The story begins a a bit over a year ago, my nc 5.0 was unregistered and when ever i needed it i just got a permit for it, at christmas 2008 my skyline s**t its self so i was driving the nc when the water pump started to leak, was only going to be driving it for a week so i just put chemiweld in it, it sat till the middle of last year when i drove it again for a week with no problems, start of december i decided to re reg it, chemiweld held up fine till a couple of weeks ago, i bought a new pump but couldnt get the fan off, this weekend i made the tool to do it and bought a 36mm spanner, all went well till i bled the cooling system via the manuals instructions, took it out on the freeway at 2000rpm, i had forgotten to turn the heater on so i did it not long after getting onto the freeway, not even 5 minutes into it and the low coolant light comes on, when i get back i noticed coolant pissing out, most running off the under tray so hard to spot where it was coming from but it was also behind the passenger headlight and up under the passenger guard, i let it cool down a little and then thought f**k it, ill just crack it and let the pressure vent then re fill it, nothing came out when i cracked it, when i turned it another notch it pushed the cap off and spewed what seemed to be all the water i had put in over everything, went for a good 5-10 seconds solid before it slowed down, waited 30 mins or so before filling it back up with cold water and drove it to a friends place for him to have a look at, about a 10 minute drive away, when i got there it had not lost a drop of water and no water was leaking, after it had cooled down we were looking at it and a mate squeazed the top rad hose and water spewed out of a crack in the passenger side of the rad, drove it home and even went to the supermarket on the way home and the water still hasnt dropped and the temps were fine.

Any ideas on what could be causing this problem, i dont want to get another rad and have it split that one too, apparently permatex make a repair kit for plastic rads so i will use that till im sure the problem is solved, soory for the long post but i know the more detail you give the better answers you get.

The plastic end tanks get brittle over time, and eventually crack up & leak. You could look at just changing the end tank for a good one, a radiator joint should be able to supply & fit one pretty cheaply, otherwise a new radiator is only about $170, which isn't too bad. I paid over $300 for a new radiator for my torry only a couple of years ago, and a new radiator for my mighty boy is $350.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

ur lucky you dont own a 4.2 Diesel Patrol... we paid nearly 600 bucks for a new core, not a whole radiator, just the core.

It's probably as expensive as a mighty boy radiator when you compare how much radiator size you get for your $$$

W0rp3D -> how did you go with the radiator joints? Can they put a new tank on your radiator?

Cheers

ToranaGuy

Glueing it isnt going to do anything, as it will continue to crack down the seam in the end tank.
Unless you glue the whole seam, by which point it would have been cheaper and easier to buy a new tank.

I just put a new rad on my df,
Same reason, side tank split, got my rad for 160, I shoulda got an alloy one...

Havnt done anything about it yet, drove it to work this morning and it over heated as i got to work, was leaving at 5pm after 13 hrs work and in 35degree heat and couldnt be bothered ending up being one of those ppl you see on the side of the road with the bonnet up so i left it at work and got a lift home.

My main problem tho is the water spewing out the radiator, i know i have to replace the radiator but i just want to make sure there is no other problem that is going to f**k the new rad as well.