ADRIAN1

well today my car overheated so bad that the tube that goes from the radiator to the overflow tank exploded!! i have to replace this heater core A.S.A.P!! I was looking at a heater core kit from MustangPlus, is that all i need??..
http://www.mustangsplus.com/Merchant...de=Heater_Kits

longlive289s

should be everything u need as long as you dont need ne hoses that blew from the engine bay to the core. also im guess u know its the heater core as opposed to just guessing right?

Grimm

When my car was running I had my heater core out and the supply hose ran right back into the block and bypassed.
Why woulda badheater core cause the overflow tube to explode?

Soaring

The overflow tube is open at the end. Ain't no way it could explode. And, what does the heater core have to do with the engine overheating?

Grimm

Thats what I'm saying. Unless the overflow tube was "secured" to a container or something and built up pressure. Regardless I can't see how a faulty heater core can cause it.

grruminator78

yeah I'm confused too

paddy187

he has an overflow tank so he could pressure the overflow tank making the hose between tank and radiator exploded surely. although he should have an overflow on the expansion tank

gothand

I'd bet dollars to donuts that his overflow tank is not part of a closed system like came stock on my '88 Jeep Cherokee. Talk about a bad design, that plastic tank always sprouted a leak. The dealer kept replacements lined on his shelves.

JMD

Usually when a car heats up suddenly and gets very hot, the first thing I think about is the thermostat. In any cas if the engine has gotten extremly hot, I would change it regardless, as getting real hot can damage them.

I would also chage the radiator cap to one of the proper presure. As presure builds in a closed system to the point of failure, the weakest part will fail first.The excessive presure exists equally through the entire cooling system (more or less), the tube was just the weak link this time.

Unless the heater core has a leak in it, the heater core will have nothing to do with an overheat situation.

It has been my experiencewhen coolant pressure causesparts of the cooling system to fail, there is quite often a blown head gasket between the cylinder (or a cracked head) and the cooling passages, pumpingvolumes of combestion gases into the cooling system overwhelming the presure relief valve in the radiator cap. I have had this happen amore than a fewtimes, and in all but one instance (a plastic radiator tank) there was compression leaking into the cooling system.

To help diagnose this issue I usually remove the radiator cap, top off the system with coolant, start the engine, and look into the cap for evidence of air in the system. (a more or less constant stream of bubbles coming out the neck of the radiator) Sometimes there is no evidence of air in the system untill the engine heats up. Sometimes the evidence is subtle and sporatic, sometimes the evidence is consistent or"explosive". Watch out for the explosive kind as this can get you scalded, I would not want my eye directly over the tank opening when this happens, and sometimes it happens without warning.

I understand that you have an overflow tank, if it is the presurized variety, which I think it is, then thisissue is much harder to detect when the leak is subtle. I am not saying that you have a compression leak, but you might want to check on it anyway, if this is the issue, then it is better to know it early so that you dont spend lots of time and money trying to fix parts of your cooling system that are not broken.

scott_m_mil

paddy,

When did you add the sig? Looks pretty good.