Streams of coolant squirting from bay.

[Colossus]

I pretty much suck at manual at the moment, as I've been driving it for a whole total of 4 days now....and an AWD car sux to learn on. Anyways, I was out practicing my stop to go today...accepting the fact I can make the car start smooth or buck like a horse until it feels like my neck is going to snap and the car utterly stalls.

Well, I was doing fine up until the point I noticed a smell I hadn;t smelt before. Figured it must of been my clutch burning a bit or something, or my new brake pads wearing in. Either way, white smoke began to come out of one side of my hood. So, I quickly poped the hood, turned off the car, and got out. I noticed that the top of my radiator, hood, fans, etc had splatter points of a liquid on them. My turbo, turbo intercooler piping joints, front engine mount, and surrounding area's were also coated in liquid and the steam was this liquid evaporating from landing on my manifold and turbo.

Well, I figured wtf...so I went and turned the car back on, it started fine. I reved it to 3000 rpm...fine....4k..fine...5.5k...fine. At 6K the engine looked like it had a super soaker mounted in it, as a nice spray of coolant went squirting out of my bay. So, I figured a hose was lose. Now, I was a bit far away from my home, so I decided that since the hose wasnt terribly lose, that it didnt do anything unless I reved up to 6K, and my temps were rising...Id drive it back to the house. So, I drove it home trying to stay under 3K rpms. Got it back, parked it on a slight incline, and I noticed more steam. So, once again I got out, popped the hood, and took a look. This time coolant was actually pouring out of an area by my exhaust manifold onto the ground. It looks like the farthest bolt towards the passenger side on the manifold, below the radiator hose, and above the uicp joint to the turbo.

Could it just be a blown head gasket? Wouldn't that squirt oil and not coolant? I don't understand what could be causing this problem. If pictures of the area are needed, I can get those in a little while. Either way, the car's sitting until I can figure out wtf's wrong with it. I figured if there was a bad gasket, that the car wouldn't start because of low compression...unless the hole only occurs at a certain amount of pressure, causing the gasket to seperate a bit and allow a hole? But then again, that wouldn't make any sense to be letting the coolant just pour out if the car's off....because there wouldn't be that high pressure to cause the gap to stay open that long...

Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated.

BTW, the car is a 1991 Talon TSi, AWD model as I said earlier.

 

[Colossus]

Solved. Severly cracked hose.

 

[bretthejet26]

i had that happen to me 2 times.. 2 different hoses.. gets hot in dem engine bays

 

[GTM]

Originally posted by Colossus
Solved. Severly cracked hose.

Ok, good business with that. Check the other hoses for age cracks.

These cars can be a real pistol to purge all the air from the heater core so don't be surprised if you hear a gurgling sound from behind the dash with the heater turned to high, fan turned to low and 2000-3000 rpm. Recheck level through radiator cap and overflow bottle every chance you get for a few days. Watch the temp gauge like a hawk for running after the leak could have damaged the headgasket. It would be prudent to re-torque the head bolts as specified to be on the safe side for they will stretch when overheated.

Good luck on learning how to drive a stick shift, pretty soon you will be ready for heel and toe plus double clutching to save 2nd gear syncro repairs. It's just a matter of working the clutch which may requiring pushing back in a small amount as you press on the gas to keep from stalling.

Don't keep forcing the issue if it's not happening everytime like a pro, things can overheat and become damaged which require sums of more money. In any case welcome to the world of FAST, it's a real sleeper and few people know just how fast one of these things can go when compared to many current production line cars costing $50k+.

Cheers,
GTM

 

[Defiant]

Originally posted by Colossus

Well, I figured wtf...so I went and turned the car back on, it started fine. I reved it to 3000 rpm...fine....4k..fine...5.5k...fine. At 6K the engine looked like it had a super soaker mounted in it, as a nice spray of coolant went squirting out of my bay. So, I figured a hose was lose. Now, I was a bit far away from my home, so I decided that since the hose wasnt terribly lose, that it didnt do anything unless I reved up to 6K, and my temps were rising...Id drive it back to the house.

And for the LOVE OF GOD, don't EVER "diagnose" a damaged car that way again, AND DON'T TRY TO DRIVE WHEN SOMETHING'S WRONG AND YOU DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT IT IS.

gaah.

Damn!

 

[GTM]

Originally posted by Defiant

... don't EVER "diagnose" a damaged car that way again, AND DON'T TRY TO DRIVE WHEN SOMETHING'S WRONG
...

Aw c'on, without things like this mechanics wouldn't have anything to do. Maybe they could become lawyers or movie actors and really become an important pillar in the community. Sadly the auto mechanic garners little respect from anyone. Other than years in school the mechaic's job demands more skill than that of a doctor who looks at the same model year forever. Whereas the mechanic has to deal with some nightmare dreamed up by a team of people none of which can communicate with each other much less fix anything.

With doctors come-backs don't exist, they don't give a guarantee or have to deal with an abusive owner who throws up his hands and says I dunno why it broke. What!!, was I supposed to put oil in THERE...

For the most part what we read here doesn't always represent the whole picture nor something which they would admit in the confessional. hehehe

A little bit of anti-freeze goes a long way for making large quantities of smoke when it hits a hot exhaust manifold. Let's hope he learned an important lesson and escapes with a few extra heart beats. Even this old fuddy-duddy wasn't born with common sense, I've paid my dues more than once.

Cheers,
GTM