What would cause the top Rad Hose to bust twice in 3 weeks?

[sharkyx1x]

Had the top hose bust about 3 weeks ago, so i replaced it and a tStat. The to day the BRAND NEW hose busts again, car shuts off and dies. So after a min or so it fores up again then ended up shutting off again. Afraid to fire it up again.

Also, Wpump was just replaced 4 months ago

[SharkyX]

Also, this is an 88 Carbed, if that matters

[DBMaster]

When you say "bust" do you mean that coolant blows a hole in the wall of the hose, or it pops off one of the connections? What brand of hose are you using? Also, how's your radiator cap and what temperature thermostat did you install? You are sure the thermostat is facing the correct direction, I assume?

[SharkyX]

When you say "bust" do you mean that coolant blows a hole in the wall of the hose, or it pops off one of the connections? What brand of hose are you using? Also, how's your radiator cap and what temperature thermostat did you install? You are sure the thermostat is facing the correct direction, I assume?


Yes an actual hole has busted in the wall of the hose, the T stat is in correctly.

Hose and Tstat are whatever autozone has listed as the default items, i bought them 3 weeks ago so no longer have packaging, the Tstat is the same one ive always gotten for this car and my other 2 3geez.

As far as my cap, i have no idea how to tell if thats bad, i have one with the little pressure release latch on it. its about 3 years old id guess


EDIT looked up the parts on Azones site
Dayco/Hose (Upper)
Duralast/Thermostat

[lostforawhile]

Yes an actual hole has busted in the wall of the hose, the T stat is in correctly.

Hose and Tstat are whatever autozone has listed as the default items, i bought them 3 weeks ago so no longer have packaging, the Tstat is the same one ive always gotten for this car and my other 2 3geez.

As far as my cap, i have no idea how to tell if thats bad, i have one with the little pressure release latch on it. its about 3 years old id guess


EDIT looked up the parts on Azones site
Dayco/Hose (Upper)
Duralast/Thermostat
try another cap and quit buying junk at autozone, you also need to rent a cooling system leakdown tester if you can find one that fits the neck on this radiator, and check the cooling system for a blown head gasket, they also make strips that go in the coolant to check for combustion gasses reaching it. The fact that it shuts off when started and it has exploding radiator hoses is suspicious of a blown head gasket, why was the water pump replaced? did the car overheat badly?

[SharkyX]

try another cap and quit buying junk at autozone, you also need to rent a cooling system leakdown tester if you can find one that fits the neck on this radiator, and check the cooling system for a blown head gasket, they also make strips that go in the coolant to check for combustion gasses reaching it. The fact that it shuts off when started and it has exploding radiator hoses is suspicious of a blown head gasket, why was the water pump replaced? did the car overheat badly?

Water-pump was replaced because it started leaking at the seal.

Ok here is some mor einfo, Rad Fluid is not choco milk, and as far as my oil i dont see any rad fluid, and the only smell i can smell is gas(which im thinking could have been from dfooding the carb when trying to turn it over)

Also i see no white smoke or any smoke from exhaust for that matter.

The only other thing ive changed recently is a fuel pump about 3 months ago

[jzdude]

Do you still have a splash shield? My splash shield was gone because it deteriorated a long time ago. One time, I had a rad hose have a chip in it that looked like a sharp rock hit it and it caused all my coolant to leak. Lucky I abuse AAA :). So if you drive on gravel roads really fast you can find stuff can fly far into the engine if you don't have a splash shield.

[2oodoor]

if you are smelling gasoline very strong in the radiator and coolant water, then that sounds like a head gasket.

[lostforawhile]

you can have a blown headgasket without coolant being in the oil or white smoke pressure is finding it's way into the cooling system

[nswst8]

It is possible that you just got a bad brand of radiator hose. I always change the radiator cap at least every other year, they are cheap enough and is a good chance this could be your problem.

I had a radiator cap go bad that would cause overheat symptoms (Back flush out the over flow) Went through a intake gasket and alot of coolant before I finally replaced the cap. The problem disappeared after replacing the cap.

[SharkyX]

if you are smelling gasoline very strong in the radiator and coolant water, then that sounds like a head gasket.

the gas smell is only in the oil, the rad fluid smells like rad fluid.

I rented a pressure gauge and will test tomorrow, just need to find what our compression number should be

[lostforawhile]

It is possible that you just got a bad brand of radiator hose. I always change the radiator cap at least every other year, they are cheap enough and is a good chance this could be your problem.

I had a radiator cap go bad that would cause overheat symptoms (Back flush out the over flow) Went through a intake gasket and alot of coolant before I finally replaced the cap. The problem disappeared after replacing the cap.

the car shutting off right away worries me combined with the blowing hoses,hey how far back did the hole blow? you know they put those plastic gizmos through the hose to hang them don't you? at least autozone does, dumb idea to poke a hole through a hose if you ask me, but if the hole was punched too far back it could be a weak spot and not under the clamp

[lostforawhile]

the gas smell is only in the oil, the rad fluid smells like rad fluid.

I rented a pressure gauge and will test tomorrow, just need to find what our compression number should be

you rented a compression gauge or a cooling system leak down gauge? both will tell a blown head gasket, the compression gauge just takes more work, the cooling system gauge goes in the radiator neck and you pump it up to the system pressure to see if it leaks. I had trouble finding one of those that fit our cars so I added a port just for testing. If you do a compression check, go to the three geez wiki page, and you can download the manual for free, download it and you can read the section on doing compression tests

[SharkyX]

Ok so i got outside and got my hose off , and i finally see the hole for the first time.. only to realize this looks like its been cut by some form of razor or knife. Ive not seen alot of hoses bust in my time so i dont know if this is common, all i know is that if you look at the third picture towards the bottom end of the hole you can see what looks like a blade trail. now this part of the hose was the under side, the only thing under it is other hoses, i didnt see anything rubbing on it that could had cut it.
Does this look normal?

http://imgur.com/cCjkd.jpg
http://imgur.com/HvAfI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WVEql.jpg

[SharkyX]

Ok so while flushing my system i was able to duplicate what i think caused the car shut off(by accident) i was flushing water through my rad and went to spray some of the fluid off my engine bay, somehow the water mist went somewhere that casued the car to stall damn near exactly like it had yesterday.

What im guessing is that all the spraying fluid under the hood caused the same effect. I put everything back together and ran it for about 0 mins , then drove it for anoother 30 an everything seemed fine. Still going to compression test engine here shortly to double check.

I took the hose to autozone and low and behold on of the guys was like "thats the 3rd cut hose we have gotten back in the last 2 weeks"..... so someones either doing it on purpose or using a boxcutter to open the boxes they come in.

They offered me a refund.

[nswst8]

Glad to hear that it was not something more serious. Still change out the radiator cap.

[2oodoor]

definitely doesn't look like a new hose, it has friction marks on it...

[SharkyX]

ok so i used a compression tester i rented from Autozone, i was showing about 125-130ish on each, however i could hardly screw this thing in at all and it was very lose on all of them, great example is on 4 when i was screwing it back out it litterly turned once and fell out, thats the farthest i could get it in , would that make the reading show up lower? It looked very old

....



Snot.... i did it wrong... I didn't take ALL the plugs oout.. did them 1 at a time and i didn't do it with full throttle.... maybe that's why it was low, i never hit the gas pedal /facepalm

How off do you think that would cause the test to be?

[Dr_Snooz]

How off do you think that would cause the test to be?

Not enough to matter. If all the cylinders were consistent at 125-130, that engine is fine.

I think your hoses are one for the WTF file.

FWIW, I have not been impressed with the Dayco hoses from Autozone. They usually feel spongy and floppy and they don't make a tight seal on the nipples. Next time, get some Gates hoses and feel the difference.

[niles]

Take the hose back to where you got it and exchange for a new one. Hoses do not usually break like that. They stretch and pop more or less and there would be freyed strings around the break. That is clean like you said a box knife, I'm thinking careless auto parts store worker opening packaging. If you got it from Autozone I can tell you the hoses come scrambled in a giant bag that you have to cut open.

[POS carb]

check the plugs for residue.
Blowing hoses and cooling seals is usually a sign of head gasket issues but it is definitely possible that whoever was unpacking the hoses cut through it (or a disgruntled employee lol)
if the car overheated to the point of shutting down it is also possible the head is damaged. I'd put it back together and keep an eye on your fluid levels