Coolant System Problems

[Dawizman]

To begin, I have a '96 firebird with the 3.8l. This might be a long post, so I'll summarize it at the bottom.

Recently I have been having some major cooling system problems. December 28th I was driving back to work after lunch. Some guy in a civic tried to race me, so I had to show him whats-what. I downshifted to second and punched it. After my revs got up to about 5500 I reard a pop and there was steam pouring out behind me. I pulled the car over and got it towed home. That night I got under neath the car and discovered that it was my block heater that blew out the bottom of the block. I replaced it, refilled & bled the system then went to the carwash to get rid of the coolant so I wouldnt have to smell it burn.

On the way back from the carwash I start to smell coolant again about a block from my house. I look in the rearview and yet again, a lot of steam pouring out. I pull back into the garage and pop the hood. Turns out one of my heater core hoses popped off, well I think thats what its called. Theres two of them that come out the top of the engine of the front passenger side. Anyway, I put some RTV on the hose and popped it back on. I havnt had a problem since, untill today.

I was pulling out of my cousins apartment parking lot with my cousin in his stang right behind me. I lit up the tires and slid sideways out onto the street., making alot of smoke, or so I though. After a hundred feet or so I still saw smoke in my mirror and then I started to smell burning coolant again. I ripped a u-turn and we went back to the parking lot. I popped the hood and this time the other hose had popped off. So again, I applied some RTV sealant and put the hose back on, then filled & bled the system.

All this has got me worried now. Is there something seriously wrong with my cooling system? Everything else works perfect. The heat is working fine. T-stat is brand new & working, I tested it, but for good measure I replaced it tonight too. All the air is bled out of the system. I Let it get hot three times and after the second time, no air came out of the bleeder screw at all.

Anyway, what do you guys suggest I check?

Recap:

-December 28 I blew my block heater out of the block
-After replacing block heater I blew one of the heater hoses off of the engine (come out of the front passenger side of the engine near the top)
-Sealed it with rtv sealant & everything works great
-Today the other heater hose popped off the engine.
-Fixed it & replaced t-stat with one I tested.
-Block Heater & both hoses have come off during heavy acceleration
--Help!!

[78formula78]

my old crustang kept blowing hoses off too... but mine was because i had horrible vibration from the transmission(what can you expect from a crappy car?) but you didn't mention vibration troubles so unless you just didn't mention them i'd say sounds like i'd just replaces all the hoses that had blown and just think of it as bad luck.... unless for some reason your building way to much pressure in your cooling system?

[Dawizman]

my old crustang kept blowing hoses off too... but mine was because i had horrible vibration from the transmission(what can you expect from a crappy car?) but you didn't mention vibration troubles so unless you just didn't mention them i'd say sounds like i'd just replaces all the hoses that had blown and just think of it as bad luck.... unless for some reason your building way to much pressure in your cooling system?

Well, I'm kinda hoping that I've just been having bad luck. I'm not having any vibration problems at all. The only thing I'm scared of is what if I am building too much pressure for some reason?

Now that I think of it, when I bought the car, it had no t-stat in it at all. I wonder if they were trying to patch some serious problem, or if they were just trying to run the engine a bit cooler.