Incognito

Coolant overflow bottle fills up and coolant temperature gauge on the dash eventually starts rising. Goes about 1/2 way, maybe 2/3rd way up. Will come down if heat is on. Brand new head gasket on the car, and all head studs are torqued correctly. Head and block are not warped. What could it be?? I can still boost, and the car makes good power. Plugs not wet, no oil in coolant, no coolant in oil. Plugs not wet. No coolant is lost (so if I had an empty overflow bottle, and it fills up after driving for a while, I can dump it back into the radiator and the radiator will fit back up to the top).

DLB1994

what radiator are u using stock civic one or what

Incognito

Fluidyne.

TurboInteg95

damn that sounds awfully like headgasket problems


[Modified by TurboInteg95, 9:10 AM 11/3/2001]

Etylorcen

What kind of fans are you guys using w/ your fluidyne radiator? I know you gotta put the fans on the other side of the radiator to fit w/ a turbo so they'll push instead of pull.

FAST94GSR

sounds like headgasket or something related to that. Sounds like you're getting some boost into your cooling system.

On a friend of mines Eclipse his head lifted just a little and the boost cut a nice passage to the coolant passages. He would constantly be blowing up radiator hoses, overflowing, and run hi temps like you. It ended up being a warped head.

I'd take the head off and check it out.
Have you taken it to a machine shop to double make sure the head isn't warped?

Incognito

I was thinking that it could be a warped head too, but it has a fresh deck on it, and also, like after the coolant overflow fills up, and say I park the car for a while, eventually all that comes into the overflow bottle will go back into the radiator. I was thinking maybe a weak cap, but I replaced it with another 16psi cam, and the same **** happened.

paulzy

iTrader: (1)

had the exact same problems.....it was a blown headgasket....

DLB1994

them head head studs can back out some time

98lude

when you have a blown gasket, do you just take the head off, and then replace the gasket or do you need to do others stufff as well? what normally causes head gasket to blow?

DLB1994

did u clean the head the block good before u put the headgasket on and spary some coper headgasket spary on the headgasket

Incognito

The head gasket is brand new (went in on Friday morning). Cleaned the head, the block, and sprayed the copper tacky stuff on it before slapping it together.

Just got back from bleeding the system again, and putting in a thing of Redline water wetter. It definitely kept the car running much cooler, and it seems to last longer until the coolant goes into the overflow bottle

Gonna either try another radiator cap (hopefully there will be a Fluidyne dealer at the Englishtown event tomorrow), or maybe swap in a stock Si radiator.

turbod97ex

You didn't say what the temp gauge reads. Where is it at? After you shut off the car, does the coolant go back into the radiator. Under normal operation, your coolant is supposed to go into the overflow bottle when the car gets hot, not overflowing the botlle or anything, but just raising the level in the bottle. When you shut the engine off and everything cools down, it goes back into the radiator.
At any rate, are you saying everything was working fine and you changed the head gasket and you are overheating? And you are sure you didn't block any water journals with the new gasket? A head gasket will fit sometimes but be on upside down and block a water journal, not sure on yours though.

Incognito

The water temp gauge is chillin at where it's supposed to be. After boosting for a while, it'll go up, to a max of maybe 2/3rd way up. By then, the coolant overflow bottle would be full and leaking out the top of it. After shutting off the car and letting it cool, the coolant eventually goes back into the radiator. I do know that coolant is supposed to go inand out of the overflow, but not this much. The head gasket is on correctly. Sure of that.

My car does have a blockguard in it. That might make the car run hotter, but shouldn't do the overflow thing, right?

turbod97ex

Back to the basic steps of troubleshooting it, 1. When was is working correctly last? and 2. What has changed in between then and now?
Not to beat the headgasket thing to death, but was it working right before you replaced it and now? If so, maybe there is something, other than the headgasket , that got put together incorrectly.

Incognito

once upon a time, the car ran good, but I had VTEC problems. It never had heating problems though. Coolant gauge went up a little bit and came back down, but that was it. One day I went to the track and the coolant gauge went well past 1/2. Afterwards, we replaced the head gasket on the car because the coolant kept overflowing into the overflow bottle, like a whole lot. I couldn't even make 1 1/4 mile pass without it shooting out. Turns out that the head studs came loose on the block. Pulled the head off, fixed the threads and put the head back on, with new head studs and new head gasket. Car boosted fine afterwards, but I got coolant in the overflow thing.

turbod97ex

A failing water pump will do EXACTLY what you are saying and so will a failing thermostat. It will cause you to overheat and could, in turn, cause a head gasket to blow. When was the last time you replaced the water pump? thermostat? I replace mine everytime I replace the timing belt because that is where it is hidden and because it doesn't cost that much. I have found many Honda water pumps to fail prematurely. Also, I would buy an OEM water pump if I were you.

Incognito

You know what, it might very well be the water pump. My block is a 1995 and it's the stock one. I'm sure it's got quite a few miles on it. I know the pump wasn't changed when we did the LS/VTEC. I know it's not the thermostat because I don't have one. We took it out.

I guess I'll do a water pump and see what happens.

greyzone

Im curious about that radiator cap, try a new one yet?

Block Guard, if installed correctly, will not cause overheating problems; if installed incorrectly it will reduce coolant flow and overheat.

And you really SHOULD be using a thermostat, its not gonna work properly without it. The water pump is one of the last things i would suspect.

Also, to eliminate it being headgasket related, fill the cylinders one at a time with pressurized air and see if you get bubbles in your coolant (give it about 4 minutes in each cylinder) If you get bubbles you still have headgasket problems, if no bubbles its definitely somehting else.


[Modified by greyzone, 10:03 AM 11/4/2001]

turbopanda

i'd say the main culprit is the radiator cap. i've had the same problem before, purchasing an aftermarket radiator cap (BLITZ) - it fit perfectly on my radiator (although it didn't depth wise, but I didn't know that at the time) - after 10-15 mins of driving, i'd have the same problems as you. I found another radiator cap which was made for my radiator, and all the water overflow/heating problems disappeared. strange huh?

greyzone

sometimes its really just that simple

turbod97ex

Yeah, but he says that he replaced the cap. Back to the water pump, I have seen SO many of these go out and it was always the very last thing that someone replaced, usually because of where it is and how much time it requires to replace it.
It might not be it and it then again it might. Try all the easy stuff first, which it looks like you have, then remember what I said. Your car is almost 8 years old and has the original water pump, think about it.
A water pump will fail in many ways, sometimes it just takes a big dump and starts spilling water all over the place, sometimes it starts weeping and leaks just a little bit, and sometimes it gets semi locked up and just doesn't cool as well. Look under the car and see if you see any small leaks coming from the front of the pump, with the car running, see if you can hear any squeaking from it.

DRAGLS

it's either your head gasket or you have a very
minor crack in one of the sleeves.

TurboIntegra

I was blowing coolant out the resovoir exactly like you. I had a brand new headgasket on a brand new car. I had the exact same problems as you.

It was my headgasket that had blown.

Incognito

Oh man, I really don't know what to do. I did replace the radiator cap. Not sure if it's the same depth as the radiator though. Should be, but I'm gonna double check that. I did compare the radiator caps with a friend's Fluidyne one, and the height is the same (top to bottom), so if his seals, mine should too.

I know the water pump is the original one on the motor, and the block is from a 1995 Integra LS. Even if that's not the problem, I think I'm gonna swap it out for a GSR one.

How do I do the leak down test with pressurized air? How many psi do I fill in the combustion chamber?

Any other ideas to what my problems might be?