one blown radiator and one hot engine!

[Milks]

goddammit I hate the M42!

I was crawling along it last night when my radiator blew in spectacular fashion, but because the hard shoulder is used as some overflow lane, despite having my hazards on and steam p*ssing out of the front of the car some prize winning turd basher refused to let me pull over onto the hard shoulder.

So my worry now is, although brief my temp guage got up to 115 ish (possibly more) off the top of my head I think the head starts to go soft at 120 but I'm not sure how worried I should be

[JTBUSH]

All you can do is get a compression/ leak down test done, and hope for the best. Just replace the rad first, then go from there. If the head was only at that temp for a few short minutes before switching off, I wouldnt worry about it too much. Radiators blowing can be a by product of HGF though.

If you need a rad, Ive got an all aluminium tig welded one in the classifieds on here, and that will never blow like a plastic one!

[Milks]

hey thanks for the advice

stupidly enough I didn't think to look for a used all aluminium rad, instead the garage are in the process of ordering me one from eliseparts. May not too late to cancel though, is yours suitable for a car with air con?

the head gasket went only 6 months ago at which stage I had a prrt fitted so I'm hoping its just the radiator and nothing more sinister. I had noticed a very slight coolant leak over a month ago so I had my garage pressure test the system and it checked out ok back then, they told me to keep an eye on it as all they'd be able to do is replace the radiator.

[bjc388]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. The standard rads have plastic ends which cause grief for many and so if you can, it's worth getting the all ally versions as a replacement to eliminate that issue.

Hopefully you'll get it all sorted soon ...