65 Barracuda daily driver
I still didn't get a replacement radiator (long story), but I had planned a trip to San Francisco to visit friends and to watch the Bears play the 49ers (I was born in Chicago). I had just installed the new Vintage Air slimline A/C, heater & defrost unit (without hooking up the A/C). I bought brand new heater hoses that had a much thinner than wall than what I had, but had the same 5/8" I.D.. I pointed that out to the Autozone employee who shrugged and said that was the only one he had. I asked him, if he ever had a heater hose blow, but he shrugged again and so I left and installed it. On the drive up on a steep grade the car started getting a bit hot, but turning on the heater and slowing helped to bring it back down. I figured that too much coolant had come out of the old, leaking radiator to cool the engine efficiently. However, it happened again about 30 minutes outside of San Francisco and I turned on the heater and it was just blowing cold and the temperature didn't come down. So I pulled to the side of the freeway and when I walked to the front of the car there was coolant shooting through the grille... It looked like there was a hole in the radiator, but then I saw that brand new hose had a 3" long tear where the coolant was coming out, shooting through the radiator fins and grille. Luckily I had left the other hose long enough, so I could cut the torn part and switch them over and I also had enough water with me to fill the radiator back up. The whole thing only took about ten minutes and we were back on the road.
Also, I noticed that it's possibly not the rear end gears that are making noise, but the right rear ball bearing. However, I should address that better sooner than later. It's loud! Speaking of loud - the muffler (I believe it's a Magnaflow) is so loud at 70 mph, that you almost can't talk. Since I plan on going on a lot more road trips, I might have to go with a more stock one. Of course I had noticed that before, but when you're driving for 8 hours it's a different story...
I still didn't get a replacement radiator (long story), but I had planned a trip to San Francisco to visit friends and to watch the Bears play the 49ers (I was born in Chicago). I had just installed the new Vintage Air slimline A/C, heater & defrost unit (without hooking up the A/C). I bought brand new heater hoses that had a much thinner than wall than what I had, but had the same 5/8" I.D.. I pointed that out to the Autozone employee who shrugged and said that was the only one he had. I asked him, if he ever had a heater hose blow, but he shrugged again and so I left and installed it. On the drive up on a steep grade the car started getting a bit hot, but turning on the heater and slowing helped to bring it back down. I figured that too much coolant had come out of the old, leaking radiator to cool the engine efficiently. However, it happened again about 30 minutes outside of San Francisco and I turned on the heater and it was just blowing cold and the temperature didn't come down. So I pulled to the side of the freeway and when I walked to the front of the car there was coolant shooting through the grille... It looked like there was a hole in the radiator, but then I saw that brand new hose had a 3" long tear where the coolant was coming out, shooting through the radiator fins and grille. Luckily I had left the other hose long enough, so I could cut the torn part and switch them over and I also had enough water with me to fill the radiator back up. The whole thing only took about ten minutes and we were back on the road.
Also, I noticed that it's possibly not the rear end gears that are making noise, but the right rear ball bearing. However, I should address that better sooner than later. It's loud! Speaking of loud - the muffler (I believe it's a Magnaflow) is so loud at 70 mph, that you almost can't talk. Since I plan on going on a lot more road trips, I might have to go with a more stock one. Of course I had noticed that before, but when you're driving for 8 hours it's a different story...
