ryanstev

I went on a trip yesterday of around 500 miles. At the 100 mile mark, the coolant tube that goes from the top of my engine to my heater core burst.

I didn't notice until I was stopped at an intersection, behind a truck and saw the steam coming from his exhaust, I took a closer look and thought, "hmm, looks like it's coming out of my bonnet", looked at my temp gauge, it's off the chart.

I got off the road and the engine almost stalled. I popped the bonnet, and steam was hissing out the tube.
I cut the tube and rejoined it (was lucky it was about an inch from the end, so I had room to do that) and when I refilled the cooling system with water it drove off with no problems.
I drove the other 150 mile to get to my destination with no problems.
Then today I drove back, another 250 miles with no trouble.

When I got home I parked and about 30 minutes later went out to get some wood for the fire (it's Winter in NZ) and my idle was jumping up and down.
I revved my engine and it went up to 2500rpm (that's what I tried to rev it to) then when it went down it almost stalled.
I did it again and that time it did stall. I restarted it, tried it again and it stalled again.
I restarted, then went for a drive and revved it to 5000rpm, no trouble.

Got to the gas station for some wood, parked it, revved it, it acted normal.
When I got back in the car, I started it, revved it and it went up to 2500rpm, then stalled.
Started it again, drove off, revved to 6,000rpm, no trouble.

When I got home again I revved it, it acted normal, I turned my engine off.
I restarted my engine straight away, revved it, still acted normal.

That's all I've done today.


When my engine overheated, I checked the oil, it smelled burnt, but was still at the full level, I refilled my radiator all the way and the temp gauge didn't go over 1/2 way after that.
I'm getting a service tomorrow, to flush out the burnt oil and I'll add some antifreeze to the radiator while I'm at it.

As for my engine stalling, I have no idea what could be causing that.
Any ideas?

ryanstev

It's a B20A engine, 12 valve SOHC. Pennzoil fully synthetic oil, it's due for it's service anyway, so the oil is old. (5000km/3125miles)

ion_four

Sorry to hear about the prob and this is totally unrelated...but, does the JDM lude have fixed (not flip-up) headlights for that era? If so, that is HOT! Do you have any pics?

ryanstev

I have the Inx version, it has the non flip up lights as you can see.
Non Inx versions have flip up lights like the ones you'd have seen.

servion

I fluctuating idle will be cause my low coolant... add more coolant, and make sure to pump (squeeze) the lower radiator hose while you're adding it to cycle it into the motor and coolant lines.... that should probably do it

trbob16a

start and idle the car up to operating temperature with the radiator cap off or cracked open to let air out of hte system from when you refilled..

Behan

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by trbob16a &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">start and idle the car up to operating temperature with the radiator cap off or cracked open to let air out of hte system from when you refilled..</TD></TR></TABLE>

agreed. also there may be a bleeder screw on your thermostat housing. crack it until you have a good flow of coolant, no air.

ryanstev

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by trbob16a &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">start and idle the car up to operating temperature with the radiator cap off or cracked open to let air out of hte system from when you refilled..</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's what I did, I filled the radiator, left the cap off, started the engine and refilled until the level didn't drop anymore.

I've just come back from having the oil changed, stalled 3 times when I revved in park. It was fine driving home though.

I think it's the spark plugs, as the temp gauge is where it's always been (just under 1/2) and the car runs ok when you're driving, just not at idle when you first start it up.

Behan

air in the coolant system can cause an erratic idle. just make sure all the air is out.

ryanstev

The new plugs didn't help, so I'll try the air in the coolant system approach.

I've never heard anything like that before and don't understand how it would affect my idle, is the bi-metal choke flexing as hot coolant, then cooler air goes over it?

ryanstev

I started it up, let it warm up with the radiator cap off, no bubbles were showing up and the level didn't drop off.
Squeezed the tubes, no bubbles came out.

I did some reading off of Google and another possibility is that I've blown the head gasket.
I'll look into that tomorrow, getting my girlfriend to look at the exhaust when I rev it and see what colour the gases are.
My coolant level is a pain in the *** to check, since my reservoir has a flexible plastic dip stick, so it's hard to see if the level changes much. I'll probably have to check it in a week's time to see if the level changes.

Lord Quaalard

Sounds like you dodged a bullet.

trbob16a

it definitely could be a headgasket, but first when you do the idle with cap off thing, make sure you let it idle long enough to heat up and have your fan to kick on

the whole thermostat/headgasket/coolant thing is one where anyone of them failing can cause others to fail, so just make sure you have the easy thing (air in system) eliminated as a possibility before pulling the head