leaky, rusty coolant... hoses ?

[wangless]

ok... ive searched the forums and none really fit my problem... so please dont flame me for this one...

first, history of my car... when i bought my car back in august of '02, the guy told me he recently replaced the radiator because it blew... and you could tell something went wrong just by looking in the engine bay, there was rust everywhere... this nasty orange color that the coolant has turned into... ive filled the radiator with coolant before to the top and when it reaches the top, it is no longer green, it turns a vivid orange... i did this about two weeks ago... i havent had the time to flush out the system yet, and did not think it was so important...

my car always runs at a normal temp after warmed up on 3 notches (i have a 90 fb)... and that is always the running temp...

so today i drove to school like normal after warming it up for 10 minutes... i park and stuff... later in the day my friends are like... you know your car is leaking something orange ?... im like wth... they say they can see a big trail... they can see that i made a turn... that i pulled forward, then backed up... i was like... WHOA... what the freak happened to my car ?!... after school is when i finally had the chance to check it out... and i had more than just a puddle of rusted coolant... it was like a river... i started up my car as normal then drove it... i dropped off one friend who was about 5 mintues away... then went to drop off the other who was about 10 minutes later...

this is when it starts going bad... my car started to idle over 1k rpm... when its supposed to be like half that... i was oh no... my car is gonna die on me =(... then i noticed that my temp guages was slowly rising to the 4th notch... which is has never done... (and ive been to cabazon before, im in la) then i blasted the heater to get some relief... although i was roasting like a pig the temp gauge dropped back to 3...

i parked my car in my driveway to check it out... i was leaking big time... then i did something not smart... i opened the radiator cap when it was still just a bit hot... actually.. .more than that... haha... rust sprayed everywhere and steam shot out of the opening for about a minute!... i was listening to my engine and it was HOT... i filled up the radiator soon with water to cool it down... it just leaked more... i jacked it up to try to find the hole but no good...

i drove my car to my friends house to see if he could help... we jacked it up again... then he blasted the radiator with his house and all this rusted coolant came out... it was a flood of orange down his driveway... it was so gross... he did it for like 10 mintues... we didnt know where the bleeder valve was =(... we tried taking off the intake manifold to get a better look but that didnt help... so we strapped it back on... so before i go out tomorrow or whenever i have to make sure i fill up the radiator with water =( i have a gallon of water with me...

i drove it again for about 10 mintues... and parked... let the car sit for about an hour or so... then it was night... i looked under the car... and what did i see ?... ORANGE.... STILL !!!... so i just drove home cold... =(... bad for the car i know... but i didnt want the car to blow on me or something...

SO !... my question is to you guys who have read this LONG BS... btw... THANK YOU... thank you for taking the time to read this...

uhh... whats wrong ?... radiator hose ?... a crack ? a hole ? a water pump =( ? something i dont know about...

so for now im only gonna drive to school and back...

[wangless]

the thing is that it i know it isnt a cracked radiator... at least i hope it isnt one... bc like i said, or didnt say, the previous owner had it replaced recently before i bought the car...

the leak does not seem to be near the radiator at all... im hoping its one of the hoses... bc hoses are cheap right ?! hopefully... the closest thing that i could see is that the leak or hole... whatever is letting the coolant out is somewhere near the oil filter... and its way in there... i really see where it is...

today i drove the caragain like normal... filled it up with water so that i dont overheat... parked... and i still have orange coming out... i need to do a MAJOR flush =(

[bj180sx]

yes, take it to someone who knows what they are doing. MAke sure it you do not mix red and green coolant.

[wangless]

red and green coolant ? am i missing something ? i thought there was only green coolant

[wangless]

today i finally flushed it out... i found the damn drain plug and nothing but ORANGE came out of the system... my friend also flame torched my resevoir tank together... haha... custom work =)... theres rust everywhere... just need to buy some clr or something... i still cant find the leak though...

when i was using the hose and pushing water through the system through the top... we saw little trinkets of water here and there... but not enough to locate the hose where it went wrong... so much trouble to find out that a stupid radiator hose is messed up... im pretty sure its just a hose thats wrong with it... the radiator looks new... new within the past year... damn cars... why they have to cost so much to fix ?!

[Sygerwulf]

Well there are biologically sound coolents that are diff colors, like mine when I got it I thought something was seriously screwed up cuz it wasn't the usual green, but still had a coolent smell and I didnt' realize till I was in autozone and saw the stuff that I figured it out.

[top-water_fisher]

Nismod_rps13,

I'm not an expert, but I just thought this info may be helpful:

Make sure you are using the CORRECT coolant for the radiator and its parts. Some metal parts of radiators chemically react with certain coolants-- E.G., A green coolant may behave like an acid on certain aftermarket aluminum radiator parts, eating away and causing a leak. From my personal experience, I learned the hard way. I seriously replaced my radiator core 3 times for a '90 Caddy. My car originally used the green coolant, but when I had a new radiator core put in, it would repeatedly break down after about 5,000 to 10,000 miles. I had to replace the unit each time. Each time, the mechanics where baffled! But after a lot of phone calls to manufactures and mechanic's tech support, they discovered that the new part was only compatible with the newer ORANGE coolant-- the GREEN coolant acted like an acid eating away at the new part. They flushed the system and added the orange coolant. And, now my car only uses orange coolant. Hope that helps.

--top-water_fisher

[wangless]

whoa... orange coolant...

im pretty sure that its rust though... its lined all over my hoses and sure smells like rust...

[yellow_jacket]

Take it to a shop and have them pressurize the system and leak check it. It should only take them a half hour and you will then know for sure where your leak is.

By the way, never add coolant to the radiator with the motor hot and the car shut off. That is a great way to crack the block or a head.

[wangless]

crappers...

ive been adding water... i flush it out... then add more... with engine still hot.... turn off... then back on... will it crack ?!... s***

[yellow_jacket]

yes it will crack. Has it yet? that I don't know.

[wangless]

ok... today im about to take out my intake manifold so i could get to the hoses for a better look... question... is taking out the intake manifold hard to do ? next is... what color coolant do i use ?!... i mean like... i know its orange... but thats because of the rust... its lined everywhere in my hoses... and my radiator... like i added in some green before... but that was when i didnt flush it out.... and the orange mixed with the green... and it came out orange... but is it orange bc its orange coolant or bc of the rust ?!... i dont wanna mess up my radiator...