Little background
belt driven nylon fan, stock rad, 180*F t-stat. Fresh motor, maybe 1000miles on it. About half of a air dam left on the car (yea, i'm getting one..). Today was just above freezing, about 6*C.

So I was driving down the highway, with the motor just coming up to temp. Maybe I was driving it too hard, but either way, when I got to a set of lights (after driving maybe 10 minutes from cold start), there was steam billowing from the hood. I know the drill, my top rad hose pops off my waterneck, all too easily. Has happened 3 times or so now, since the new motor.
So I pulled over, and had no tools in my car, so thankfully, a quarter fits that perfectly. That must have been designed for that size, that was too perfect.

Anyway, is there a way to get my coolant hose to stay the heck on there? I swear I had that band clamp tightened up as tight as I could reef on it before biting into the rubber hose. It's a cheesy $13 chrome water neck. Maybe grind a bigger groove into the waterneck ?

2nd - kept driving, figured i'd use up what was in the reservoir. Motor usually runs at around 170-180F on the gauge, now it was between 220-260*. Centered between those. Drove through traffic all the way to a buddys house, with the heater cranked up. Must have been pretty low on coolant. Dumped in 4 liters of tap water into the reservoir, the temp went to 220* and pretty much stayed there for a while. After a restart at the corner store, it was down just above the bottom tick, 140* or something?

Stayed that way the rest of the night. I've never seen it run that cool before. Like it wasn't even getting up to temp to open the t-stat after that. Any logical reason it could be running so cool? It was obviously colder outside, but I figured it'd still keep the t-stat closed, and force it to warm up to 180* F...?

 

hmm, so yea, after another drive, the coolant gauge doesn't move whatsoever. It's stuck at min.

IIRC, if the wire to the sensor is shorted out, it pegs to full hot right?
So I guess i'll check that first, and if that pegs the gauge to hot, then that means my sensor is bad... If no movement, then some wiring issue, or fuse is blown..

 

What shape is your radiator cap in?

 

New, off shelf.
Possible I have the t-stat in upside down? I still don't know which side is supposed to be "up"?
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nevermind, http://images.scrippsweb.com/DIY/200...r103_3ca_e.jpg looks good

 

i would replace the T-stat.
i don't trust a stat that has been hot & dry, i have seen too many stick closed or open afterwards.

Gates makes a type of clamp that you use a heat gun to get it to clamp around the hose, you have to get the right size, its made out of thermoplastic. when you need to remove the hose, you have to cut the clamp off & get a new one. they are called the PowerGrip clamp. to me, these clamps look way better than a screw type clamp.

PowerGrip® SB Clamp - Not in use

if you get one of these & still have problems with the hose coming off, you may be able to grind the chrome off where the hose goes to fix it.

 

yep, t-stat had failed stuck open. Just tossed in the 160* one I had sitting on the shelf. That'll hold the car while it's parked for the winter.