I'm driving down the road the other day and steam starts blowing past my drivers door so I pull over to find my upper hose had popped off. I'll start by saying I was not completely surprised that it happened. When I installed the new radiator about 6 months ago, I noticed there was next to no barb on the upper inlet of the radiator for the hose to grab onto once it was clamped on. Get what you pay for I guess. Anyway I got to a gas station by driving some and shutting it off to let it cool down a couple times before finally getting there. When i filled the system back up and started it, i was smoking (white) out the tailpipe pretty bad but it quite after about a minute. Today i looked at spark plugs and three of them (4,6,8) had a green tint on them. I'm also loosing oil pretty bad on the same side of motor valve cover gasket and maybe even head gasket (too much of a mess to tell). Did not do a compression test yet.

I've been driving it around for a few days and not smoking out the exhaust or overheating at all. Not seeing any antifreeze in the oil or oil in the antifreeze. I also drove the truck for a while today and let it cool down, then restarted it and felt the upper hose to see if it was getting hard fast and it seemed to be normal. Got solid once truck warmed up.

This has me wondering a few things. Is it possible that a gasket can leaked when it's overheatd, let coolant in the cylinder and and then sealback up on its own? Does this seem more like an intake or head gasket leak? Am i dumb to drive it one more minute or do you think i can drive for a while without disaster happening?

edit: I said I felt the radiator hose to see if it was getting hard quick but also wondering if the hose could have come off because maybe the system is over pressurizing after being driving and not necessarily detectible just from a startup. I had been driving the truck without problems for about six months after the radiator was put in. Clamp just worked its way loose somehow?

 

Put a second clamp on the hose and keep driving it. See what happens. Put a new radiator cap on if you think it was over pressurizing.

 

I didn't take into account that a good cap would keep it from over pressure. the cap is only about a year old. I've never had a cap tested, but will do that or replace it. will definitely put a second clamp on. thanks

I'm not hearing any bubbling or anything either. The spark plugs have me wondering the most right now. Seems to be some different opinions on what the green tint on them means. They are copper plugs.

 

When the hose popped off it sprayed coolant everywhere under the hood. Could it have gotten sucked into the intake somehow? Do you have the stock air filter assy?

The hoses on my truck never get hard, although I've not tried holding one and goosing the throttle at the same time. Keep an eye on both the coolant and oil for now. What made you pull the plugs anyway? How did plugs 2 and 10 look?

 

I had thought about the coolant getting sucked in also. I didn't notice it smoking out the tailpipe bad on the way to the gas station at all. Might of just been that I wasn't really paying attention that well too because I was so focused on getting there and looking at the gauge. After I refilled it and started it, it was pretty heavy. I took the air intake tube and filter housing off today and didn't see any trace of what might have been antifreeze. I also sprayed carb cleaner around the intake manifold and didn't detect any leaks.

The hose gets hard enough where its hard to get a feel of antifreeze flowing through it.

I pulled the plugs today just to see if there was any obvious bad signs of wet or any heavy build up on them. They all seemed normal including 2 and 10. Even the three that were green tinted didn't have that much more ash than the others , just discolored.

Speaking of keeping an eye on the oil, I've had a little puddle going under the truck for a while, but looking at it today when I got home, it looks like its getting a lot worse all of a sudden.

This is my only ride and supposed to do a little distant traveling for work coming up. Just hate to have something let loose all of a sudden on it.

 

Find out where the oil is coming from.

Make sure you don't have coolant in your oil.

With the engine idling, take a whiff of the exhaust. Do NOT stick your face in it....... if it is burning coolant, that will be a truly vile experience, and you really won't like it..... Just get close, and wave your hand thru the exhaust, to push some where you can smell it. Burning coolant has a distinct odor..... and will burn nostrils and eye if you get too much. (yes, it is truly nasty.)

With the engine stone cold, open the hood, and fire it up. Squeeze the upper radiator hose. There should be no pressure there, till the engine actually starts warming up. If you get pressure immediately, (hose gets rock hard) time to test the coolant for combustion products.

If you had a screw clamp on the radiator hose, it's possible if just worked loose. If it was a new hose, it's also possible the clamp just 'sank' into the rubber when it was hot, which would also loosen it. Since you said the radiator didn't appear to have much of a lip to retain the hose...... wouldn't take much for it to blow off. Cooling system should only run at 16-18 PSI....... Higher than that, and you definitely have a problem.

 

Hey, Hey You

Gonna hit the car wash tomorrow to check on leak. Been keeping an eye on dipstick for antifreeze and nothing so far. Did take the cap off today also and just a hint of moisture on it. Nothing I think was antifreeze. Oil sitting on the rockers looked clean.

My exhaust has been kind of a mystery to me since I took my cats off. It smells more fuel but a nasty fuel smell. Don't know how bad its supposed to smell without cats on, but get close enough and it will sting your nose a bit. I've also got a random thump sound out the tailpipe a idle, like a miss going on. Its not anything bad enough that makes the tach jump bounce. Doesn't seem to miss or run bad once driving it. I may be dealing with a fuel problem (leaking injector and some antifreeze too.) You know how fun those injectors are to get to.

I like your thinking on the why the hose might have popped off. Hope that's all it was.

 

It's possible too that i'm just not noticing what might be antifreeze in the exhaust cause it just looks like cold weather exhaust. Not anything out of the ordinary looking about it.

 

You may be safe...... check the hoses cold, and see how fast they harden up. If they don't get hard until the engine is just about up to temp, then I think you are fine.

 

Cool. Thanks for the input guys.