it until now.

 

That's how it's suppose to work. If coolant gets pushed out it will return back into the cooling system via the cap when the car is turned off.

 

UPDATE

just looked at the hose and the hose is intact and even the metal clamp at the end is still on!!

It snapped the end off of the plastic fitting that it attaches to.
hopefully that helps

 

pics

 

Dorman 800-403. Your local Oreillys should have it in stock.


Or...you can remove what's left of the plastic quick disconnect and just clamp the rubber hose directly onto the engine fitting.

 

Thanks!

just need to find out the pressure issue... took of the thermostat filler cap and it was like a vacuum. the hose leading to the radiator was squished down and when I took the cap off, it sucked in a bunch of air

 

you need to remove that plastic nipple thing and put the hose straight onto metal nipple beneath it.
its quite common for them to break, crack and leak. (happened to me)

you can remove it and put the same hose straight onto the nipple beneath it.
mine was a pain it the *** to remove, i think i ended up going at it with a piece of hacksaw blade

 

Do you still have the ast?

 

I looked and it seems that he got rid of it. when the pressure builds up in the catch tank, there's not outlet to let off pressure

 

I'm confused about the 'catch tank', picture of your setup?

 

The red can. don't have any other pics ready and i'm not down to go back outside... its pouring.
goes from thermostat housing to red catch tank. the catch tank does not have another outlet to circulate back to the plugged tube on the bottom of the radiator

 

Looks like he might have replaced your stock reservoir with that, is that thing full? I would change it back to a stock one.

 

Looks like you don't even have a functioning radiator cap there is suppose to be an outlet right beneath the cap.

Once again I think someone rigged the cooling system for a quick fix to a major problem.

 

Your filler cap should have a spring on it. When coolant reaches a certain pressure, the spring will open and allow coolant to escape into your reservoir. If there is no spring on your cap, pressure will build in the system until something blows up. Thats bad. When coolant goes into your overflow tank, it must have a vent to release excess pressure.

If either of these two items are not set up correctly, something will blow. Thats bad.

How long have you had this car?

 

idk what that's supposed to look like...
I just ordered a reservoir tank that has an inlet for the hose out of the top of the thermostat and an outlet to go back to the radiator. My thoughts tell me it should have a circular system: thermostat housing to overflow, overflow to radiator...otherwise, how would the coolant get circulated correctly?

 

I've had it for a lil over a year. it's been in and out of the shop and I have a daily driver while I'm fixing up the FD.

Do you mean the cap on top of the thermostat housing?