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Help! Will a blown radiator hose cause.....


Brandon.fair

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I blew a radiator hose on the way home and with it came a lose of power. Engine tempg was not maxed out but was about 3/4 the way up the gauge. Before the radio hose went I noticed a Loud "clicking" while under load. Now I'm wondering if I could of had a blown head gasket.

 

So my question is could the overheating engine cause a blown head gasket.

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I blew a radiator hose on the way home and with it came a lose of power. Engine tempg was not maxed out but was about 3/4 the way up the gauge. Before the radio hose went I noticed a Loud "clicking" while under load. Now I'm wondering if I could of had a blown head gasket.

 

So my question is could the overheating engine cause a blown head gasket.

In short, YES!

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The answer is yes. I fixed the hose and drove it 3-4 miles back to my house. The whole time there are no power and a massive white cloud of steam (I assume) behind the truck. Now I need to decide if I want to replace the gasket or get something else. I'm open to offers ($$$) yall

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Head gaskets leak on these things all the time. You have to retorque the head bolts every so often. 100k? Mike will chime in with the correct interval. 

 

Anyway, your past that now. It's head gasket replacement time.. or sell it. 

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Did you stop immediately when the hose blew off? If so then it couldn't have over heated. If you kept driving this was a really bad idea. Hoses and water are cheap.

 

Hoses don't blow unless in very bad shape. Do you know... was this an old soft hose? Do you have the old one?

 

Possibly the headgasket blew first and compression pressurized the cooling system and popped the soft hose.

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If you decide to replace the gasket make certain you have the timing chain chocked with a wedge. Or you will have a whole mound of additional heartache. One headgasket change and the retorquing won't seem like such a chore. I haven't replaced a headgasket in 25 years but remember it was an all day op. Search for the tricks and pitfalls, I learned the hard way on not securing the wedge tight enough.

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Yep, took me a couple of days to do several years ago( not counting the remachining wait time) and definitely have to pay attention to darn near everything to do it with no issue IMO. Not sure about everyone else, but I was worried mine got warped so I had it machined while it was off. Must have worked as it is still going after an additional 85000 mines with no issue.

 

One of my Nissan freinds had told me something about how the heads were cast and that they were prone to warp on one corner if they got too hot. Might just have been his opinion though

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Get help and lift the head off with the intake and carb on. (the exhaust bolts are easy to get at)  Taking the intake is labor intensive and risks breaking a bolt or stripping it. Try to keep head reasonably level so any silt in the carb is not disturbed. With some effort the head can be tilted and surface can be cleaned as well as the block and a new gasket put on. With no problems and having everything you need and ready the night before, this can be done in a morning without hurrying.

 

The head does not have to be warped for a Z24 to blow it's gasket. It's just the way they are. The best defense against the gasket blowing is re-torquing the head bolts once a year to keep a solid clamping force on the gasket. All you need do is have a cold engine and loosen one bolt at a time and tighten to 60 ft lbs. Move onto the next bolt. Do any order you like but only one bolt loose at a time. Done... that was easy.

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The head does not have to be warped for a Z24 to blow it's gasket. It's just the way they are. The best defense against the gasket blowing is re-torquing the head bolts once a year to keep a solid clamping force on the gasket. All you need do is have a cold engine and loosen one bolt at a time and tighten to 60 ft lbs. Move onto the next bolt. Do any order you like but only one bolt loose at a time. Done... that was easy.

That does make a lot of sense, probably I was over kill on the remachining years ago when really just doing the preventive maintenance on retorquing was all that was needed. I did recheck the torque on the bolts when I replaced the valve cover gasket and a few other things last year but all were still seated good....maybe after 200,000 plus miles everything has settled down and doesn't move much anymore :). You got to give these little engines some credit though...mine has out lasted many a car I have bought and sold over the years for sure. A blown head gasket here or there or a carb rebuild is nothing compared to what I go through to keep my Ram 1500 or my old BMW 740il running !

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The Z24 reportedly blows them at 100K intervals. The gasket de-laminates from accumulated heat cycling. I've heard of people going to loosen the bolts and they are barely tight. Just loosen and tighten about once a year and you should be alright.

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The hoses were soft. I stopped as soon as I had a loss of power. Before the loss of power I didn't notice anything wrong and didn't see steam till after the loss of power After I changed the hose and replaced the coolant I drove it home. (About 2 - 3 miles) I know this probably wasn't the best choice.

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Rad hoses always rot from the inside out so are hard to spot. Softness is a good indication.

 

From your description you couldn't have had time to over heat. However the gasket may have blown first, causing the hose to burst.

 

Try idling the ruck with the rad cap off. Even cold, (give it a few minutes) if you see the occasional bubble come up this could be compression getting into the cooling system.

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Do NOT unbolt the cam sprocket before finding out how to block the timing chain tensioner from falling out.

 

There I said it just in case. This is a fairly easy nuts and bolts job to replace the head gasket. But if the tensioner falls out it's another 4-6 hours work that needn't be done to fix.

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Oh yes, does sound familiar. I always look on the bright side that it blew the coolant to the piston and not to the oil. Mine went the same way and it looked like the toilet paper man (white cloud) was living in my exhaust pipe, ha,ha. For mine, it did no harm to the engine so once I replaced the head gasket, I had no issues. 85,000 miles later and all is still well with the engine...over 200k miles with no rebuild other than the blown head gasket. In hind sight, I should have probably done some retorques on the bolts from time to time as mentioned By datzenmike but hey, it's still running strong

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If you drive long enough water does get past the rings and into the oil pan. If oil looks like chocolate milk just change it and the filter. For anything less, engine heat will evaporate it. Just look at the dip stick... if it looks bad it is bad.

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On the Z series engine the first two lobes on the cam (number one cylinder) must point downward. The front one (exhaust) will be @ about 8 and the intake (next one back) will be about 4.... as viewed from the front. If all you are doing is changing the head gasket this is as far as you need to go. The engine does not have to be exactly timed it's just easier if something goes wrong.
 
 
 Before blocking the chain so the tensioner is secure and can't fall out, mark the relation of the chain to the cam sprocket. This must go back in the same position.
 
You can buy a plastic timing chain tool that does this.
 
 
TimingChangeTensionRetainerSAE.jpg

4555.png
The straight side goes to the left side of the car or the right as you look from the front.

These both block the tensioner from falling out. There are others that have to be pounded in the jam the chain and keep tension on it. Those you have to be careful they don't slip.

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On the Z series engine the first two lobes on the cam (number one cylinder) must point downward. The front one (exhaust) will be @ about 8 and the intake (next one back) will be about 4.... as viewed from the front. If all you are doing is changing the head gasket this is as far as you need to go. The engine does not have to be exactly timed it's just easier if something goes wrong.

 

 

 Before blocking the chain so the tensioner is secure and can't fall out, mark the relation of the chain to the cam sprocket. This must go back in the same position.

 

You can buy a plastic timing chain tool that does this.

 

 

TimingChangeTensionRetainerSAE.jpg

 

4555.png

The straight side goes to the left side of the car or the right as you look from the front.

 

These both block the tensioner from falling out. There are others that have to be pounded in the jam the chain and keep tension on it. Those you have to be careful they don't slip.

https://www.build.com/powerbuilt-648831/s971737?uid=2408283&source=gg-gba-pla_2408283____199490094911&s_kwcid=AL!4215!3!199490094911!!!g!294682000766!&cawelaid=120135390007973454&cagpspn=pla&caagid=44996999484&catci=pla-294682000766&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_KGRzIWI1QIVkoF-Ch3ZtgpgEAQYBCABEgJin_D_BwE

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