Hey, I'm new to this so i hope my questions dont sound too stupid. I have a sandrail with a 13b N/A engine in it. Im not sure what year the engine is, (i dont know how to tell) but i am pretty sure it is a four port. Anyways, firstly the radiator keeps guzzling fluid, i thought there might be a leak but i am pretty sure this is not the case as nothing seems to be leaking out from underneath it. I couldnt figure out what was happening till the last time i was driving pretty hard and steam just started pouring out of what looks like an overflow valve right next to the engine. This is connected to a large tube that runs from the radiator. There was so much steam it was hard to even see. Now this tends to happen whenever the engine gets hot. The other problem is that when i turn on the engine and the radiator, instantly the temp gauge is maxed out so somehow i think these are all related... Well i was wondering if this is something simple or more complicated? Any help would be much appreciated. I have pics if that will help too. Thanks.

 

I've had this happen hundreds of times. I hope it helps you, but it sounds like you have air in the coolant passages. Air heats up 10x faster then a liquid. The only I've delt with this is jack the engine up and burp the system. Get the exit up higher the rest of the engine. Sometimes this took a couple of days to get ALL the air out, too. So if this is the case just be patience and don't over-heat the engine. And when you think there isn't any more air in it, there probably is.

 

I had this happen recently but with my 12A.
I was driving donw th efreeway at 70mph and out of nowhere (had never over heated) i looked and the guage was almost to its max. So i pulled over and checked the engine because i knew i had topped off the coolant/water. What i found was water and coolant all over my engine like it had shot out through the hole in the overflow tank.

Ends up i had a crack in my radiator that i could not find because evaporated too quickly and a bad radiator cap that no longer held the pressure.

replaced radiator and cap and everything is fine.


I also had replaced the thermostat b4 i did the radiator but no chsnge so i knew it was the radiator.

good luck.

 

Thanks, i will try both. People have also suggested that is could be an o ring failure but i am hoping it is either just the radiator or air in the coolant passage as that would make life much easier. Thanks again.

 

Also, where the steam is coming from there used to be a tube that ran to the bottom of the buggy. I guess as a drain of somesort. Is this happening because the tube is gone? It fell off and i can put a new one back one but it would be nice to know if this is happening because of something more complex.