Blew my Radiator. No really...it exploded!! (pics and vid)

Rhoad Racing · Post by **Rhoad Racing** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 5:58 pm

I've only had my car back for about a month and a half now and already I"m having "hot flashes" [Mrs. Doubtfire].
Me and my room mate Chad (ChadMK4) went out to a spot last night to sling our cars around for a while which started off great. We both had long spans of 10 mins or more of straight drifting. He would setup away from the parking lot to watch for Johnny Law while I tossed it around for a while and vis versa. Well....everything was going well until....... BOOOOM!!!
My FOERST thought......"Oh FUC*!!! Chad, I just blew my motor!" Immediatly, large plumes of smoke bellowed from underneath the hood. I thought for sure I, and my new KA, were toast. But thankfully that wasn't the case. Upon opening the hood, my attention went straight to the radiator (a very old rad I might add) which no longer had a top to it. The entire top, left-hand, portion of the rad had blown wide open! ewwww! what a relief! Im hoping this saved my headgasket from blowing too, but I won't find out until later tonight. I've already purchased a new Rad. and will be installing it later tonight in the same parking lot where it blew.

Moral of story: keep an eye on your Temp while drifting and properly maintain your cooling system.

Here's some pics and a vid. The Vid will give you a better shot of the radiator than the pics.

Vid (2.49mb)
http://www.studiorhoad.com/vids/240_blownradiator.MPG

Kouki7 · Post by **Kouki7** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:23 am

damn, FOERST time i've seen someone blow the rad. time to upgrade to an all aluminum Fluidyne!

aburazaru · Post by **aburazaru** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:52 am

damn dude. that is freakin incredible!!!!

Silonius · Post by **Silonius** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:29 am

That's a big hole dude. Hope that fixes it and nothing else has a gaping hole in it.

BrokeAssHachi · Post by **BrokeAssHachi** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:37 am

duct tape and rubber cement can fix that!

turbofb · Post by **turbofb** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:07 pm

you should check to see how much psi you are building in the cooling system. Looks like you had alot of psi building to destroy the radiator like that.

Rhoad Racing · Post by **Rhoad Racing** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:19 pm

turbofb wrote:you should check to see how much psi you are building in the cooling system. Looks like you had alot of psi building to destroy the radiator like that.

you might be right.
but after we pulled the rad out, me and chad noticed that it was pretty much destroyed; despite what I did to it. The remaining water looked more like Orange Juice from all the rust. And since, I didn't have the mechanical fan installed, it was already prone to overheating.

struka · Post by **struka** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 1:12 pm

man i was soo gonna say duct tape but someone already said that. duct tape fixes anything and on top of that it makes it better.

Kouki7 · Post by **Kouki7** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 7:59 pm

don't forget zip ties! i could basically build a car with zip ties and duct tape! hell, look at my FC. in the engine bay zip ties are holding stuff and duct tape fixed a vacuum leak i had!

slidewaysgolf · Post by **slidewaysgolf** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:08 pm

Yeah it does sound like you car was runing to hot and you built up to much presure when it got hot, I have seen in hapen a couple of time but usaly on no plastic radiators it will just blow a hose off. I would defenatly but you fan back on ASAP becaus the hotter you car runs the more likly you will be to warp a head for blow a head gasket usaly both hapens. You can pick up decent electric fans at any parts store and wire them to a togle switch and togal switches are cool. Also the only puzuling this is that this hapend on a non sealed cooling system mostly this hapens on VW's with there totaly sealed sysytem. It could be you had a little to much watter/collent in your system to.

Nemesis · Post by **Nemesis** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 9:51 pm

sweet

Kouki7 · Post by **Kouki7** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 10:47 pm

Nemesis, thats an awesome sig you have. i like how the Japanese convert some of the drift cars to truck forms. it looks really cool.

Nemesis · Post by **Nemesis** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:57 am

ahah, thanx, i can make sigs for people, but i've seen people on this board with muhco's better one's than me...

sorry for the thread jack i will go kick myself in the ballz

Post by **andysapp** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 5:50 pm

Those pictures are crazy man! I'm glad you got it all fixed up!
I'm also glad you got your MAF situation under control.
Whew!

Nooow can we go drifting???