Keep blowing hoses off, now core plugs, what’s wrong here?
Discussion
I replaced my water pump with a Davies Craig electric pump to help cooling in a hot climate . Lately when out driving when I give it the beans either a hose has blown off or recently 2 core plugs have popped out . Engine is recently rebuilt and special attention was paid the cleaning the waterways in the block plus a new alloy head was fitted . Also fitted is an alloy rad and electric pusher fan and new correct sleeve type thermostat. There is a new heater unit which has been tested and flows well . It seems ok unless its being booted , which is taking the pleasure ! Engine is Austin Healey 100 4cylinder 2.7l
gramos said:
I replaced my water pump with a Davies Craig electric pump to help cooling in a hot climate . Lately when out driving when I give it the beans either a hose has blown off or recently 2 core plugs have popped out . Engine is recently rebuilt and special attention was paid the cleaning the waterways in the block plus a new alloy head was fitted . Also fitted is an alloy rad and electric pusher fan and new correct sleeve type thermostat. There is a new heater unit which has been tested and flows well . It seems ok unless its being booted , which is taking the pleasure ! Engine is Austin Healey 100 4cylinder 2.7l
Rarely would I ever consider such a thing an upgrade.First, use a pressure gauge in the system to monitor pressure.
It might also do no harm to get some of those temperature stickers to see if you are in fact destroying your engine by cooking it, in lieu of some better temperature monitoring.
If you need better cooling, a better radiator, ensuring good cold airflow through the radiator at all times would be the first ports of call. Not a retrotfit electric water pump.
Although it may just be the case the core plugs or hoses were not installed correctly ?
You don't give any info about how hot it runs, whether you have any useful temperature monitoring at all etc etc ?
gramos said:
I replaced my water pump with a Davies Craig electric pump to help cooling
If you want to improve cooling I would have thought you would want to increase coolant flow, not massively reduce it. Have you looked at the size of the scroll inside those little pumps? They are weedy little things which will produce far less flow than the OEM mechanically driven pumps.I'm afraid it's likely you've suffered local overheating and either blown a gasket or cracked a casting so the cooling system is being pressurised with combustion gasses. A block test aka sniff test may confirm this. Also check the pressure cap is working correctly - it should allow excess pressure to blow off rather than bursting hoses.
gramos said:
Ran up to temperature when stat opened at 120F and judging by the bubbles coming up in the rad looks like the head gasket is leaking into the cooling system as some have suggested.?? I don't have a ex gas analyser so .
And you don't need one to test those bubbles, less than £20 (or €) will buy you one of these simple kits...Chicken or egg? ...whatever the initial cause, a damaged head gasket (or worse) is often the outcome of overheating, as others have stated.
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