turbo 6 bangers post here

Bill Dedman said

I have a 1993 Dakota 318/518. I pulled in to a Long John Silver's fish eatery last week to feed my face.

As I was walking away from the truck, I heard what sounded like steam escaping. I looked back at the truck just in time to see all my coolant splashed onto the ground in one fell swoop. It came from the engine compartment.... all at one time! Ten quarts!!!

Turned out, the radiator's top tank (plastic) an OEM piece, had literally exploded from the cooling system internal pressure (had 215,000-miles on it!) It completely blew the top radiator hos connector off the top tank. There was nothing left to put a hose on. There was also a crack that ran from the hose-connector toward the passenger side. More in next note...

Click to expand...

My computer was screwing up writing that note... hadda get into a different blank page.... sorry!

Anyway, as luck would have it, there was an auto parts store directly across the street, so I walked over there. THEY HAD A NEW RADIATOR Exactly like the one I just blew up!!!! I bought 2 gallons of anti-freeze and installed the whole mess.... only 2 bolts hold the fan shroud to the radiator and 2 bolts hold the radiator in! The two transmission cooler lines are easy-access on the bottom, and I had replaced the main hoses recently, so it was an extremely easy swap-out!

But, the point I wanted to make was that the top tank being plastic was probably responsible for the whole shebang.

I have never seen one blow up like that... Keep a good watch on it, Aaron!

And, congratulations on getting it running so well!!! I can't wait to see how it runs with more boost!!! Ours reallly leaves hard with 3,000rpm stall and 10 pounds of boost! Feels like about a 1.70 60-foot time, or thewreabouts.

More later...