Air Bubble Problem

[QuikinCO]

When I take the cap off my coolant expansion tank the hose going down into the coolant is producing a steady stream of bubbles. When it warms up it pushes almost all the coolant out of the system. I was convinced it was the head gasket but the local shop that build the car swears it isnt and there solution was to just take more coolant out causing it to over heat. What could this problem possibly be?

 

[fwdmaster]

I'm 100% on this, replace your radiator cap, and that will solve your problem

 

[Nightjoker7]

I wouldnt say you are 100% sure thats what it is with out ever seeing the car in person. replace your cap and if it still does it after adding coolant and getting all the air out of the system its your head gasket.

 

[95fwdtsi18psi]

+1 Radiator cap. Very unlikely it's the headgasket if he's not having any other issues.

 

[Nightjoker7]

Not every car with a weak head gasket runs like crap most run fine even when they are pushing coolant, we don't have gm engines in our cars.

 

[PIMking]

Hes right. My 02 civic had a hg go out last fall and it created so much pressure it blew out the end tank on the radiator. So I replaced the radiator and it was loosing coolant still and the car would get hot.

Now no oil in coolant or coolant in oil and the vehicle did NOT smoke. but the head gasket was bad.

More than likley its his radiator cap and he could have air in the system.

Now if I were you I would replace the thermostat also. A nice little trick that I learned if you dont have one of those self burping funnel deals is when you install the thermostat crack a tylenol in half and open the thermostat and stick that in the thermostat so it helps prevent air being trapped and it will dissolve and cause no harm to the cooling system.

a new thermostat and cap should cost you around $20ish.

 

[jrohner]

When I take the cap off my coolant expansion tank the hose going down into the coolant is producing a steady stream of bubbles. When it warms up it pushes almost all the coolant out of the system. I was convinced it was the head gasket but the local shop that build the car swears it isnt and there solution was to just take more coolant out causing it to over heat. What could this problem possibly be?

If the shop recommends you remove coolant, I recommend you never go back to that shop. You're supposed to have coolant up to the radiator cap.

If you hammer on your car for just a couple minutes and then squeeze the radiator hose and it's quite hard already (lots of pressure), you're head gasket is probably leaking. You should be able to tell if coolant is just coming out, or if there is actually air pressure in the cooling system just by squeezing the radiator hose. You can 'feel' and hear coolant in the hose.

 

[QuikinCO]

Okay so i replaced my radiator cap and this did not solve the problem...so it must be the headgasket thanks guys.

 

[dylnwit]

Compression test? If the head gasket is a suspect, normally there will be low compression, or you will be able to find the problem via compression test or a leak-down. Do you have a torque wrench? There's a possibility that the head bolts aren't torqued to specs, and properly torquing could help.