White steam/smoke radiator upper hose

[Sam]

I have a question hoping you can direct me…. first some background here i have a 92 mazda mx3 with a v6 engine… one day out of nowhere my radiator went while driving squirting coolant through the radiator wall itself managed to get it home got a new radiator replaced the old one put all the fans back on and all the (original) hoses back on filled it up with fluid started it up and let it run to normal temp while topping up fluid and hoping all the air bubbles are out….

engine reaches normal temp not overheating no more bubbles i was a happy camper… but later on i noticed a distinctive smell … not oil burning but smelled like coolant burning… ran the car again to normal temp where the engine is hot and i saw steam white smoke come from the upper radiator hose right where it hooks to the engine…

noticed that my upper radiator hose was bulging and swelling so i went and bought another one replaced it, ran the car again with the cap off topping up fluid watching as water rises and bubbles disappear, however once the engine reached normal op temp …

the white smoke or steam seems to be coming from the exact same spot again upper radiator hose where it attaches to the engine… Note there was lots of corrosion when replacing the old hose… so now i am not sure why …

I have also replaced the thermostat which is on the other side where the lower rad hose is and i have reused the original rubber seal around the thermostat because the one i bought didn’t come with any unfortunately that rubber seal has chipped off a small peace but managed to get it all snugged in there and tried gluing it with silicon but it’s so small didn’t think it would make a big difference…

i did this after replacing the radiator and before replacing the upper rad hose also thought of getting a radiator cap from the junkyard this one had no spring the one that came with the motor did but the one in the junkyard didn’t and both are oem cap but just different flavors of engines 1.8L v6 vs 2.5L v6 …

thought i would mention it in case it’s relevant to my white steam smoke coming from the upper hose right where it connects to the engine….

also fan doesn’t come on and i sat there and watched it for good 5-10 mins with the car all warmed up … car never overheats the fans come on if I disconnect the electrical switch that goes to the relay i think it’s called temp coolant sensor I have 3 one for the gage one pin…

and two 2 pins one for the ecu to tell engine temp for air-fuel mix and last one for kicking off the fan at the threshold…replaced the coolant temp sensor for the fan and it still wont come on fan works relay works could it be that it takes a great amount of time before that threshold is reached ….

anyways hope you can help sorry for the lengthy description and thank you in advance.

Topic

[justin]

by chance did you turn the heater on while bleeding the system to make sure there was no air trapped in the heater core?

[James]

I would pressure test your cooling system. This should allow you to find out where the leak is coming from, using something like http://www.harborfreight.com/radiator-pressure-tester-kit-69258.html

[Sam]

Yes I did I had the heater on full blast as I read it somewhere and today to my surprise i watched Eric’s video and he stressed out to keep the fan off but on the heat setting ….

[Sam]

Thanks for the tip ckeboss, but unfortunately I don’t have a compressor i have borrowed my friend’s a few times hauled it over … don’t have much room for it now anyways

i do have a manual pump bleeder universal use for brake bleeding and such could that work !!?

[Wayne]

Afraid not.

You’d need something along these lines:

However, you can just rent them from the local chain auto store normally, getting your money back once you return it.

There’s likely a gasket that’s needed on the housing, in addition to the thermostat’s, and double-check that you placed the thermostat in correctly, they do need to go in a certain way.I’d spend the $3 for a new rubber gasket for the thermostat. They can be found separately for sale as well.
See @ 2:40 here:

[Sam]

Thanks Wayne,

Yes I did put in the gasket for the housing that came new with the thermostat…. I made ensure to install the thermostat with the air bleed nibble facing the top… yeah may be i’ll look into the rubber gasket..

however any idea what’s the white steam/smoke coming from the upper radiator hose and the corrosion even though i replaced the upper radiator hose with a new one because the old one was swelling up … it’s very little not alot … i have one of those screw clamps and it’s pretty tight any ideas about the white steam !?

[Lorrin Barth]

Another poster here was having overheating problems after a new radiator and he had tried about everything to fix it. His replacement came with shipping plugs installed in the inlet and outlet. He finally pulled the new radiator to find that there was yet another shipping plug inside of one that he had removed. Maybe you got a radiator from the same outfit.

[Bill]

I would remove the hose again and make sure all of the corrosion is removed and reinstall. If your in a cold climate the engine may not be getting hot enough to allow the cooling fan to come on. Keeping the rpms around 2500 rpm until the gauge is over half way might help the fan to operate. If it doesn’t come on at that point then you could have a problem in the cooling fan circuit.

You spent money on a new rad, install a new cap. Kinda like dressing up in a new suit while wearing gotchies with holes in em.

[Author]

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