Radiator tank separation....

[2.3l4banger]

Okay... I live in Phoenix and yesterday i was on the freeway (i had checked the all of the fluids the day before and all was good, including my oil pan fix from a few weeks ago.) And my temp gauge went up and so I pulled over and the temp went back down and there was no fluid on the ground.... Started going after about 10 Min and started going again the temp went back up with the speed and rpm's... Got it into a parking lot and opened the hood and it was hissing from the top of the passenger side of the radiator, i could see a few of the metal tabs bent out and the plastic tank kind of pushed out a little bit... And the reservoir was empty...
Let her cool down and filled it back up with water and started it, the fluid level went down as if filled up, then it got up to temp it started overflowing...
The level stopped going up and going down after a while then I put the cap back on, not very tight at all just enough to barely feel it to get tight...
This radiator is only about 8 months old same with the water pump and everything is always checked over constantly...
Any ideas where this pressure came from????

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[Snoranger]

The only things that create pressure in the cooling system are temperature and the fact that its sealed. The rad cap should be the only pressure release point. You either have a bad cap or it was a bad rad that couldn't take the pressure.

 

[2.3l4banger]

Ok, that makes me feel a little better.
Thank you.

Could it be a head gasket?
Didn't see water in the oil or oil in coolant.
Again thank you.

 

[doorgunner]

Warm up the engine test the compression & leak-down time of each cylinder to see if a headgasket might be bad also.