Radiator question?

Question

In my car the radiator hose that runs from the engine to the radiator(upper), is very hot and flows with coolant. The hose that runs from the radiator to the engine (lower) is actually cold to the touch. I can feel coolant flowing through the upper one, that is when the engine is hot, but not through the lower one. However, when the engine is off and I squeeze on either hose the other one inflates , so I can assume the passage is clear.

My car runs fine, the temperature gauge reads in the middle after warming up, and stays there. I was just wondering because the other day my engine felt HOT, temperature read the same, but it was just plain hot to the touch, like even the oil cap was too hot for me to touch. I was running it for several hours before that, however.

Answer 1

the lower hose is cool because the coolant is just leaving the radiator. also after running for a long time the heat from the engine does transfer through all of the components the oil cap included. If your temp reads good you probably don't have a problem

Answer 2

you are describing a normal operating engine.after running an engine for some time it should be hot to the touch.upper hose will almost always be hotter than lower hose since coolant has passed through radiator before it is transfered through lower hose back into engine block.

Answer 3

The radiator is to take out heat from the coolant and send the coolant to the engine so the lower pipe of the radiator is always cooler than the upper pipe there is no prob with it.

Answer 4

I'll give you the short answer. It's supposed to work that way.
Your lower rad hose delivers cooler coolant to the engine. Your upper rad hose delivers hot coolant ( at the rate your thermostat allows it) to the rad to cool down. At any time your engine warms up, pressure increases. This is the law of physics.

Answer 5

It sounds to me like you just described a normally operating engine. On a typical engine the top hose may be as hot as 200 degrees as that is approximately the range of most thermostats theses days. If your gage reads in the normal range I wouldn't worry.

Answer 6

I have never seen such answers from "mechaniks?" If you don't know don't confuse the answer with false info. Radiators circulate from the BOTTOM ^ ^ ^ UP^ ^ ^. Where did anyone learn the opposite ?? Hot water rises so circulation goes up. The water pump is bolted to the engine so how could it possibly pump from the top down ?? I think you may have a broken impeller in your water pump. There were some plastic ones a few years back and they may be doing it again. You don't mention your vehicle info. so it's hard to tell.