hose clamp ?

[tberk at sbcglobal.net (T Berk)]

Dan Smith wrote:

> How much can I clamp down on my coolant hose? 
> I am 99% sure the clamp is fully on the radiator 
> part and I've tightened it down as much as I can 
> with a screwdriver. It still seems to be leaking 
> though. This is the lower radiator hose on my 8v. 
> Can I break out the socket wrench and really 
> squeeze that sucker or will it cut the hose? 
> It's a fairly wide clamp, between 1/2 and 1/4". 
> I may just have a crack in the plastic part of the 
> radiator, I did flush out some Stop Leak crap, 
> may have to put it back in.
>  
> TIA,
> Dan
>  


You shouldn't clamp down very hard at all.

You might pull the hose and verify it isn't all craped out on the 
inside sealing surface.

Also, on metal pipes, the accumulations make for uneven sealing.

It's possible the plastic outlet of the Rad _is_ cracked after all. 
Cranking harder won't help.

Q) Are you running the Orange phosphate free coolant? It seems to like 
to leak out and crust up around the fittings.

Might be a good time to get a new lower hose, also- if the system is 
getting more than 15 psi (due to head gasket trouble fer example) the 
coolant system will leak from the weakest link.


hth,
TBerk