Coolant leak and power loss

[ponyboy03]

What would cause the coolent to leak out from the cap and the hose to the radiator? I bought a new cap and it still leaks. Would the thermostat cause this? Today I almost never made it home, coolant leaking my temp gauge almost hit the top. One other thing before I noticed the temp guage I went to step on it and the car bogged. Traction control was off.

Anyone? :shrug:

 

[Shadowgray03]

If coolant temps get too high I beleive the EEC will pull timing to prevent detonation.

If you have air trapped in your cooling system coolant wont flow and cause overheating issues. When filling the system you need to fill it via the plug on the crossover tube not by pouring it into the rad or overflow.

 

[ponyboy03]

SO how do I get the air out?

 

[Shadowgray03]

SO how do I get the air out?

Filling it from the crossover tube, running it for a little bit, letting it sit for a bit, pull crossover tube plug fill some more, rinse and repeat.

 

[SSSNAKE04]

i duuno, but you might have a blown head gasket....

 

[redsvtcobra]

That's always a possibility, but unlikely as I think he said coolant is leaking from hose and cap.

 

[ponyboy03]

Ok I did fill it and ran it until warm. When I was running it I ran the heater and I have not heat. So is the thermostat bad?

 

[black99lightnin]

That, or you still have an air pocket in the system. Repeat the procedure a couple more times and see if you ever get any heat. If not probably tstat.

 

[DuffManRHA]

this is a fox trick, and will most certainly work for you as well

jack the front of the car up as high as possible and (when the engine is bone cold) start the car and let it warm up with the coolant cap off. eventually you'll start to see bubbles coming up and it may overflow a bit, so have something below it.

if you can get one, there is a special funnel and rad cap that you screw on to your rad and it works even better. basically you want to get the highest point of the coolant system (ie. the cap) as high as you can.

EDIT: by the way, if you are really experiencing power loss, take the overflow top off (if there is one, haven't looked at the 4.6 really yet) and if you smell exhaust, thats bad - regardless, i'd take 30 minutes and do a dry comp check and see how it comes out - i'll have my fingers crossed for ya

Eric