louie7600

What's up guys, I was sitting in traffic this afternoon and noticed steam coming out of my 94 V6 Mustang's hood. I immediately pulled over and popped the hood. Noticed right away that there was a huge crack/hole in the upper radiator hose. I bought acouple gallons of water and made my way back home. It was only about a 10 min drive back home and the temperature gauge never went past about 3/4. I did stop once to top it off with water, It took alittle more than 1/2 gallon. So when I did get home, I went and bought a new hose,clamps and anti-freeze. The car was off for about 2-3 hours so it had pleanty of time to cool off. After changing the hose, I started the car up and topped it off with anti freeze. When I 1st started it, the temp gauge was less than 1/4 up. After idling for only about 10-15 mins, the temperature gauge was already up to about 3/4. On the hottest days of the summer I would never pass 1/2 on the temp gauge and that would be after hours of driving. I'm not exactly the greatest mechanic in the world, My uncle is a mechanic but he lives about 200 miles away. He's been trying to give me advice over the phone. He told me to let it sit overnight and get all the air out of the system. In the morning start it up and top it off with anti-freeze and see how it goes. Anyone have any other suggestions? any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks.

Cmpfreak88

When you say top it off I hope you're not filling the whole reserve tank because that's waaaaaaaaaay too full, when it heats up it's going to spill everywhere. If it's still doing it you may have to flush the system... [:@]

97tunedmustang

Sounds like a blown head gasket especially seeing as how you have a 94 which was very common for that year. See if when its over heating if your upperradiator hose is full of fluid, to check if the thermostat has opened. If its not thenits gonna feel like its full of air.kinda hard to explain but you should be able to tell by feeling it. your fan will also probably be on going like mad. also see if you have heat coming from your vents. The hoses may have burst in the first place because the blown head was pressurizing the coolant system and in turn putting to much stress on the hose.

tsack44

Yea like stated above me, if you have no heat then it's probably your thermostat. It happened to me a while ago out of a pin sized whole in my hose.

03YellowPony

There's a reason the hose blew. Bulidup of pressure. It's gotta go somewhere. I would start off by replacing the thermostat and ALSO the radiator cap. My guess is the cap is probably original. And as for the hose blowing, my guess is the thermosat got stuck closed. That is also probably the reason you got no heat and the engine is overheating. For the heater to work properly, warm coolant must flow through the core. No flow=no heat. Also, no flow=engine overheating.

MantaDreams

coolant systems are very easy, especially when it is an overheating problem (or is that overeating? ah back to the topic)

one of five issues in order of likelihood to overheat:

lack of coolant
bad rad fan or open circuit
bad pump
bad rad
bad stat

many guides say check the stat before the pump. nonsense: when it is overheating its almost always lack of coolant or bad pump. and you don't have to have weeping from the weep hole for a pump to be bad.

The vee-six has two "masts" or "christmas trees" on the intake manifold that have coolant going through them and some have sensors on them. The one on the right has a bolt on top. That's a special bolt to let the air out when filling the engine, etc. with coolant.

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOLT OR THE RADIATOR CAP WHILE THE ENGINE IS HOT.

when the engine cool, open the rad and open this bolt enough to let air out. start filling the rad. crank the engine and let her run. keep filling the rad til coolant comes out the top of the mast (where the loosened bolt is), then tighten the bolt.

top up the radiator, while the engine is running. cap off the rad.

run the heater for a little while.

only put enough coolant in the reservoir to bring to the "cold" level.

after you have run the engine up to operating temp, and drive around a little, make sure the rad fan is oeprating

then let it cool and then check the rad level (take the cap off with the engine COOL, and look into the stupid radiator with your eyeball

although bad stats and bad head/head gaskets can lead to coolant problems, they are not usually overheating problems. Blown head gaskets dump coolant in the chambers. your car will continue to run (poorly) but not overheat until you have lost all your coolant... usually.

Stats can go bad, but usually my experience they get stuck open

I've had PUMPS go bad with no other clues... even with everything running "normally"

A coolant system topped-up with coolant and the engine WILL overheat with a bad pump.

water for emergencies only. really, really try to use coolant all the time after you know you have no leaks.

best o luck to u

redstangerman

Sounds like the blown rad hose was a symptom of a larger problem.

The very first thingI would do is pull the dipstick and check for chocolate milk. Overheating has a way of cracking very important metal thingys.If it's good thenI would point at the thermostat. Never seen a waterpump fail that hasn't first leaked. You didn't mention if the fan was cycling on, soI would start it up and start squeezing the upper rad hose. If it gets stiff within minutes it's likely a head gasket. If hose is normalI would start watching the temp gauge. If gauge climes higher and faster than normal, fan doesn't come on and upper rad hose still relitivly cool to touch replace thermostat.