I recently bought a 98, and the guy said there was a 'hose not properly attached to the coolant reservoir'. The engine got close to overheating last night, so we got it home to take a look. There's definitely a coolant and oil leak, and upon better inspection we found a tube starting from the coolant reservoir that attached to...nothing. We can't firgure out where this damn thing attaches to, so I'm hoping you guys can help us figure this out. We're assuming it has to be a closed system...thanks guys!

 

is it by any chance your over flow tube?? it should have 2 tubes one that runs from you radiator to the res tank and the over flow tube that runs towards the ground. That way when it over heats its doesnt just spew coolant all over your engine/ bay. Hopefully that helps.

 

there should be a tank on the passenger side . it should say engine coolant on the cap or something like that . it hooks underneath that tank

 

It could be the overflow, but I don't think it could flow straight to the ground? The tube starts from the top of the reservoir tank...we'll have to take a look tonight to see if there's something underneath the tank that it conencts to

 

The line you are describing is the overflow tube which runs from the radiator, just below the radiator cap, over to the overflow reservoir.

As the engine heats up, the coolant expands and the system pressure increases. The radiator cap, if functioning properly, maintains the system pressure at 16psi. Excess coolant is pushed past the radiator cap during normal warm up of the engine and flows into the reservoir. Once the engine cools down, the coolant in the radiator/engine contracts and the radiator cap allows coolant from the reservoir to be pulled back into the radiator. This process repeats every warm up / cool down cycle.

The radiator cap plays a very important role in your cooling system. 16psi is required to keep the boiling point of the coolant sufficiently high enough that normal operating temperature will not result in a boil over. For water at 16psi, the boiling point would be ~250*F (100% water). If the pressure were to drop to atmospheric, the boiling point would be 212*F (100% water). Given that the localized heat inside the engine is higher than the thermostat regulating temperature (195*F), you can see where a problem may arise if the radiator cap were to fail to maintain pressure.

 

Could the lose tubing cause a leaking of fluid? The original owner was a Ford mechanic, and we suspect he put a new radiator in the way you'd put in a Ford radiator.

 

Yes it could. As I described above, fluid will push out of the radiator as the engine heats up if the radiator is properly filled with coolant. The lack of the hose could, over time, allow more an more air into the system which may result in an over heat condition as well.