Tell me it wasn't that easy..0.9-1.0 rad cap?

[b2p1986]

Hey guys

So as you guys may have remembered I had a problem with boiling coolant in the reservoir and upper rad hose. Well today when I went in for the emissions test the service advisor noticed my reservoir bottle to be "empty", yet the car doesn't overheat or anything. So he decides to fill up the system with more coolant (after it had spilled out lots a few weeks back). Since there was less coolant in the car it was not dumping or boiling out anymore. Anyways fast forward to later on today and the car as soon as it's shut off would start boiling in the reservoir tank and all into the engine bay.

Enough was enough!!!!!!!!!

I went to the dealer to see if I could get a rad cap that is "deeper". It seems my car has an aftermarket rad (which is still good) however when you secure the rad cap on it sits like this "T" with respect the rad. It needs an extra quarter turn to sit like most "normal cars". So I end up using a toyota 4runner rad cap (which is deeper, but is labelled 1.0). My stock rad cap and the one designed for camry's is lablelled as 0.9. Upon first putting on the car I noticed it still didn't full turn and secure (was one quarter turn short of it). Tonight though after much driving, it seemed that the upper rad hose, which was very slack and loose before and could easily be squeezed, was now very firm and seemed "pressurized" sorta speak. And too boot, the car's overflow or upper rad hose is not boiling.

My question is, by putting on a deeper cap which created a better seal and a higher pressure rate on the cap (0.9 for stock vs. 1.0 for the one I'm using)...could this have actually cured my problem with boiling coolant?

I am keeping my fingers crossed but after a long drive tonight it was the first time in a while it wasn't boiling or boiling over. Could my problems with the cooling system be gone?!?!

[korrupt1]

wouldnt keep my hopes overly high....but if its working....awesome!!~

[BretAz]

Fenixus kept telling you over and over it was your radiator cap. He knows what he is talking about.

[LynchburgCSI]

Originally Posted by BretAz

Fenixus kept telling you over and over it was your radiator cap. He knows what he is talking about.

+1. Plus swagger wagon just had an ENTIRE like 10 page thread on how he thought it was a blown headgakset.... and it was the rad cap. Things CAN be that simple!

[b2p1986]

Thanks a million guys. It seems now that due to some loss of fluid, my rad overflow bottle sits just above the low line but I am not worried. The rad is full, the boiling problem is gone...both the upper rad hose and water pump hose get equally hot (whereas before the hose where the thermostat was would be at best, warmish), and the fan's and everything are kicking in as expected. I am just shocked that putting a slightly deeper cap and going from 0.9 to 1.0 made that much a difference.

...I am going to leave good enough alone and one day when I rebleed my system in the near future, I will make sure all the levels are full. I am sure I'm pretty close to full but I'll check again.

[b2p1986]

Well tonight after a long drive, seems everything is operating normally except for one thing. car runs fine, no overheating, and no boiling of the coolant, from what I can tell. When I turn off the car there is lots of tension in upper rad hose and it's very hot with no boiling fluid in it...however when I reached down to touch lower rad hose, where the thermostat goes, the thing was practically cold. why is this still happening? Could I need something as simple as rebleeding the entire cooling system to fix this once and for all?

[BamZipPow]

The bottom hose being cold means yer radiator is cooling the coolant off. Is it possible that yer thermostat is stuck wide open? How new is that radiator? Maybe you have some clogged fins (internal and external)?