I sold my 96se to a friend and he just emailed me this:
Any clues on what the source of the problem is?

 

You sold your friend a lemon?

I find it hard to believe that he went through 3 radiator and each one is leaking. How does he know the mechanic actually changed it? Also I don't know how the radiator can bulg when it is made of metal. Find another mechanic.

 

stuck thermostat. or....... that "liquid" he put in could be building up behind the termostat creating a clog. in either case however, they must be some extremely cheap radiators to burst under pressure. a hose is supposed to go before a rad.

 

Sounds like a typical case of a blown head gasket.

 

Forgive my ignance but why would a leaky head gasket cause the radiator to break?

 

it wouldnt. but i decided not to comment on that. not without the coolant leakin into the manifold first and causing the car to overheat.

 

The top of the radiator is plastic. Leaking at the seams is common on radiators that have seen a lot of service, but to have three go out is a little unusual. I may be way off, but it seems to me that radiators are being replaced, but the cooling SYSTEM is not being completely flushed. So, I'd replace the radiator and make SURE the system is COMPLETELY flushed then see where you are.
Here some pics of my radiator leak before I replaced it:
http://target.new.photos.yahoo.com/s...04112343698/74
http://target.new.photos.yahoo.com/s...04112343802/75

 

But that is a crack not a bulge. If anything the radiator hose will bulge before any plastic or metal. I'm just trying to tell the other guy that when the mechanic made the statement that the top of the radiator seems to bulge because of too much pressure it seems kind of suspect.

 

That's my point. The plastic at the top of the rad is pretty thick, and bulging is not something that it should be doing unless it got real soft. So either the mechanic's description is incorrect, or the rad purchased are just really poor quality.

 

BTW, the plastic on the radiator ends is PVC plastic. If heated a lot it will snap open, it won't bulge.

 

A leaky head gasket can allow combustion chamber gasses to enter the cooling system, depending on where the gasket has failed. Cooling system pressure is around 0-18PSI while combustion chamber is quite a bit higher to say the least. As the gasses slowly leak into the cooling system pressure builds up, a lot of it as well. The radiator cap will allow it to escape into the coolant reserve tank, but even still the system is constantly under a lot of pressure and components fail because it's not designed work like that. If indeed his head gasket has failed and the cooling sytem is constantly under pressre, his radiator hoses will be hard as a rock when the engine is running regardless of engine temp.
Thats usually a good sign of a blow head gasket.

 

Not true. If the cooling system isn't pressurized and the hoses are not hard, meaning there is loss in pressure cooling would be insufficient. The hardness of the hoses is actually a measure of the pressurized system and in no way an indication of blown gasket. The only way to determine a gasket issue is running diagnostics and a simpler way with an oil analysis. It is my opinion that hose hardness isn't an indication of gasket issues, on the contrary the closed loop system is not loosing pressure.