Bizarre Coolant problem?

Nissan 300ZX technical discussion forum: Maintenance, performance, installations, modifications, how-to's and troubleshooting.
nechen
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2014 7:40 am
Car: 1993 300zx N/A 150k

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So I finally got my 300zx ready to go for the spring/summer. New transmission/fuel filter/fixed all error codes/re-did all electrical wiring (within reason) and so on.

I drive it back from my dad's home-garage/workshop to my house. About 30 miles.

Of course I get on the interstate and rev it up to 4k-5k RPM/100MPH+ for a little bit to see how it takes it. NEVER red-lined it. Engine temp was good and everything was in the green so to speak.

Then I pull into my house and there is a huge cloud of white steam spewing from under my hood. I think the worst and open her up and this is where I became absolutely stumped.

There was coolant coming out of the front of the engine where the two main coolant hard pipes (What are these things called exactly?) and draining out onto the brand new belts I'd put on for the power steering and whatnot (the sound was god awful).

Anyway after a few moments it stopped. The next morning I topped off the Reservoir and Radiator and took her out for a spin. There wasn't any coolant pooling under my car overnight or any of the normal things you'd expect.

I could *NOT* for the life of me replicate the issue.

The weird thing is this "stream" of coolant was only a few millimeters in diameter, almost like someone had turned on a kitchen sink and it was just of "coming out" and then it stopped. It wasn't spraying all over the place like a cracked radiator, bad coolant hose, cracked engine block, or anything else that I know of.

I apologize for how long this post is but I've spent a couple of weeks searching high and low for someone, somewhere, who had something even remotely similar happen to them.

If you all can come up with any questions to ask me please don't hesitate to ask. :bigthumb:

_nechen


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NolimitZ32
Posts: 7042
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:07 am
Car: 91 AG2 2+0 TTMT swap/E39 BMW 540i6/E53 4.6is Dinan S3
Location: Houston, TX

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Only way to know is to get in there and check everything, sounds like you may have a hairline fracture in one of the hoses that connects the upper hard pipe.

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DCaff300ZX
Posts: 4202
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:18 am
Car: .
1993 CRP TT- Modified
Location: Tacoma, Washington

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Good call Anton, reading this I thought that or possibly a hairline crack in the hardpipe that his quick high speed/RPM blast supplied enough fast heat to cause enough pressure to push through, also considering with the extra heat the hardpipe has expanded some.
VERY odd indeed, and yeah- the only way to find out is dig it out and inspect it all, or replace the hardpipes with some from a donor motor.


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