Coolant system

Tiny
JULIA PEN MCCUTCHEON PIMENTEL
  • MEMBER
  • 2002 CHRYSLER PT CRUISER
  • 4.2L
  • 4 CYL
  • 2WD
  • MANUAL
  • 210,000 MILES
Car overheats, replaced radiator cap, thermostat, and antifreeze fluid. Bled out air from system, was running normal then blew off top radiator hose driving and no coolant fluid in overflow tank. Place hose back on to get home but engine temperature was high almost to red. The car makes sounds like blowing out air too. What can it be?
Tuesday, December 21st, 2021 AT 2:15 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
The reason the hose blew off was due to excess pressure. So, the fact that you had overheating before all these things were replaced means we need to dig a little further into that issue.

As for now we can ignore the overheating and focus on the pressure.

This means we need to test the head gasket and find out if this is causing additional pressure in the system.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/head-gasket-blown-test

If the head gasket is okay, then we most likely have a restriction in the system causing the pressure to build and not be vented through the cap. So normally this is a defective cap but if you replaced it then we need to inspect the engine using a laser temperature gauge and look for hot spots to find out if there is a place that is hotter than the surrounding location.

This would indicate a restriction in the system.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-use-an-infrared-temperature-meter

If there are no hot spots, then we need to start running through this guide to focus back in on the actual overheating.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/symptoms-of-an-overheating-engine

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/engine-overheating-or-running-hot

Basically, we need to start crossing these things off the list and that will help narrow this down for us.

Please run through this and let me know what you find. Thanks
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Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021 AT 2:54 PM

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