Mjalaly

I took the car out the other day and it was running hot. Pretty much after I drive it for a bit the temp slowly rises and it doesn't come down. This didn't happen before and the only thing that has changed is the engine... which is a big change i know. If i remember correctly the temp would stay around 185° constantly.

If you are not familiar with my setup, b16turbo engine in the back of the car and radiator in the front (custom). Fan is hardwired to a switch that i can turn on. I can measure the temp at the radiator (koso gauge) and at the engine through the S300. No heat exchanger for a heater.

So I decided to do some garage testing. I ended up changing the thermostat, draining the entire system and vacuum refilling (which wasnt perfect). The thermostat decided to open only after i put the pressure cap back on and gave the car a bit of gas. I had to put the cap on because the coolant was expanding out the expansion tank before the thermo even opened. You can see in the pics the differences in the radiator temp (koso gauge cluster) and the engine temp (tablet)
After giving her some gas, the radiator temp went up to 198 and the ect went to 213°. The fan really didn't bring it down.

So yesterday I figured that there was air still in the system so i drain the whole thing again.
Here is what I did:

With the rear of the car elevated, i filled the system, slowly, until the coolant came out of the radiator temp sensor port at the top. Plugged that, then I continued to fill the system until it wouldn't take anymore. I pumped the upper coolant hose at the head to get more air out then started up the car.

after start up the temp on the radiator said 93° and the engine temp started climbing. i kept pumping the hose as much as possible to get more air out but then i ran into the same issue. The coolant kept expanding out of the fill tank before the thermostat even opened. Finally i had to put the cap on and rev the engine before it the thermo would even open. That was at 203°.

so i continued but with the pressure cap on since there was no way to remove it now that the thermostat was open. At this point the engine was around 203° and the radiator was around 185. With the fan on the radiator temp would come down slowly but never the engine temp. If I reved the engine for a bit, the radiator temp would go up and the engine would go up a few deg. When I let go, the radiator temp would start to fall but the engine temp would stay the same. Did the same thing again and the engine temp went up a few deg again. Pretty much i could rev the engine so that the radiator temp would read 200°+ and the engine temp stayed at 208°

I am lost at this point.

What i am concerned with at this point is that the engine is creating more heat internally for some reason from too much friction. I have not tried to drive it since i have noticed this so i don't know how it behaves on the road apart from it overheating/running hot the other day.

I plan on replacing the fan , the ECT sensor and the thermostat with a factory honda one (just for the hell of it) later today. I am stuck. heat soak??? Any thoughts?

boosted94gsr

You should invest in one of these funnels, it make getting all the air out of the system easy. Also only run oem thermostats, I've heard nothing but problems with parts store thermostats. Hopefully it's just something simple like a thermostat and it's not a compromised head gasket.

Mjalaly

yeah im pretty sure its not a head gasket and yes i do need one of those funnels. They are called Lysle funnels

Mjalaly

maybe i have some coolant hoses routed wrong? I set up is a bit different but not tooooo different.