Tomek

Three days ago I installed my turbo setup on my sohc(stock internals) and she's been running absolutely awesome other then this. I noticed that my coolant reservoir began to over flow wayy past the max mark and out of the reservoir. During hard driving the temps fall and it is only after it is idling or driving like a grandma around town when it begins to rise. They again begin to fall once I start boosting.
From my searching I saw that it can be a number of things.... bad thermostat, bad radiator, radiator fan not functioning, waterpump, and in the worst case the headgasket.

-Radiator fan does come on and does function properly.
-No visible cracks or leaks(other then the reservoir overflowing) from the radiator.
-no bubbles in the coolant inside the raiator when the car is running and the car isn't smoking but after a hard drive the coolant in the reservior begins to bubble
-thermostat I THINK is fine, top hose is hot and bottom one is cooler like it should be.
-waterpump im still unsure of since Im not clear on how to check it.

Today I completely bled and flushed the cooling system and took the car for a ride after. I filled the reservoir about halfway just to see if it would rise again significantly. I took it out for a good 10 minutes around town and drove it pretty hard for the first half of the trip while "grandma" driving the other half of the trip. Water temp needle was solid and definitely normal just like the car was before it was boosted even at red lights......until I started pulling into my driveway. Then the needle began to climb and kept climbing until the fan came on and began to cool it down after a few minutes.
I pop the hood to check the reservoir, its overflowing again.
What does this indicate??
....all I can come up with is that temps were fine until the reservoir began to fill and overflow, then they began to rise. Is that the waterpump causing this? or as much as I dont want it to be is it the headgasket?



Modified by AztecEJ at 8:10 PM 5/23/2003

norcalcrx

99% chance its the headgasket. Buy a set of headstuds and replace the headgasket and you will be good to go.

Tomek

Thanks
the more and more I read Im beginning to lean towards the headgasket as well. Now should I just run another stock one(d16z6) or would any of you recommend something else. Ive heard of people switching to y8 headgaskets....

D-Man

Dont use the Y8 headgasket.Its thinner,good for raisng the comp a little when going N/A but being boosted,noooo, being thinner makes it easier to blow out.Stay with the D16Z gasket.

FyReo3

Did you check your oil to see if it was milky?

Doesnt really sound like a headgasket to me. If it was, it would show signs: smoke, milky oil, bubbles at head and block.

D-Man

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FyReo3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> If it was, it would show signs: smoke, milky oil, bubbles at head and block.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not really,it could be a very small leak building up air/vapor pockets inside the engine,once it does that it pushes the coolant out into the overflow.

5thgencivic

My reservoir sometimes overflows on my sohc as well. I just ignore it My temp gauge never goes above half even when making pass after pass. Motor definitely drinks the coolant though.

norcalcrx

I hardly ever see milky oil or oil in the coolant with a blown headgasket. Most often it is coolant getting blown out of the overflow bottle by pressure from the cylinder leaking.

Tomek

I really appreciate all the input guys, you've been a great help

The oil is not milky from what I can see w/o actually doing an oil change, I checked the bottom of the oil cap and it was fine and the dipstick checked out fine as well.

I'll be running a compression test on it sunday night so that should "officially" tell me if its the hg. I'll keep you posted

5thgencivic

You should come out fine. I ran a compression test about 2 weeks ago and the numbers were good.

Tomek

UPDATE: Pulled the head yesterday and replaced the head gasket. There was a small leak in the head gasket indicated by a blinging #1 piston. Car runs great now(besides some exhaust leaks I need to take care of) the reservior doesnt overflow or even really fill up and the water temp stays normal.