XE Cooling system pressurising?

[Dave.]

Once the Nova's upto temperature and the fan cuts in, if you try and squeeze the rad hoses they are under a substantial amount of pressure, checked my water and theirs no oil getting through, checked my oil and theirs no water in there either, its fitted with a Bailey header tank if that makes any difference? Could it be the fact that one of my hoses (The one your supposed to t-piece in) is blocked off? Its popped the drivers front radiator hose and one of the matrix hoses in 2 weeks :(

[Iain]

It's supposed to pressurise, but be worth refitting the missing one for starters and double checking everything else is connected up correctly

Edit: Another idea is another header tank cap as I believe these are supposed to maintain the pressure?

[Dave.]

Will give that a go this afternoon, Had the cap off and blown through it, have to blow pretty hard before the valve in the cap opens, could be this?

[Adam]

The cap is what holds the pressure, it should vent open at a set pressure to act as a "relief" valve.

BTW your head gasket can go and you will have no oil/water mixing, it can go between cylinder and waterway which would pressure the coolant system.