And poof!!!!! White smoke

Jean-Marc Dugas

Jean-Marc Dugas

PCS Member
On the way to take the car to winter storage last evening I startedf to smell that antifreez smell. I thought "I wonder who is the poor bugger with an antifreez leak". Shortly thereafter I notices the dreaded whte smoke starting to gently flow from the front driver side of the hood. Not connecting the dots really quickly I thought "Mmmmm. what is that white smoke?" Seconds later the lightbulb came on and I started to look for a spot to safely pull over.

As I pulled over into a parking lot the gentle stream of white smoke quickly turned into a big clowd of white smoke and the Engine Temp light came on.

I turned off the car and when I opened the hood this is what I saw. The top radiator hose slid off the top radiator outlet and emptied all of the antifreex into the engine conpartment.

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It looks like that wnen the replaced the radiator the top outlet OD was smaller than the OEM radiator hose ID and they inserted that blue "sleeve" to compensate for the OD and ID difference. My guess is that the lack of friction between the blue sleeve and the radiator hose caused the hose to slide off.

I took a cab home, got my tools and stopped at Canadian Tire to get a couple of jugs of antifreez. Got back to the car, reinstalled the hose, filled the radiator and crossed my fingers as I turned the key to start the engine.....it started right away and was running smooth with no signs of damage.

I was extremely lucky that this occured in town driving at low speed. I can just immagine if this occured on the highway driviong at highway speed, I might not have been able to safely pull over and save the engine.

I will be calling the radiator shop today to discuss the use of this method to secure the radiator hose to the radiator.......
 
My guess is the person that they had put it in did not realise it was a shipping protector for the upper nipple. But that's one way to clean out the block. My bet is you better check that lower one. It will empty things out a lot faster.
 
I spoke with the radiator shop yesterday, and they confirmed that the blue sleeve was a space they installed to compensate for the difference between the OD of the radiator outlet and the ID of the radiator hose.

I suggest that anyone who had their radiator changed check to see if they have this set-up and keep an eye on it.

I told the service manager that I was now very uncomfortable with this setup and that we need to consider what we could do to prevent it from happening again. I have no interest in having this happening again.
 
Never noticed it before but, that's a plastic/ aluminum one. If you still have your original one, I would get it re cored or whatever it needed to fix it. Or find a core and get it redone.
 
Daniel Scully said:
Never noticed it before but, that's a plastic/ aluminum one. If you still have your original one, I would get it re cored or whatever it needed to fix it. Or find a core and get it redone.
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I do not have the original one anymore. This one has to go. I will not have the confidence in it to go on any road trips.
 
Before i would toss a wad of money at it i would pull the hose off measure the thermostats opining and comprar it with the raidator. If they are the same or close. Peal that tape off and put a new upper hose on it. The lip is what holds the hose on. the clamp goes behind it for the lock. That tape will not allow that to happen now, its filling the grove. The best radiator is the all alumimion one with welded on tanks with a single E core. But we know the copper 4 core works as it has for the last 50 years. I can't say for the shop that sent it out that way. It possible the clamp was not tight to began with. Mistakes happen in the best of places.
 
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