Overheating/pressure problem
 

So the other night, one of my coolant hoses broke. The hoses that run to the TB were bypassed and joined together by me about a year ago.

I lost ALL my coolant that night, coolant buzzer went off, coolant all over my engine bay yada yada. Did NOT overheat the car as i shut if off at around 230F, popped the hood, kept the fans on full blast etc etc.

Now today i rejoined the 2 hoses together. Added 50/50 coolant and started the car.

About 8 minutes later, coolant buzzer goes off with the stock gauge slightly above half way mark. Im like what? i look at my DEFI temp gauge and its stuck at 100F.

I shut the car off and start touching hoses and caps. I attempt to open the filler cap because it was warm and i heard a SQUEEEKKKKKKKK so im like damn theres ALOT of air in the system. I let as much air as i could out of that filler cap and retightened it.

Now i go feel the hoses that i rejoined and they were STEAMING HOT. I mean like i couldnt grasp it because its soo hot. Im worried now because im afraid that the hose might burst again because the heat/pressure.

I go feel my AST. Its ICE COLD. I check the hoses to the AST and they are cold too.

ONly thing thats piping hot are the hoses i joined and the filler cap.

On my AST, is a 13lbs spring cap with a red lever. I lifted up the lever like im about to take off the cap and more air came out.

Does this mean my air cap was the problem all along? Maybe thats why the hose burst in the first place?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Im gonna go check the pressure cap tomorrow anyway before move into the assumption that it might be the thermostat that was the culprit.

Thanks

I suspect the hose burst because it was old but it is possible that the cap isn't releasing pressure and caused the hose to burst.

Those throttle body de-icer hoses are supposed to have coolant flow all the time...as such, they'll be among the first to get hot as the engine warms up.

How much coolant did you put in the system before you started it up? The system holds over 2 gallons, so if you only had a gallon or gallon and a half in there then it wouldn't wouldn't surprise me that it was burping up a bunch of air.

Where is the temp sender for your DEFI gauge located?

The hose didnt "look"old. But the hoses are PIPING HOT, not warm, just steaming hot which is odd from a car idling with the hood up for 8 minutes in 55 degree weather. Filler cap was also steaming hot after i attempted to release some air from it. AST was ICE cold during all this and continued to stay ice cold.

Its a weird situation. That night the hose burst, i was able to hold about a gallon of water to make it home from the gas station which was 3 blocks away.

The inital burst i lost all coolant as people from our local meet saw on the parking lot ground.

So fast foward to today, after i rejoined the hose, i was able to put about a half gallon of 50/50 coolant.

So if i had to guess total amount right now, i would say 1 gallon total in the system.

My DEFI gauge is located right next to the filler cap.

Im gonna take off my pressure cap in the morning when the car is cold and replace it. At least eliminate that possible factor it could be.

At the same time, im gonna fill up at the filler again which im assuming is low and try to get some air out by squeezing the radiator hose as im filling.

What you describe sounds simply like a system that isn't full of coolant, and a thermostat that hadn't opened up yet, possibly because it wasn't fully submerged in coolant.

Yeah i figured that since my DEFI gauge is by the filler cap, if there is no coolant, it cant read.

Where is the stock temp sender at? Because i hope i didnt cook my seals thinking im not overheating going by my defi gauge when in fact the stock temp gauge was about a little above half way mark after i shut it down.

But just an update, i bought a new 13lbs cap today, put that on. Filled up as much as i could with coolant as i was squeezing the radiator hose. I saw lots of bubbles (im assuming thats the air).

Then i started her up. Car acted normal finally. AST was beginning to get warm like normal, hoses werent TOO hot but still hot (im assuming thats normal).

I shut the car down at like 130F. I know its not full operating temp but i had it running the same amount of time i did yesterday only today no coolant buzzer, no steaming hot hoses and no ICE cold AST.

Im gonna wait a while and check the filler neck again and proceed with the squeezing of the rad hose to get more air out as i fill.

It is in the rear iron underneath the oil filter pedestal....in theory it will report a somewhat cooler temp than what you'd see at the filler neck.


I always just burp it as much as I can before I start it up (with the upper throttle body de-icer hose disconnected at the TB), then start it up with the filler cap off, wait for the T-stat to open, dump in more coolant until it is full, cap it off, shut it down, let it cool and then top off as needed for the next few heating/cooling cycles.

u have lots of air in the system. how about you just plug both ends of the hose, cap or jb weld both the lines and done even worry aobut it. also dont fill it with a 50/50 mix, try a 80 water 20 coolant, you will notice cooler temps.

If i have another problem with this hose again, im gonna do just that. Cap it.

But right now everything is back together. No leaks and so far so good.

Im gonna cycle the car a couple more times and get as much air as i could.

Btw, i never had a problem with temp, as i hardly drive the car. Even in the summer months, i would barely see past 210F.

Have you done the funnel bleeding trick or did you just fill it with coolant, close the cap and run it?

I been doing the squeeze radiator hose/filling through filler cap numerous times now and so far so good. I think i cycled it like 4 times so far.

Took the car out today a bit, working the kinks out since i resetted my ECU. But i wanted to drive around to get my thermostat to open. Got it to operating temp, let it cool down and i checked filler cap and its about a cup low.

Did the squeeze hose/fill thing again.

Gonna do this a couple more times, hopefully all the air will be out by then.

Make sure you are running the heater on full after topping off the coolant on your drive.

So i dont damage the heater core?

Its to get full flow to purge all the air out of the system.

In the future, the funnel bleeding method can save you alot of time and hassle. All you need is one of those yellow "spill saver" radiator funnels. Start the car up and watch the bubbles come out.

Damn i did not know this.

Can i ask how does this work?

So if i start the car with the filler cap off, thats another way of releasing the air from the system?

Sorry for the newb questions, i only ask when something goes wrong with my car. Lately its been running fine so thats why i dont even bother doing research.

Basically, you run the car up to operating temp with the filler cap off and the funnel in the hole. The funnel seals in the hole if you use the right funnel. You keep some coolant in the funnel, but leave some space for coolant expansion.

You can watch the bubbles rise out of the funnel and as the air is replaced by the coolant you keep an eye on the level of coolant in the funnel.

There was a thread on it a while back... that's where I got the idea from.

Yes. That's how I've filled the cooling system on every car I've ever owned.