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Summary: Test hose pressure to see if those has warmed to optimal temperature when the engine is running, which might indicate combustion problems; learn how in this free auto-restoration video.
Doug Jenkins runs Doug Jenkins Custom Hot Rods in St. Louis, where he restores classic cars and creates mild to wild custom street rods. He races a 1972 Corvette in the SCCA...read more
"DOUG JENKINS: Hi. I'm Doug. I work with 20 great guys in St. Louis at Doug Jenkins Custom Hot Rods, and we're going to do some work for you today on Expert Village. When you're trying to warm up an engine to do diagnostics, you can feel the upper-radiator hose and see if it's warm yet and see if the engine has reached full operating temperature. This car doesn't have a gauge on it. And one thing we noticed is the hose has a lot of pressure. When I go to squeeze it, I can tell that--you know, when a car gets hot, it has pressure, but it shouldn't have a lot of pressure like this when it's cold. I should be able to squeeze that radiator hose flat; no problem when it's cold. So the engine is still not up to temperature and yet we have pressure, which indicates a combustion problem in the engine. That's leaking combustion gases into the coolant system and inflating the cooling system, pressurizing it."
Comments
forgottenfx said
on 8/2/2008 That's a good tip to remember. Thanks!