Registered my comet today and i brought it out of the garage to warm up and about 5 minutes later i go out to drive it, and i see smoke coming out underneath the hood and i open it and i could tell it was overheating so i felt the radiator hose and the antifreeze was boiling inside the raditator hose? What do you guys think might be wrong and what i should check? it was about 20 degrees outside when this happened. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks Nate
Sounds like your radiator needs flushed or your thermastats not opening or you could have a rad. hose collapsing......Check the easy stuff first.........good luck man.
Why would the antifreze be boiling inside the hose if the thermostat didnt open? Ill check what you said. How do i check if i have a bad thermo. I have it pulled out of the car, ill flush the radiator. Thanks Nate
As cheap as a thermostat is just buy a new one. Make sure you get the right preasure too. Another ing to check is if the therm. is not in bupside down. It won'twork right if it is. If your therm. not opening then the anti-freeze has nowhere to go. If its not circulating then its not getting cooled. I could be wrong but I'v had plenty of old junkers that did the same.
put it in a pan of qater on the kitchen stove with a candy thermometer. heat to boiling. Watch the thermometer to see if it opens at the temp stamped on the thermostat. if it doesn't and still doesn't open at boiling (212º) replace it... Check the new one the same way before you put it in the car!
[ QUOTE ] Your Radiator might be frozen. [/ QUOTE ] yup could be. The first sign of a frozen hose or radiator is it boiling over because the coolant can't circulate through the ice.
Yeah, had something like that happen to my '83 GTI when it was just a year or so old. Ice storm, coldest night temps in years, went to drive in to work, after about three miles the water temp was in the red zone, but my oil temp had barely moved. I knew that something like the rad or t-stat was frozen. Left it parked till the end of the day, then got in and fired it up, no problems.
I agree with the frozen radiator... most people here will go about 5 or 6 miles before it overheats. Bye bye motor for them...I hope thats not the case for you. You do use antifreeze??? Right???
Hey guys, i think that it is the thermo. It wasnt in backwards. I dont think it is a frozen radiator. Im going to get a new thermo tommorow and hopes its that. Thanks Nate
[ QUOTE ] Hey guys, i think that it is the thermo. It wasnt in backwards. I dont think it is a frozen radiator. Im going to get a new thermo tommorow and hopes its that. Thanks Nate [/ QUOTE ] Hey man, just run it without the thermostat just to see if that cures your prob..................
not sure if your joking, but if you run it with no thermo wont it not cool down? Thanks for the help, ill let you know tommorow how everything worked out and some new up to date pics of the car! nate
[ QUOTE ] not sure if your joking, but if you run it with no thermo wont it not cool down? Thanks for the help, ill let you know tommorow how everything worked out and some new up to date pics of the car! nate [/ QUOTE ] I'm not telling you to run it without a thermo, I just mean do it long enough to crank your car with the cap off and look inside your rad. and see if your anti-freez is flowing. You might also want to buy a new and or proper cap for it if its old. Once again make sure you get the right preasure.... As for as it "not cooling down", it will actually make the car run too cool. Or atleast cooler than what it's designed to run.....good luck.
he's right about the running too cool, a thermostat will hold the water in the engine until it reaches a predetermined temp. and then open to allow the radiator to cool things down and at that point the stat will close when it gets too cool, if your radiator was froze the stat would open, hot water will fill your upper hose but have now where to go and you will hear it boiling in the upper hose until it melts it's way through the ice, the engine fails from over heating, or you shut it down, I think you got lucky, warm it up with a torpedo heater or a warm garage and flush it out and fill with new coolant
The Jalopy Journal
