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Radiator exploded

S

smalltownbird

NAXJA Forum User
Location
newport news,va
Has anyone seen this before? I don't k ow the conditions because my brother was driving when it happened, but he claims that it did this in the driveway after starting it. He said while driving before hand the check gauges light would come on and the temp gauge would go up. The first pic is the passenger side tank and the second is where the upper hose connects. Does it look like there could be damage to the motor? It has a 2 month old tstat and a fresh flush and fill from that same time.
5a9e4una.jpg

y3y9eded.jpg
 
nobody is going to be able to tell you if there is damage to the motor by pics of the radiator.
 
An exploding radiator causing damage to the motor? Not likely. Temp gauge shooting up? Very likely to damage the motor depending on how hot it got and for how long.
 
I was gonna say it froze overnight and cracked the tanks, after it warmed up, thawed out, it lost all the coolant & got hot. Just a guess, we have had sub freezing temps here at night for a while now. Could be that your radiator is not flowing to the overflow tank, all that heat & expansion has to go somewhere.
 
Last edited:
nick86 said:
I was gonna say it froze overnight and cracked the tanks, after it warmed up, thawed out, it lost all the coolant & got hot. Just a guess, we have had sub freezing temps here at night for a while now. Could be that your radiator is not flowing to the overflow tank, all that heat & expansion has to go somewhere.
Click to expand...

Tonight MAY be the first freezing night we have had in Va,and that is northwest of where he lives,
Down in his area,probably been no lower temps than 50*
 
Wayne Sihler said:
Tonight MAY be the first freezing night we have had in Va,and that is northwest of where he lives,
Down in his area,probably been no lower temps than 50*
Click to expand...

This is true. And it is a 98 xj 4.0 auto. My brother claims he wasn't offroading but there is a lot of mud under the jeep. My concern is, I have a dirt bound 3 electric fan setup, new coolant and t-stat, and even vents in the hood. What could have caused it to fail so bad?
 
Just a weak factory radiator. Mine did the same thing.
ahe6uvub.jpg


Sorry for the weird photo. I'm on my phone but anyway. It's not uncommon for the factory radiator to fail in that exact spot. Put a good all metal radiator in it and ill bet you'll be fine.
 
A blown head gasket can cause excessive pressure and cause this but normally the radiator cap will vent excessive pressure and prevent it. More than likely it was caused by some other mechanical issue such simple material fatigue.

Freezing could cause it as well but that would be pretty rare.

I would replace the radiator but run it without a pressure cap for a while and make sure there isn't a ton of pressure from the head gasket before installing the cap. Also, you should replace the radiator cap every two years.
 
A blown head gasket... o'man, that's a good point, I'll remember that one.
Check to see if the lower hose looks stretched. I think that much pressure would have stressed the radiator hoses. Just more evidence.
 
I had a plastic one blow up in the same spot on the 89 Renix 10 months ago, and my daughter :twak:drove it for about 10 minutes three times, with steam flying out from under the hood, before it was parked. Replaced the radiator and T-stat 10 months ago, and have had no problems since.

My 87 blew the lower hose off the lower POS Plastic nipple and dumped all the water in about 4-5 seconds on the freeway at 65 mph, and red lined for 1-2 minutes before I could pull over and shut it down. That was 3 years ago, and 30,000 miles back. Both got new T-stats and new 3 row all metal copper-brass radiators, and both have yet to show any signs of engine damage.


DrMoab said:
Just a weak factory radiator. Mine did the same thing.
ahe6uvub.jpg


Sorry for the weird photo. I'm on my phone but anyway. It's not uncommon for the factory radiator to fail in that exact spot. Put a good all metal radiator in it and ill bet you'll be fine.
Click to expand...
 
The rad in my '98 blew up like that. I had the A/C on and it was in the 80's and raining. I guess the cooling fan wasn't keeping up. I looked out to see it blowing steam for 10 feet. I ran out and shut it off and noticed it was about 260*. After that I replaced it with a better radiator, new water pump, high flow t-stat housing, stant thermostat and new radiator cap.

It could have just been a bad cap that wasn't releasing the excess pressure. If it's a 16lb system and the cap failed it could overpressure the system and blow that plastic tank.

You have to remember when plastic is heated it's not as strong so at that higher temperature under pressure the water is not boiling but the plastic is under enormous stress. Rupture isn't uncommon given the circumstances. That's why you can buy thos cheap plastic radiators and the all metal ones are so much more.
 
Had a replacement one from advance blow up on me years ago from boiling the coolant out.

You probably had an underserviced system and the engine got hot enough to build enough pressure to explode the plastic.

I would not, however, buy the "it happened in the driveway" story. :)
 
RedHeep said:
I would not, however, buy the "it happened in the driveway" story. :)
Click to expand...

I would, especially if he had it running shortly beforehand.

My buddy Josh's radiator blew up while we were doing trail maintenance (very audible pop). We had been driving and the temperatures on his rig were slightly elevated. We stopped for a few minutes, when he turned it back on it went pop and started puking coolant.

Luckily it happened at the end of the trail and the road back to camp was mostly downhill.
 
DrMoab said:
That's where mine blew out. Sitting in the driveway.
Click to expand...

I suspect my daughter's 89 blew up from a failed T-stat. Opened too late?
 
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