Hi all. I just wanted to see if this is normal or not. It has been happening for a while (since I noticed it) but I can't for the life of me remember if it always did it. The small hose entering the bottom of the expansion tank has pressure as you can see the coolant moving around in that area when the truck is on. Also, after a drive there are droplets of coolant on the top of the expansion tank (inside of it ..... I guess you would call it the ceiling of the tank rather than the roof). Anyway, what I am wondering is if I have exhaust gases getting in the system. I don't have any loss of coolant, overheating, rough riding or any of that so I figured I would ask you fine people about what is normal before I go spend $50 on the gas kit when I could be chasing ghosts. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Oh, and the hoses do feel a little hard but then again I don't know what normal is on that either.

 

That is not normal.

 

The circulation is normal, in that coolant returns to the tank from the throttle body. But you could have air that needs to be bled out, you could have exhaust gas being generated (a $50 ish chemical test changes color and confirms this), or the coolant cap could be not holding pressure when you are driving. You could zip tie a paper towel around the overflow line to confirm that (would have some coolant loss).

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm going to go out and buy a test kit just to be safe. Savannah, would the hoses get hard if the cap released pressure too quickly? Its just strange that I don't have any symptoms other than these visual ones. Hopefully its nothing. I will get back to you with what I find. I did have a problem with the cap a while back and replaced it so it is not original.

 

after testing for Co2 you should see if AB or someone has a hose kit for sale and a 180 t-stat.