Why would it spit out coolant?

Bad cap. Test it or it's cheap enough to replace from the auto parts store. I believe it's 1.1 bar or 16 psi.

 

After my major, noticed spots of coolant on the garage floor...coming from the overflow hose. I guessed it was a tad overfilled. I also noticed the coolant was not all the way to the top in the reservoir. If yours was all the way up...I assume yours purged a lot more than mine. Running at a steady 190 all the time as far as coolant temp...a bit hotter with new manifolds installed. Not sure if that helped... that was my experience. No more drips tho. It seems to have found equilibrium.

 

If you replaced that cap and the tank empty's..

I would do a pressure check on the system to diagnose the problem, bring it back to the shop for them to look at it


Did they do head work?

 

Unfortunately there are only 2 things that will cause coolant to expel from the recovery tank in a "normal" engine: A bad cap or excessive pressure from too high temps. You say it's neither.

You should look into other things, like a bad head gasket which would cause excessive cooling system pressure. To start you can do a system pressure test with the same tools used to test the cap and see how that turns out.

 

You can do a sudo head gasket check

Take the rad cap off and start the car, let it warm up
If you see small bubble coming to the surface then you may have a HG issue

Bubbles will look similar in size to this

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh2zy3jaxJs]Head gasket leaking seen through Killerglass hose - YouTube[/ame]

 

I suspect it could be simply overfilled. The usual recommendation is to fill to 6cm below the top of the filler neck. But, I have found you may need to run a couple cm below that...maybe even 3 cm to reach a good point where it won't spit anything out. Just my observation with my own car...running a fresh cap and recent service.

Try letting it continue to puke out, until it stops, and leave it alone. As long as it doesn't overheat you are fine. Measure that point when cold, and that is your new level to keep it at.

 

Clyde. When I bought my car last year it had just had the major done and one of the things that bugged me was the persistent coolant drip on the floor.

I took the car to the tech check event at classic coach and they discovered and verified it with a pressure test , that the guy who did the major did not get the hose clamp on correctly in that it wasn't on and over the flange or whatever you call it on the fitting

Have someone do the pressure test and confirm ye or ne on this.

 

I had a small drip after my major and it was the hose clamps on the front of the motor to the firewall. I bought a pressure testing kit and found the problem. I just tightened the clamps and no more drips. I thought I had those clamps really tight but I had to really crank them down and that did the trick.

 

Best answer

 

Yeah, the correct "full" level is surprisingly low. Any attempt to go higher and it will just reset itself to 6cm below the top of the filler neck. I keep a wooden dowel in the car with a line marked on it, so I can verify (cold).

 

After a service air could be trapped somewhere like the water pump? Shouldn't you burp the coolant system. 308 are notorious for this as well.

 

Manual states that the coolant should not be allowed to fall below 6 to 8 cm below the cap. My coolant level, cold, is 2" deep or about 1/2" below the bottom of the filler neck and stable there. I imagine that different cars behave differently. For sure, the coolant level will find its level if over filled.

 

Having recently changed a rad hose on my 348 I had the exact same issue. It was boiling out the expansion tank overflow just running in the driveway. Doing a little research here on F-chat I opened up the "bleeder valve" on the steel cross-over coolant tubes allowing the trapped air from the system to escape (similar to bleeding brakes) Problem solved. JGW

 

If you have to keep adding coolant after every use then I'd suspect a coolant leak. I would remove the intake manifold trim panel and make sure all your hose clamps are tight. I had one clamp that was loose and weeping after my major. I could smell the coolant and found a loose clamp. Tightened it and everthing has been good since.

 

So Clyde, did you figure it out?

 

Exact same here as I posted above. MY gues as he just had a major done as well.

 

That is good news.