Brett,
 
Unfortunately that is a classic sign of a blown head gasket or cracked head. What is happening is that compression is getting into the cooling system and pressurises either side of the pump and the coolant stalls, temperature rises until the radiator cap cracks at 13psi and the coolant will flow again and It's a cyclic process but you loose water every time the cap cracks. You may also have a miss on start-up as the coolant runs back into the cylinder when the engine stops with pressure in the cooling system. It's quite normal for 10 or so lbs pressure in a 1600 radiator as it designed to increase the boiling point, but if you have heaps of pressure on a cold start before your temp gauge moves off the bottom mark, I'd say you have a problem.
 
There are a couple of things to check to diagnose a failing head gasket
 
1. Start up cold with the radiator cap off and watch for a steady stream of bubbles escaping.
2. Go to a radiator shop and get them to do a CO probe test.
3. Check the plugs and look for one of them to be clean as a whistle compared to the others
4. Look for steam out the exhaust when the engine is at operating temperature ( not totally conclusive in cold weather)
5. Coolant disappearing at a rapid rate
 
Good luck
 
regards
Terry
 
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of brett waters
Sent: Monday, 29 April 2002 3:08 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: lots of pressure in my radiator hoses.

list, i've been having a few problems with an L18, first i thought it was just the thermostat (temp gauge would drop then water would leak out the overflow) then i took the thermostat out (to get home), when i got home the radiator hoses had loads of pressure in them (like the top radiator hose when the thermostsat is closed) is this normal?(i've never seen it before). any help would be greatly appreciated
thanks
brett


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