Real Time... Radiator Exploded... Causes?

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I watched one explode in the 70s. Lady pulled in with a Lincoln-motor so hot it wouldn't turn off with the key-just dieseled hard-even in gear. opened the hood and radiator cap was blowing like a steam engine but apparently not large enough outlet for the steam. Had just stepped away from the grill and BOOM. Blew the tank off one end-steam everywhere and really glad I wasn't over it. Still felt the heat 6 feet away. More than likely would have put me into the hospital had I been over that tank.
 
Now the painful part is all the stuff that I had been planning on doing over time and fixing all the oil leaks "when I had time" have come to the top of my list because it falls under the "While I'm in there" category. The radiator itself is $345, but all the other stuff I need to do since the radiator will be out adds up to a total of $1400. What could have been a 4 hour job will now be a 20 hour job. The good news is that after this, most of my oil leaks will be gone as well! I just didn't want to have to do all this right now, as we have cleaned out our home to show it and buy a new home. I have to keep everything clean and pristine for showings!

Turns out that this is "common" on the 96-97's as far as the radiator to explode. Danimal92Sport nailed it.....
 
Yeah, after a severe over pressure condition, everything gets tweaked a bit and frequently will see a failure in the near future. This one had the HG done at 145K (am at 221K now) so I may get lucky and have about another 60K to 80K before I have to do it again. Hopefuly it got the updated HG in it when it was done. The PO cut a lot of corners when getting any work done on it, so I don't know if it was a AutoZone HG or a Toyota HG. I am guessing the former. We'll see. Thanks for the digits crossing!
 
BILT4ME said:
Now the painful part is all the stuff that I had been planning on doing over time and fixing all the oil leaks "when I had time" have come to the top of my list because it falls under the "While I'm in there" category. The radiator itself is $345, but all the other stuff I need to do since the radiator will be out adds up to a total of $1400. What could have been a 4 hour job will now be a 20 hour job. The good news is that after this, most of my oil leaks will be gone as well! I just didn't want to have to do all this right now, as we have cleaned out our home to show it and buy a new home. I have to keep everything clean and pristine for showings!

Turns out that this is "common" on the 96-97's as far as the radiator to explode. Danimal92Sport nailed it.....
Click to expand...

Curious about the total jumping to $1400. Did you explains to the :princess: that you had to replace the coils with taller ones and bigger tires to keep this from happening again?:idea:
 
No, I haven't told the :princess:what the total is yet. The WIIT thing is all the PS hoses ($$$), ALL coolant hoses and clamps, Oil pump gasket and screws, Front Main Seal, Spark plug wires, Cap, Rotor, Dizzy ORing. Since I'm throwing money at it, I'm tempted to go ahead and throw in the OME 2" springs as well. At this point, it makes THAT look CHEAP! I'm due for tires since the ones I have have the belts sticking out.... maybe a set of Nitto Mud Grapplers 315's??? That part might push it a bit much....
 
BILT4ME said:
No, I haven't told the :princess:what the total is yet. The WIIT thing is all the PS hoses ($$$), ALL coolant hoses and clamps, Oil pump gasket and screws, Front Main Seal, Spark plug wires, Cap, Rotor, Dizzy ORing. Since I'm throwing money at it, I'm tempted to go ahead and throw in the OME 2" springs as well. At this point, it makes THAT look CHEAP! I'm due for tires since the ones I have have the belts sticking out.... maybe a set of Nitto Mud Grapplers 315's??? That part might push it a bit much....
Click to expand...

If you are adding the parts you mention above then you wont get near $1400. Should have plenty left over.:beer:
 
A better front bumper would keep the new radiator from exploding.:idea:

Why PS hoses? Did they break? The only one that usually fails is the low pressure hose. I highly recommend replacing it while you're in there. But you can get generic PS hose at Autozone for ~$2/ft.
 
Also, for the high-pressure side, you can find a hydraulic repair shop (like Pirtek) to make equivalent if not better than OE hoses.
 
BILT4ME said:
No, I haven't told the :princess:what the total is yet. The WIIT thing is all the PS hoses ($$$), ALL coolant hoses and clamps, Oil pump gasket and screws, Front Main Seal, Spark plug wires, Cap, Rotor, Dizzy ORing. Since I'm throwing money at it, I'm tempted to go ahead and throw in the OME 2" springs as well. At this point, it makes THAT look CHEAP! I'm due for tires since the ones I have have the belts sticking out.... maybe a set of Nitto Mud Grapplers 315's??? That part might push it a bit much....
Click to expand...

I didn't see a t-stat and o-ring on your list. You might want the two o-rings that go on that short pipe at the right front of the head. You also need a gasket where it attaches to the head. Be careful pulling that short piece of pipe from the t-stat housing, you don't want to chew it up.

In your CSI investigation, I don't see how oil on a belt would cause it to jump off. I wonder if you had one belt chunk out and it took out the others.
 
A week or so ago, I saw where the oil from the dizzy was dripping directly on the inside belt for the alternator. Also, the AC belt may have been a bit loose because I noticed that if I engaged the AC at speed, the belt would squeal endlessly unless I dropped the RPM to engage (drop into neutral while driving to engage, then back into gear). During WOT, the AC is disengaged. Ass soon as I back off enough, the AC re-engaged and I am thinking possibly snapping the belt there and that one taking out the other two. However, the one with the oil dripping on it may have been the last one to go because it had enough oil to allow it to slip slide around until it finally rolled off. I don't know for sure how it happened, but I know the radiator blew up! I probably need to run a compression test, just in case.

Thanks for the advice on the o rings and tstat. I realized that I didn't have it on my list, but added it on Friday. I will order all parts on Monday, after I evaluate the PS hoses. This truck has had little to no PM and my goal is to make it highly reliable, so I don't have to do all this again in 75K. I would be totally thrilled if I could get another 200K out of all the stuff I'm doing. I'm getting old and tired of working on my stuff. I enjoy it, except when I HAVE to...

I considered having a hydraulic shop do the hose rebuild, but I think by the time I research it, find one to do it and get it right, it might be worth my time just to buy the Mr. T version. The list and cost is from CDan. I'll let you confirm w/ him.
 
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