That is one scary post!!!
Man, I am so glad you are going to be OK. Coolant, is a terrible thing to be burned by. If you've got a good coat of wax on the car, you are probably OK (can depend on the anti-freeze). I'd suggest mopping up as much as you can, with clean terrycloth towels (inlcuding the garage). Not only do you not want it on the car, you don't want it in the environment either. get the hose back on the housing and have a friend roll it into the driveway, then give it a good bath. Bag up all the towels, and take them to your Hazmat center for proper disposal.

My thoughts on why it happened.

Pressure built up due to air not being flushed yet from the system. As the engine heated up the air and coolant mixture expands creating pressure.

1). Excess pressure above 13psi should be vented at the cap. So either the hose came off at less than 13psi or you have a bad cap.

2). There is supposed to be a lip on the end of the thermostat housing. Even an improperly tightened hose should not come over that lip, if there is any squish at all the where the clamp is around the hose. Could the clamp have failed? Could this housing have been fabricated without that lip?

3). The hose requires surface tension for a good seal. Painting the the nozzle of the thermostat housing reduces this surface tension. In my own practice, I will tape the nozzle then paint the rest of the housing. When the paint dries I remove the tape so that I have a clean rough metal surface for the hose to adhere to.

4. It is also possible that the outer layer of the hose seperated from the inner layer of the hose on installation. I'd suggest a close inspection of the upper hose. If it was me, and it didn't look absolutely perfect, I'd replace it.

With classic cars I put a low pressure cap on and run the overflow tube into a bucket. Then run the car to operating temperature to let it burp out any trapped air. Some cars you have to open the heater petcock, or vavle. Stock Mustangs of our vintage don't have either, so the burp process goes pretty easy.

I am so bummed to hear that this happened to you. I am also very glad you posted this. Hopefully others will learn from this.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Scott

 

+1 million

Get well soon!!!

 

50/50 raffle to get him flowers!

 

Men don't get flowers. They get BOOZE!

 

fixed!

 

Man, Glad to see your ok! I just went through some burns myself, it ruined my vacation! I hope your face looks nothing like my leg did.

[IMG]local://upfiles/16936/1C803D328CA9466DAC53F7CCCB68C4E1.jpg[/IMG]

 

um, OUCH!!!!!!!!

 

I really appreciate the kind words and concerns from everyone. It's a pretty scary thing especially when it involves your eyes. But as Scott said, hopefully this post can help others here be a little safer.

Everything hurts and looks worse today, but it really could have been much worse. I must have pretty good reflexes b/c it got my neck, ear and side of the face much worse. There are even burn stripes around my right eye where I must have squinted. Anyway, no matter how bad I felt yesterday I couldn't sit still so my wife (took the day off) and I pulled out everything from the garage except for the car. Coolant was everywhere. We scrubbed down the walls, ceiling, every misc. item, took out and washed the carpet tiles that were on the other side of the garage, scrubbed the floor under and around the car and I took a bucket of soapy water and wiped down the fenders, cowl, front of the car, windshield, underside of hood and engine compartment pretty well. Oh and while we were cleaning up the garage, water started coming out of the door to the garage. WTF!....the hose mysteriously came off the washing machine drain and a full load of water came out into the utility room. At this point I just thought "please shoot me now". Thank god we have a drain in there.

No paint damage so far as I can tell but I bent the s*it out of my grill probably when I jerked away from the car. It will need to be replaced. I am going to take off the thermostat and housing and post a picture to see if I installed the thermostat correctly and get some feedback.

Maybe there was air in the system - I did not "burp" the system. I have a repro SMCO cap from NPD
Housing did have a lip, but I painted the whole housing.
The hose is new and does not look to have failed
Would a defective thermostat not opening cause this possibly to happen?

 

Dang Matt!!! Glad to hear you are going to be OK!!!!!
Walt

 

Like a month and a hald ago I burned my right hand pretty badly! whats up with all these burns? if it makes you feel better I was back to working on my mustang after about 2wks there's still some scar tissue in the deepest part of the burn that when I press on still hurts but its fading. As long as your hands are OK I'm betting you'll be working on the car again in no time! I know from experience even a nasty burn won't hold you away from what you love for long!

BTW I still have vicodin in my drawer for those trips to the in laws! Make sure you ration the drugs so you can use them during times you don't want to be wherever you're at! If the DR will make sure you get those refills