turbotime

My head is lifting or my head bolts are stretching under boost, pressurizing the coolant system and dumping coolant back into the resevoir.

This ONLY happens in boost, if i stay out of boost everything is fine. No overheating, no smoke out the exhaust in or out of boost. Car runs fine, compression is good.

I plan on replacing the headgasket with an OEM (currently have a copper one) and getting ARP headstuds. Problem is I cant get the $$ for all that til next week.

If I keep driving on it in this condition am i risking serious damage? As long as i stay out of boost will i be ok?

Like I said, car drives like nothing is wrong, temp pegged steady at 1/2 mark...

thanks for input

turbotime

let me add- no oil in coolant, no coolant in oil....

mike1114

iTrader: (1)

its SHOULD be ok if you baby it, no boost and if you see your temp gauge go up you better pull over and let it cool down for a while!!

try not to drive as much as possible. have friends take you places or don't go.

as long as you don't put excessive pressue on it the seal should stay relatively good until next week.

turbotime

cool thanks, yeah i keep a hard eye on all my temp (coolant and oil) and try to drive as lil as possible.

I basically just use it to get to school and dont switch parking spaces once i get to school

turbotime

if my block is oringed can i still use an OEM headgasket?

Muckman

iTrader: (2)

yes

turbotime

bueno! thank you finally the answer i need, so if i get some arp studs and the oem HG i should be ready to rock

Civicman86

lol screw that my head lifter at one autocross. Drove it for 4 months and didnt have one problem (no mixing of oil/coolant anywhere). Finally had it happen again last week. Got off my *** and changed head studs and now she is golden.

mike1114

iTrader: (1)

I would still change the HG, use ARP bolts as you said and your good to go.

turbotime

just gotta get paid now

turbotime

ok lil update...

drove home from school- temps were fine as usual, stayed mostly out of boost.

Get home, park the car, pop the hood (car turbotimes for 2min). So while its timing down i open the radiator cap to see what happens- coolant starts gushing out. Yikes! Close the cap as fast as i can.

After the car stops running completely I open the radiator cap again and all the sudden i hear what sounds like bubbles in my coolant resevoir- coolant is no longer gushing out of the radiator..

Is coolant supposed to gush out while its running? I have a fluidybe 16lb rad cap and fluidyne race radiator (half).

Thanks just trying to see if this all points to the headgasket.

THANKS!

Phil Koury

Umm, well the coolant system is under pressure. If you take the rad cap off, you know the one that has the warning with the guy getting sprayed in the face and japanese writing all over it, it will most likely start spraying all over the place.

turbotime

right i expected some pressure i mean im not retarded lol. I just used a rag to open it and i was fine.

I mean the bubbling in the resevoir after the car stopped running, is that consistent with a headgasket leak?

*note*: it wasnt bubbling at all when i turned teh car off, it bubbled when i opened the rad cap after the car was off. I woudl liken it to when you stick a straw in water and blow in the straw.


Also how do you purge air from the coolant system in a bseries? I searched and searched but cant find any Bseries info. I thought you just started the engine from cold with the rad cap off and let the air bubble up? Is this wrong?

Civicman86

Yeah you just let the car get cold. Take off the cap and let it run until the fan kicks on.

turbotime

theres no bleeder bolt?

Phil Koury

I've never heard of their being a bleeder bolt. Just do it like civicman86 said.

dunkd

theres a bleeder bolt but its 10x easier to just bleed w/ the cap off.

just dont boost on the car and it will be fine.

turbotime

ok so i went to bleed it using the cap like you said.

Got a few bubbles, then it was just sitting still. Slowly the coolant level rose up the neck of the radiator, up up up, and slowly started dribbling out- no bubbles tho.. is this supposed to happen?

It started overflowing the radiator before the fan kicked on... i just capped it when it started overflowing...