OK, since I got my motor built (rods, pistons, darton sleeves, ARP studs, Cometic headgasket) I noticed that it would gradually lose coolant. I specifically remember this during the summer when I was breaking in the motor without the turbo and it was causing the car to go a little bit hot. Now, In the winter I noticed that my radiator (CR racing) was low on coolant all the way down to the ribs of the core. It had an issue over the summer where the overflow wouldnt drain but I aleviated that issue. The car is not burning anything, not smoky on start-up. No oil is in the coolant and vice versa. It runs 1300-1400 crusing on the highway BTW. I am heavily untuned and running really rich. I haven't done a compression test but what can I assume may be the issue? Please help!!!

 

Have you checked the raditor hoses......the clamps that connect the hoses....check for cracks......and check all the little things first........

 

Thats the kicker, they look fine and I have no leaks either.

 

Check your water pump..Could be leaking under boost

 

It was a brand new water pump when the motor was assembled. I will check it regardless.


Modified by Boosted Ego at 12:41 PM 12/30/2003

 

When I built my motor I used all new pumps and gaskets...Turned out I had the same problem of losing coolant and it was the waterpump gasket would leak under boost...

 

either waterpump or headgasket leaks under boost would be my guess!

 

Yea, thats what I thought too but it didit before the car was boosted.

 

I'm curious as to how the water pump or it's gasket would leak under boost?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sporkcrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm curious as to how the water pump or it's gasket would leak under boost?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Same here I just dont see how boost would make any difference unless headgasket was leaking.

 

if it's leaking all the time, it probably is the gasket.

What you could do is park the car over dry ground, and use a coolant pressure tester, and see if you find any coolant coming from somewhere.

 

Very likely it's your water pump. If you look closely at the water pump (when it's not installed) you'll notice there are two water galleys that allow coolant to escape when the bearing is going out. The worse the bearing gets, the more it will leak. You may or may not start to hear some scraping noises as that bearing goes out.
Genuine Honda waterpumps are the best and are pretty good at not going out, but autozone and checker parts are not as quality and can go out even if they are newer. Is the coolant directly under the pump? Do you find coolant on the timing belt cover? Those are just some things to check and hopefully that helps a little/

 

i bet you blew the HG from being too rich

 

Could be some of the coolant lines on the back of the IACV, water pipe on the back of the block. I had some on the back of the intake manifold leak only once in a while and when I took it off I noticed some cracks in the lines. Fixed it with new lines. Also it could leak into the oil form the sleeves and then when you drain it you might not be able to tell if its a small amount.

Drain the oil, put it in a large open container, cover it for a day. Go back and stir it up and see if its a little cloudy. Its happened before to me from aftermarket sleeves, it just leaked a little over time.

 

Yea this happened when the car wasn't boosted and running stock injectors. I serioulsy am giving up on the turbo thing, anyone interested in my stuff?

 

My sleeves leaked when I was running stock injectors and no boost as well...Sleeves with problems have problems sometimes without any boost on them