[alfa] Oil separator hose radiator damage

[Jon Pike <jhpike@xxxxxxx>]

Or..  how to seriously injure your radiator, without really trying..

Been a while since I've posted or read.  The 77 Spider has been running 
pretty well. One sunny Friday, I head off to work.  It was a great 
Spider day, so away I went in the Alfa..

As I was heading down the freeway, I heard a little unusual noise, just 
a quick thing,  then nothing, then again..  I pay close attention trying 
to hear thru the normal top down sea of sound..  and then I start 
smelling coolant....  Arrrgh!! 
I instantly go to neutral and coasting for 20-30 seconds to cool things 
before pulling over and shutting down.  Well,  no rise was seen on the 
temp gauge,  but boy the coolant is flowing out from somplace pretty 
fast..  As I look around,  its not any of the hoses..  and when I get 
the shroud off,  it's apparent that its the back of the radiator!

Longer story short..  the oil separator hose that runs across the bottom 
of the radiator support,  had been sucked up between the fan and 
radiator, basically beating the crap out of it!!  I had replaced it and 
left a fair amount of slack...  and that made this possible.  Even 
though I had it running under the bend over tabs, and they were bent 
down.. the excess slack enabled the hose to get pulled up into the 
fan.   Why now, as opposed to sometime earlier in the 3-4 months of 
driving I've done since getting her back on the road, is a good question. 
So, if you change this hose,  make sure you don't have excess length!  
You might want to check your's anyway,  it could be waiting to get 
sucked up when conditions are just right.

Side note..  while waiting for the AAA tow to a radiator store.. I had 
one guy stop by to help who "just got a Spider 3 months ago"  (truck was 
on the way, thanked him and told him about AROC and the Digest)
and another guy in a Duetto who was just about ready to pull a radiator 
out of his storage for me, and introduced me to a Alfa knowlegable 
mechanic in the area I didn't know about.  For a pretty rare car things 
were going pretty well with people coming out of the woodwork to help!

Jon and Marcia
77 Spider
Irvine, CA
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