Burst radiator

[cjarcher]

Hi all, I just bought a very nice '85 Wagoneer. Drove it home about 150 miles, all was good. Stopped and as soon as I turned it off the radiator burst. Toward the top of the radiator, the part that holds the cap separated from the finned part. It burst pretty violently and spewed a lot of coolant. Any idea what caused this? Coolant temp was low until about 5 minutes before I shut it down, the temp started to creep up. I am thinking when I shut it down, the fan stopped cooling and this is what pushed it over the edge. Any ideas as to why radiator would burst without he cap bursting first?

[wiley-moeracing]

crappy old radiator, poorly soldered seems, radiator cap not working, a lot of things could cause this, just replace the radiator and hose and water pump, thermostat while your in there, save you from doing it all later.

[cjarcher]

Thanks for your advice Wiley. I will replace the radiator. The previous owner had re-cored the radiator and replaced the water pump, although this was 14 years ago. The coolant looked very fresh. I suppose now that the radiator has exploded, it will have to be replaced.

[wiley-moeracing]

make sure to do the other stuff while in there, piece of mind more than anything, no one likes being broke down.

[threepiece]

Although I havn't seen one, I would also check for a defective cap. If something is preventing the release of pressure in the cap the pressure will go out somewhere else.

[Mr Carts]

This is exactly why I run a zero pressure radiator cap on my Cherokee.