My guess at this point is that the pressure cap did not open per
specifications.  My mechanic had put a new hose (water pump to valve next to
expansion tank) on the previous week.  I was getting some minor leaks at
some of the hose connections.  I had also mentioned to him, that he was not
always filling the system with enough coolant after he worked on cooling
system.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: Blue Eyes <lvlearn@MCI2000.com>
To: jhlauterbach <jhlauterbach@EMAIL.MSN.COM>
Date: Tuesday, November 17, 1998 12:32 AM
Subject: Re: REPAIR SAFETY - COOLANT LEVEL SENSOR (LONG)

>Fun speculation
>
>Frightening story John.  Let me ask you to speculate about how that coolant
>was propelled out after the rupture.  We know that water in liquid form is
>comparatively incompressible.  So to me it appears that you had pressurized
>gas inducing a hydraulic load on your liquid coolant after the rupture.
>
>The first potential source seems obvious:  You may have had trapped gas in
>your coolant system before the breach.
>
>But there's another odd-ball potential source.  Let's assume that due to
the
>pressure of your coolant system, some of that coolant was heated to a
>temperature well beyond the boiling point for liquid if it were
>depressurized.  We know the dependent relationship between boiling
temperature
>and pressure, so rapid depressurization could induce boiling and thereby
>induce the hydraulic pressure induced coolant blast you experienced.
>
>So, what do you think caused the compressible gas to be present to give it
>that movement?
>
>John
>
>
>