hckrphil

OK, so I knew I had a coolant leak.... my hose was loose going from the filler neck to the reservoir. I replaced the hose, and that no longer leaked!

Drove my car from my house to Dinner..... no leak.

Drove from Dinner to Ice Cream shop for cruise night.... no leak.

Drove from Ice Cream to home.... temps went up a little (nothing major) and backed the car into the garage and shut it off.

About 2 minutes after I shut it off, I hear some water tinkling...I look under the hood and its spewing coolant from the top radiator hose and a little under the radiator cap..

I have 2 radiator caps... one on the radiator and the other on the top radiator hose filler neck (I can't really access the radiator caps so I fill it mid hose) It was leaking from the actual radiator cap.

What gives!!!!!!!!?!?!?!!???? Why would it leak there and not go into the overflow tank? First thing I'm going to check is to make sure that overflow tank line is clear. I did move the overflow hose from the remote filler neck back up to the radiator filler neck, maybe that didn't help?

I have an aluminum Griffin Radiator.... does that need some type of special radiator cap? Or is a radiator cap a radiator cap?

I was just talking to a guy in my club about cooling fans..... when I shut off.... My fan shuts off (electric) yet others keep running till temps drop. Should I wire up my fan to a constant power source vs. a switched power source? I've read that after you shut off, coolant temps still rise.

Thanks Everyone!
Phil

440roadrunner

This question raises more questions than answers

How "hot" does the engine run and how do you know that, and please do NOT tell me "I looked at the gauge." The gauge could be wrong

Any radiator cap can leak, and now that "we" are world-wide embroiled (pun intended, LOL) with Chineseo products which only partially work and might fit, well.....................

No your aluminum rad does not need a special cap

What are the pressures on the two caps?

So far as the fans, many (most? all?) cars that have electric fans run after shutdown to continue cooling. But look at it this way...........on an older car with an engine driven fan, you didn't have that luxury, didja? And a properly operating engine didn't "usually" overheat, (cept maybe in the bowels of Death Valley er somewhere)

"Coolant" temperatures do indeed rise, it's called "thermal lag." This is because the heat flow is from the cylinders....into the block...into the coolant. When you shut down, the block is actually much warmer than the coolant, and some of that heat in the block flows into the coolant

hckrphil

So by HOT, let me explain a little.

I have a 180 thermostat..... on the expressway, it will sit around 190ish.... last night I noticed it went up to around 205ish...... but I was doing a lot of stop and go through my neighborhood.

Yes, I was getting these off my autometer gauges.... I understand these could be wrong, but how else should I check it?

I'll double check tonight, but I believe they are 14-16lb caps?

I'm curious as to why coolant puked out the top radiator hose and a little from under the top cap, when it SHOULD have just gone down the reservoir hose (path of least resistance). I'll be checking that tonight to make sure there are not blockages.......

After posting this last night, I went out to the car and looked..... the top radiator hose with the mid neck filler was full (not empty) and the reservoir level had not changed.....

Good point about the older cars w/ engine driven fans.....

Thanks!
~Phil

440roadrunner

Coming out the cap VS going through the recovery has to be either a bent / warped / cracked filler neck or more likely a bad (poor quality Chineseo) cap, or maybe a restriction in the coolant recovery hose

If the cap is not specifically notated for coolant recovery, it might leak. There has to be essentially two gaskets........one for the pressure ring down inside, and one at the top of the filler