coolant spewing

[supercharged34]

hey yall. im new here and new to the camaro world. i just bought my first one for $450 dollars. 1996 3800 seriesII 5 speed manual. the kid couldnt get eh car started when i was looking at it and it needs a paint job so i was able to talk him down. brought the car home, put a new battery in it and it started up perfectly and runs perfectly. got a lucky break on this buy. well i was drivin her home the other day, checking my gauges like a paranoid maniac like always when i get a new car. everything was perfectly fine. till i pulled into the driveway, i suddenly smelled the sweet aroma of antifreeze and noticed steam coming out of my hood. i popped the hood and coolant was shooting out the top of my resevior cap. my gauges never showed any sign of overheating and from what i know they arent broken.

whats up?! do i just need a new cap? or is this a head problem?

[UDLOSE98]

Re: coolant spewing

whew, dont really see how that happened, unless the cap was never there in the first place? or did you recover the cap? Either way try replacing it and see what happens.

[supercharged34]

Re: coolant spewing

nah the cap was there the whole time. the car had not been driven for about 6 months....and almost just as long before that. could the cap deteriorate? it is in bad shape, just not sure if im lookign for too simple of a fix

[UDLOSE98]

Re: coolant spewing

never heard of a cap deteriorating, your temp gauge may not work, which could mean you have a bad thermo and or water pump. I would probably look to replace that as well. I have never heard of it getting so hot it pops the cap off, and if it did, then that engine is in more trouble than you can imagine.

[av6xperience]

Re: coolant spewing

just replace the thermo first for like 10 bucks. do a search here and you'll figure out how to replace it, its cake and may work

[97rs4life]

Re: coolant spewing

yea could be thermo, or waterpump going out. Or it could be an air bubble in your coolant lines. start it up and try bleeding the coolant line using the bleeder on the drivers side by the thermostat housing. See if air comes out.

(P.S.- I have a new hypertech 160* thermostat sitting here for $15 shipped if you need it)

[T-Mill]

Re: coolant spewing

sounds like an air bubble... temp gauge should have risen, though...

[Camaro Dom]

Re: coolant spewing

i'll bet the coolant was just old and boiled out or maybe was overfilled. the steam was probably from the stuff getting on the exhaust manifold.... the only thing we can really offer is to let it run and look for leaks. radiator caps DO go bad. tehy have to be rated to like 15 lbs or sumthing like that. iirc i think tehre might even be a pressure relief valve on it so it wont shoot off if the pressure goes too high.

[T-Mill]

Re: coolant spewing

usually if the radiator cap goes bad it just lets coolant flow into the reservoir, and the reservoir has an overflow in case it's overfilled. An air bubble... most likely caused by boiling due to old coolant... would cause alot of coolant to be pushed out... happens all the time on my van that has a small hole in the radiator. If the car wasn't maintained well, things like the radiator reservoir cap are the types of things that just go bad... but that isn't the problem itself. Sounds like you need new coolant, and might as well do the thermo since it's so cheap to do.

[supercharged34]

Re: coolant spewing

thanks you guys! youve been a huge help! i let her run today and it was an air bubble in the system. i replaced the cap and flushed the coolant and replaced it. works fine now.

[supercharged34]

Re: coolant spewing

i may be interested in that! im gonna check my local stores to see what it would cost me and ill get back to you in a day or so. thanks for the offer, great help!

[97rs4life]

Re: coolant spewing

good to hear it was just an air bubble

[av6xperience]

Re: coolant spewing

i may be interested in that! im gonna check my local stores to see what it would cost me and ill get back to you in a day or so. thanks for the offer, great help!

the thermo?