Last night I installed a radiator, T-stat and silicone hoses. Went out for a test drive and the upper hose popped off under hard acceleration. Coolant leaking out, engine proceeded to overheat, so I shut the car off. Now with hose back on and coolant topped off, the engine will not start.

Anyone have any suggestions or experience with this?

 

Hmmm.. How hot did it get? How long were you driving before realizing it? Granted if the car was warmed up it would have been obvious when the hose popped off if some coolant splashed on anything hot resulting in white smoke. Tempurate is an archenemy for engines... if you continued to drive any distance it would be easy to blow a head gasket/warp your head. Hoping that isn't the case.

 

I putted another 2 miles and turned off as soon as I got the overheat light.

 

Hopefully some others will chime in... I would recommend giving AMS(given you have their engine) a call tomorrow and explain to them what happened and ask them what is the best way to narrow it down.

 

I would go ahead and yank out the plugs and see if anything is out of the ordinary(like coolant). I know you said it won't start... did it crank when you attempted?

 

Yes, it still cranks. Will check the plugs tomorrow. Thanks Chris!

 

Also look at your oil to see if it looks normal.

 

There may be an issue with that, or coincidence, but I wont speculate. From my experience, you got an overheat light because the cooling system was just steam at that point and your gauge spiked. What you really need to be concerned about is oil temperature.
Try to blow any water out of electrical connectors and off the engine and try to restart it. You may have got coolant where it didnt need to be in the harness.
And yes its a good idea to call AMS and see what they want you to check.

 

Good idea on the connectors since coolant was everywhere. Hopefully its a small thing like that! Could be.

 

I've got coolant in the combustion chamber. Spark plugs are wet and coolant coming out of the exhaust. Not sure where it's entering. Intake mani and TB are dry. Calling AMS tomorrow.

 

That sucks to hear that, hope AMS can give you a quick answer! Did one of your clamps break on your hose? Just wondering how it popped off bc I am thinking of replacing all hoses as well?

 

My clamps did not break, one of the ends just popped off during accel with the clamp on and all.

 

AMS said the head gaskets usually fail during an overheat situation. So I've printed out Hollywood's how to and am currently in the process of replacing all the engine gaskets.