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steam coming from underneath hood


chisrod101
04-13-2006, 10:37 AM
i drive a 93 dodge ram van b250. So last night I was at a red light and my friend was next to me. I put the van in nuetral and tapped the gas pedal. Then engine reved and then there were three loud pops that came from the exhaust pipe. After that the light turned green I drove off and I noticed that when I hit the gas pedal it was like the engine was fighting me. It didnt want to accelerate and then the temp got hot and steam started coming from under the hood. Ive looked around and didnt see anything noticeable wrong. Any ideas to what could have happened.oh and my belts have been squeaking off and on the past couple of days, now they are squeaking loud. I smelled fluid in my hood and it smells like coolant.

stamar
04-13-2006, 02:06 PM
I think your brakes are bad

no just kidding

um well steam. coolant.. your coolant is leaking? ZOMG! maybe you should find out where its leaking from!!!!! zomg! A hose? :icon16:
check out the hose connection on top of the engine to the top of the radiator, the return hose i would guess its called.

It is the hose most likely to spontaneously die because its attached to a very hot peice of metal. i mean how much coolant is in the system now?

Sounds like it to me based on limited info. exhaust backfire culd have actually been coolant leaking from the top into the spark plug holes. Yes Im looking into my magic ball and i see coolant leaking from a hose
I mean squealing loud, sounds like water pump. is that where its leaking from? I mean i guess the water pump seizing could slow u down if it really doesnt want to turn um.... other belts arent turning? usually just leaks when it goes bad.

I mean u could have a blown head gasket ok, but then the steam is coming out of ur tailpipe like a fog machine.

Water leaks into the oil until compression stops. Ugly ugly scene goin on there. oil changes color to whitish....

chisrod101
04-16-2006, 02:30 PM
so here is what i have done so far. i changed out my thermostat, the hose from the thermostat to the radiator, radiator bypass hose, serpenine belt and the coolant temp sensor ( i broke it when putting in new heater hose), and of course the heater hose. alot of work, mostly because i was in there already so why not, but everything is ok now. it was a learning experience. thanks for your help. oh and my leak was coming from my heater hose. who knew that your "heater hose" could go bad even though your heater works fine. i didnt even know there was a heater hose.

stamar
04-16-2006, 05:04 PM
well what I dont understand is why you left any hoses?

So you have a new lower radiator hose, new heater hose ( that is very common, everyone knows about it youre mistaken) new bypass hose.... but you left the upper radiator hose on. The one I told you is the most likely to break with no warning. And you drained the whole system, refilled it and all that and theres that old hose there ( and its way easier to replace than the lower one or the bypass one.) Ok the heater hose breaks all the time. The reason some people such as yourself dont replace it until it does blow up is that pressure is not so great at that point to lose all the coolant at once, meaning youll get a break down like you had it leaks steam etc.... those other hoses going will leave you no coolant in seconds and a ruined car in about a minute.

Heres the trip, all that rubbber is the same age. Youll be amazed and how it all falls apart at the same time. I mean, like clockwork, like cosmic intervention. Hoses are made of alien material to fall apart on time, whether the car is running or not. They are magic. they fall apart.
So now youre gonna wait til it springs a leak and overheats? Maybe you might see the steam before your engine blows up on the freeway? Cool man, well next youll learn about removing the timing chain to take 2 heads off a v8 engine and machine shops and head gaskets and what not. Or youll learn about salvage yards and used car market sales, and of course the local bus service, youll learn about that too....

There is no luck involved with cars my friend. The fall apart on time, every time. If you had a toyota truck those same hoses would fall apart, just less often.
Hoses fall apart. They do not last. Are those hoses 13 years old? Ok well they were all supposed to explode about 5 years ago what a trip that they are still there. Send daimler chrysler a christmas card this year.

You need to buy the haynes manual for your car, and look at that little maintenance thing. And do everything on that chart, because everything in that chart will fall apart. I mean your car may reach 200k miles, but absolutely no maintenance related item will last 200k miles. They will all fall apart.

chisrod101
04-16-2006, 10:13 PM
well i appreciate the constructive criticism but i think maybe you missed something. the hose from the thermostat to the radiator is the upper radiator hose. i asked my dad for advice and he said to replace everything thats why i replaced more than just the heater hose. thanks for being concerned. my dad would have probably told me the same way so its cool.

stamar
04-17-2006, 12:08 AM
hey im sorry for the rude sounding part of my message.

I am glad if I have related anything to you to help you learn about cars.

I was a little disturbed by the question so I made fun of you a little.

one thing we do have in common is we have the same van.

another thing we have in common is a hose broke in the middle of driving and it overheated. I replaced all the hoses then just like you. Yours has one belt mine has 3 and Im not sure which would be a harder job actually.

Im glad you learned about this without destroying your van. Ive had mine about 6 years its got about 85k miles on it.

I love my van. I would not call it well built in the least though it has caused me many small problems all the time.
I have another car a geo metro that is so much better built its ridiculous.
In order for it to go the distance I have to be on it, in tune with it like a part of my body.

Its a machine. It is made to break down regularly in small ways to prevent it from breaking down in big ways. So as you get to know yours better you will know how its going to break down and when.

edit the hose from the top of the engine to the top of the radiator is the upper radiator hose. the hose from the bottom of the radiator to the thermostat is the lower radiator hose.
hot water goes from the top of the engine to the radiator, it cools down and in the bottom goes back to the engine. The hose on top is connected to a hot peice of metal and its hot water. It fails first most often. Although your heater hose is smaller and its holding hot water too that probably fails second most often. there are usually 3 i think heater hoses.
I would say the coolant hose that fails least is the bypass hose. In fact I cant think of any good reason why its a hose in the first place should be some pipe.
the thermostat stops the cold water from reaching the engine until it heats up. I had one of those go bad on me also. So its good youve got most all of that system tuned up.
truthfully the whole cooling system in a car is part of a design to get you to destroy your car and buy a new one. but thats a whole other topic lol. But fight the system, keep your car going until youre sick of it!

chisrod101
04-17-2006, 01:37 AM
wow you only have 85k on your van too. ive had my van for a little over 3 years going on 4 and i have 80k. the people i bought it from didnt ever drive it. its a custon van so they took really good care of it. luckily this is the first major problem i have had with my van. knock on wood. im in college so buying another vehicle would just suck right now. but the way gas prices are it might as well. i love the van though great for road trips and camping. i switched over to full synthetic oil to hopefully extend the life of the engine. not really sure if that is good for it or not because from what i hear it can be bad for some vehicles. but anyway thatnks for all the advice you have given me about symptoms and other things to look for. i have definelty learned alot through this experience. my dad is a van person so i hope to keep mine running as long as possible so maybe he will pass on one of his to me. keepin my fingers crossed.

stamar
04-18-2006, 12:59 AM
yes mine is a conversion also let me look for a picture

its an 89 and when i got it it had 58k miles. almost all freeway miles also. The orignal owner only drove it on the weekends to his fishing landing about 100 miles away towing his boat

I havent driven it a whole lot more than he did, but all of my miles are short trip miles so they are bad.

http://groups.msn.com/picturesandothersnot/roadtrip2004.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=40

Ive used mostly synthetic oil. I did some pretty serious maintenance since I got it before I moved, like I changed the transmission filter and gasket and syphoned all the old tranny fluid out ....
power steering fluid brake fluid.... antifreeze. well those are all the maintenance fluids I did them all about a year and a half ago. oh ya the rear differential fluid needs to be changed too, and also all the grease gun fittings in the front end.

your van is the next model up, mine has tbi injection yours has port injection but beyond that its the same.

Ya I hope this thing goes the distance

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