On
4/24/04
7:53 PM, "Tracy Crook" <lors01@msn.com> wrote:
It's
possible I misunderstood the explanation but the theory of why this happened
seems unlikely. The sudden expansion of coolant would have to be
incredibly fast to cause an overpressure due to not being able to get out
through the overflow tube fast enough.
Tracy
I just learned it
was a ¼” line; i.d about 1/8”. Trying to squirt a pint or more through
that in; what; less than a minute? That could do it. I currently have
a ¼” line on mine as an overflow from the pressure bottle. The
pressure would release from the cap (through the upper gasket) but I would
lose coolant in a similar scenario. I’m going to rework that to a
3/8”. That will give 4 times the flow area.
Al
I guess its still not clear to me how that
situation would cause a line to blow off. The max coolant
pressure I have seen was around 24 psi and that should not cause a line to
blow off unless it was inadequately clamped or some other defect. Hard
to believe the pressure increase due to the heat build up would be that
fast. But, a larger flow area should indeed relieve the pressure build
up.
Ed
It would seem that 24 psi should not be a problem
with a hose as far as it's structual integrity. A standard,
inexpensive air hose made in China will withstand 125 psi from my air
compressor, and one fitting on the end of my air hose is only secured with a
standard worm-gear type hose clamp. (The hose was damaged after being run
over by a tractor-trailer, so I cut it and re-used the quick disconnect
fitting by just inserting it back into the hose and securing it with a hose
clamp). Of course the diameter of the air hose is larger. I'm just
commenting on the ability of a hose to take the pressure. I realize
that this is air pressure, not water pressure, but 125 psi is probably more
pressure than we would develop in our radiators.
I might be missing
something, but shouldn't the radiator cap release the over-pressure instead
of a hose failing, or is it that once the radiator cap released it's
pressure, and the only escape path was through this small line? Not
sure I totally understood the scenario. Thanks for any efforts in
making this clearer to me. Paul Conner