Bustrucket
Active Member
- Posts
- 379
- Location
- Shropshire
Alright folks, my recently acquired P38A (1999 Thor 4.6) has a nasty habit of blowing water pipes.
The previous owner admitted replacing one of the pair of pipes at the top of the engine bay to the bulkhead. The trip home from purchase was uneventful for 75 miles and then it blew the 3-way hose a mile from home. I cut back the old hose, refilled the cooling system and went for short test drives, then longer ones. Today (around 100 miles after blowing the 3-way hose) it blew out the same hose in a different place. Bodged it back together and got it home, but I’m trying to work out why it’s blowing hoses.
Car is a 99 4.6, 119,000 miles on the clock. Not LPG’d, done only 3000 miles in the last few years.
Head gasket checks: oil is a lovely golden brown, no mayo. Coolant is light blue, no sludge. No steam from exhaust.
Known issues: expansion tank cap has fallen to bits, the drive back today was with the innards removed because they’d fallen apart. Hoses are old, the inside of the bit I removed today shows evidence of being about to split in several places.
Rad looks new, ally bits are still shiny.
The car doesn’t overheat when the cooling system retains its coolant - today I did around 40 miles of mixed A-road, dual carriageway and town driving with the temperature right in the middle of the gauge, no issues until the hose went pop. I had the thermostat off today as part of grafting in a section of pipe as a get-me-home, the valve opens but needs a fair bit of pressure to do so. The receipts say it was new in 2015.
On Friday I’m looking to order a new hose kit, expansion tank cap and thermostat. Anywhere else I should be looking, or anything else I can check?
Cheers
The previous owner admitted replacing one of the pair of pipes at the top of the engine bay to the bulkhead. The trip home from purchase was uneventful for 75 miles and then it blew the 3-way hose a mile from home. I cut back the old hose, refilled the cooling system and went for short test drives, then longer ones. Today (around 100 miles after blowing the 3-way hose) it blew out the same hose in a different place. Bodged it back together and got it home, but I’m trying to work out why it’s blowing hoses.
Car is a 99 4.6, 119,000 miles on the clock. Not LPG’d, done only 3000 miles in the last few years.
Head gasket checks: oil is a lovely golden brown, no mayo. Coolant is light blue, no sludge. No steam from exhaust.
Known issues: expansion tank cap has fallen to bits, the drive back today was with the innards removed because they’d fallen apart. Hoses are old, the inside of the bit I removed today shows evidence of being about to split in several places.
Rad looks new, ally bits are still shiny.
The car doesn’t overheat when the cooling system retains its coolant - today I did around 40 miles of mixed A-road, dual carriageway and town driving with the temperature right in the middle of the gauge, no issues until the hose went pop. I had the thermostat off today as part of grafting in a section of pipe as a get-me-home, the valve opens but needs a fair bit of pressure to do so. The receipts say it was new in 2015.
On Friday I’m looking to order a new hose kit, expansion tank cap and thermostat. Anywhere else I should be looking, or anything else I can check?
Cheers
