my 82 turbo 245 is having some problems. last week a hole developed in a coolant hose right before it enters the engine (it was the one directly under the intake). i went and replaced it with a nearly identical hose from napa, refilled with the type c 50/50 coolant. everything worked fine until today. it was a pretty warm day today in portland, was returning from the airport. there was no signs of overheating, all the gauges were fine, running perfect etc. i got home and went in the house for a moment, then came back out to find a ton of coolant running down the gutter. i popped the hood and found the green stuff spurting out from under the cap of the coolant reservour. it seemed to be really hot. after it stopped, the resivour was totally empty. so i'm scratching my head tryin to figure out whats wrong. i'm a little worried that this and the incident last week are a sign of a really big problem. i was wondering if maybe the cap just wasn't on snug enough, or i f'ed something up putting the replacement hose on. any insight would be awesome. thanks as always.

ryan

I recently had intermittent high heat problems, including some indications of coolant loss around the area where the top radiator hose connects to the thermostat housing and at the top of the water pump, near the o-ring.

I changed the thermostat, still ran hot occasionally, especially when the AC was on and I was on the freeway above 70 mph.

on a cool nite, with no AC, the thing would run for hours with the temp needle at 9 o'clock, no problem..

So, I changed the fan clutch ($80 lifetime warranty from AutoZone)..no change.

Took to radiator shop, told me in two minutes, it was a clogged radiator. Bought a new one for $105 and no more problems. took old one to shop, they took off end tank and showed me 60% of tubes clogged, no flow. That dang radiator was new 22 months ago. From now on, I use distilled water, not tap.

My point is ... if your water pump is good, it is trying like hell to push water thru a clogged radiator, and that high pressure coolant is gonna go somewhere..and if it can't squeeze out the hose connections, it is gonna shoot out a weak radiator cap..and of course, as the coolant cools, a slight vacuum will be created to suck all the coolant out of the overflow tank, and back into the radiator.

good luck,

Ryan,
My friend, I say check, and since you'll have it open, and replace your thermostat. I look at this part as something which needs to be changed every 2-3 years. How old is your cap? Another cheap item. Fan clutch functioning propely? Maybe a good time to switch over to electric. Hope this is a good start...