omfg seriously what is with my cooling system

[pow3rslave]

i've got a vp v6 and a year or so back i had a header tank blow on my radiator, i bought a cheapie chinese one off ebay and it worked fine for a bit. anyway here's the recent issues and my fixes

• the spring in the cap that came with the cheapie rusted out, replaced it with a tridon cap.
  
  
• hose from water pump to the inlet manifold blew off on the freeway and dumped all the coolant, pulled in to my folks fairly quick. did a flush/new thermostat/new coolant the next day. spotted the passenger side front welch plug was corroded, but cbf'd then, the overflow bottles out hose was crimped shut by the battery and couldn't flow, cut the end off it
  
  
• a month or so back the hose from the water pump to the inlet manifold blew off on the freeway and dumped all my coolant, but i pulled in to my folks fairly quick and left it there. and did a flush/new thermostat/new coolant the next day. i also spotted the passenger side front welch plug was corroded, but cbf'd at the time, and that the overflow bottles out hose was crimped over from being under the battery and couldn't flow.
  
  
• weeks later the same hose blew (pump>inlet manifold), this time it cracked off the plastic joiner, put a new one on and maybe lost a tiny bit of the old one inside the inlet manifold .
  
  
• finally just got round to doing the dying welch plug, also cut a bit of length off the top radiator hose because it wasn't sealing. even after that i'm seeing drips on the charcoal canister.
  
  
• the hose out of the overflow bottle always looks bone dry inside, and the car never gets over 1/4 temp. i think the radiator fan is boned because the mong that had the car before me put a 30A fuse in the 20A slot for it.

sorry for the epic post, but is there anything anyone can suggest for my car holding too much pressure? is it possibly something like the water pump being boned from spewing all the coolant a couple of times?

[Zuicider]

did u get the right radiator cap? sum caps open at a lower pressure to others. when too much pressure builts up it opens the radiator cap and pushes excess to your over flow

[pow3rslave]

good point, i just used the cap the tridon book at ricerbarn recommended. i'll check it against the gregories

[centy]

mate most of the problems you have mentioned are just old age.
repco sell the cooling system hoses in a pack.
it has all bar the bypass hose and are worth getting.
don't cut any of the hose as it may then pull on the radiator due to engine movement.
i use a little instant gasket in the end of hose when i assemble them.
check for hairline cracks in the radiator tanks mainly near the fan mounts.
if you lean on the fan shroud you can crack the tank.
ok so a previous owner did not keep up with the coolant and now you have rust issues.
dude use a corrosive engine flush then replace hoses and welsh plugs.

[pow3rslave]

yeah i was thinking of getting an engine crane for christmas to do all the welch plugs and the sump gasket and rear main at the same time.

[Lost_Pete]

It seems to me that over time the cooling system gets "worn out" and will start to loose pressure through leaks. However when you fix the worse leak the pressure increases which then moves the leak or pressure loss to the next "worn" part. And so on until you have fixed most of the leaks. I tend to replace all hoses if one hose has failed assuming that the hoses are a number of years old.

I have also found that some hoses have a pinhole (often from the tag), so a coating of clear flexible paint helps seal the hose.

[lsprewell]

A water pump is pretty easy to diagnose. Maybe you should check that.
Also 1/4 Temp means nothing. These guages are merely an estimate for the driver to see, but has no direct link to the ECU or FAN or control of cooling system.
So for example, 1/4 temp on your guage, could/should really be 1/2. I would be checking that your cooling system is functioning correctly, like ECU kicking in the fan when the Temp Sensor tells ECU the waters temp.

[HARVZ-6]

take it for a drive. get it up to normal running temp and then check the hoses... if its holding pressure the hoses will be hard or swollen..

should just be firm with some give

[skyper]

check 4 a blown head gasket would be the first thing i would do with a chemical test,my vn had leaking head gaskets,and i fix it with chemiweld,been go now 4 years

[somerandom]

I took my thermostat out because it kept going to near the red line on my temp gauge, but after that, it got to 3 quarters (still pretty hot, considering it doesn't have a thermostat!) So I connected the FAN to the ignition, and it barely reads a temp now.

could it be my radiator? it doesn't appear to leak.

[lsprewell]

I took my thermostat out because it kept going to near the red line on my temp gauge, but after that, it got to 3 quarters (still pretty hot, considering it doesn't have a thermostat!) So I connected the FAN to the ignition, and it barely reads a temp now.

could it be my radiator? it doesn't appear to leak.

PLEASE DO NOT take a lot of this as advice. It is misguided. It is not recommended to leave your thermostat out, these engines are designed this way, no matter what anyone says. (Even if they say our climate is hot, blah blah blah, its BULL) Also I would not recommend chemiweld, or any product similar, there is no such thing as a good quick fix. AS the saying goes,

IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO SOMETHING, DO IT PROPERLY, OTHERWISE DONT DO IT AT ALL.

There is nearly enough content in this thread to get you going and find your problem, if thats too much, don't go removing or adding extra unneccesary things, take it to a PROFESSIONAL.
If you read your initial post powerslave, you pretty much sum up what the problem was. It sounds like the previous owners either ran no coolant, incorrect coolant, insufficient coolant or over dilluted coolant, and all the cooling components including gaskets, hoses, sensors (and heads ) can easily be affected by the excess heat. Corossion is also a big element and coolant also has properties that help to increase the boiling point, and helps lubricate the cooling system as well. Engines need to run hot (NOT extremely HOT), its their nature.

Also if it looks like one of your welsh plugs is has corroded, maybe its time for a rebuild. At least take the heads off and inspect for corrosion or any other signs of damage. Can be done with engine in car.