While on this evening's commute, my radiator blew out at the core (i think) because the coolant was passing through the e-fan. I suspect the "blow" may have been caused by failure of the cap 16lb pressure-relief function. I should've replaced it when I had a new one in my hands at the AP a couple months ago (shoulda-coulda-woulda...too late now). The heater core was already temporarily by-passed about ten days ago with a plan to do heater & A/C evap cores early next month.


What are the odds for collateral damage? Should I be concerned about the water pump, t-stat, cylinder head and/or gasket at this stage of the game (all original on 178K miles)?

 

Kinda depends on how hot the motor got before/after coolant loss.

 

I was afraid you'd say that.

Gawd I hate "it depends"...

 

How old is the cooling system?........go from there.

 

178K miles but was reasonably well maintained with annual flushes. Lost my heater core recently (and A/C evaporator core well before that) over the course of this past summer so the heater was/is by-passed.

I went "all-in" and replaced water pump and t-stat while doing radiator and hoses too. The original t-stat housing won't seal to the block now due to an imperfect casting in the lower right section (thin outer wall with pitted surface at temp sender cavity). By some miracle it never leaked in all these years (factoid: original t-stat and I'm the original owner too) so I'm stymied over that.

It's Sunday morning and I just got lucky. I found a new housing and gasket on the shelf at an autopart chain store in Allston - a few towns away - $14.99 - a pal of mine is getting it for me now while I'm going to drain-down a little and disassemble the fubard t-stat housing and clean-up the block's gasket surface again.

Wifey's getting sick of my constant need to repair - nearly every weekend this year so-far. I think it's time to look at new cars and commit to paying out my life's earnings or else. Too bad because it runs like a champ and really is a great sporting driver for a semi-stock XJ. Offers?