93 civic si
built b18b turbo

new water pump, oil pump, new thermostat, new PWR radiator

when i sit still it tends to overheat...what seems to happen is the fan will turn on when it wants to. i checked the relay it was bad so i switched it out and it worked fine til now. when it DOES overheat the fan isnt on. my upper radiator hose hard as hell and i have coolant sizzling out of the top of the radiator. but then sometimes the fan WILL turn on and it stil overheats. no leaks from headgasket, no oil in coolant .

 

first thing is to make the fan turn on when it's suppose to. then make sure there are NO coolant leaks from any hoses etc...

here's a good quote from mike1114:

"Common over heat problems

T-Stat---usually it is because of this piece of **** that you overheat.
Bubbles in cooling system. 2nd biggest reason, you didn't bleed enough, you have to leave the car idling for like a half hour to get all the bubbles out with the heater on.
Rad Cap is bad--wont hold pressure.
Leaking coolant somewhere---this can happen only at WOT and not at idle so its hard to find sometimes.
Make sure you fan is coming on. I wired mine to stay on always when car is on.
Worst case scenario is headgasket is leaking exhaust gas into coolant system. You can sometimes see this if you look in your rad resevior and see bubbles coming up."

good luck!

 

awesome!! I was gonna copy and paste my info above but turbosi03 got to it before me.

Seriously, it is almost ALWAYS one of the things I listed. I've had many cooling probs over the years living in fla, it gets hot here so I've dealt with quite a few of the gremlins.

 

Worst case scenario is headgasket is leaking exhaust gas into coolant system. You can sometimes see this if you look in your rad resevior and see bubbles coming up."

WHAT IF IT BUBBLES ON THE OVERFLOW COOLANT TANK?

 

Thats what he means by reservoir=overflow.

 

DOES THE OVERHEATING ONLY HAPPPENS ALL THE TIME. WILL THE OIL LEVEL BE OIL IF LEAKING HEADGASKET

 

if the fan is not running, check wiring, replace temp sensor, and reccheck fan relay (if u used a used one could be bad)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pnoytegn707 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">DOES THE OVERHEATING ONLY HAPPPENS ALL THE TIME. WILL THE OIL LEVEL BE OIL IF LEAKING HEADGASKET</TD></TR></TABLE>

nope, if I understand what your saying correctly, what can happen if its the head gasket is the pressure from the cylinder gas pushes into the coolant chamber when on the exhaust stroke... since there's only 15psi or whatever your radiator cap is set for there's no coolant leaking into the cylinders because not enough pressure to go that way... in this case the gasket can still be sealed for the oil passages so there wont be any oil mixing symptoms. and it wont always overheat, thats just a nice touch to keep you wondering whats going on...

if you think it could be your head gasket, go to a local radiator shop and have them test your coolant system for hydro carbons. basically, that tells you if any carbon dioxide (exhaust gas) got into your coolant. if so then its you HG

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mike1114 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">awesome!! I was gonna copy and paste my info above but turbosi03 got to it before me.

Seriously, it is almost ALWAYS one of the things I listed. I've had many cooling probs over the years living in fla, it gets hot here so I've dealt with quite a few of the gremlins.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah man, I said on that other thread it was good info . I came to the same conclusions while I chased all my coolant issues. but I don't need to live in FL to have these issues, I just have bad car luck

 

This is some good information. On my last dyno session I made (2) 600hp pulls, and both times my overflow resevoir filled up with collant. When we backed it down to 580 the car ran fine.

Next day I'm out doing some part throttle tuning, and my car begins to overheat after making multiple full throttle passes.

1. It's either my HP cometic headgasket that everyone tells me is garbage or...
2. I have an air bubble in the cooling system. Which could have been created from when I got my gt35r and ran the coolant lines. I didn't bleed the system.

So... I'm leaning towards it being a bubble in the system from not bleeding the cooling system. Yesterday I flushed the system replaced the thermostat, running water wetter, water and this time made sure to bleed the system. I hope that was my issue, but after reading some posts above about exhaust gas pushing the coolant out I'm worried again about the headgasket.

What do you guys think??? Sorry for the long reply...

 

^ your head is lifting, just torque your head studs down more...how many lbs did you torque them too?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by H-T &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">^ your head is lifting, just torque your head studs down more...how many lbs did you torque them too?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I believe it was 72 ft lbs. Per the instructions of Golden Eagle. My buddy suggested what you were saying. Also he said to use 2 different torque wrenches just to make sure it's correct.

 

dont know if anyone else has said it but . if your over flow is constantly filling up. its your head gasket! when my headgasket went out it started doing that and only did it when i was at a stop but when i was moving it wouldnt over heat. it may not be leaking out water but you are pressurizing the cooling system

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boostedej1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">dont know if anyone else has said it but . if your over flow is constantly filling up. its your head gasket! when my headgasket went out it started doing that and only did it when i was at a stop but when i was moving it wouldnt over heat. it may not be leaking out water but you are pressurizing the cooling system </TD></TR></TABLE>

It's not doing it constantly... but I did order another head gasket just incase I have to change it. OEM this time.

 

replace the cooling fan thermo-switch. located on the thermostat housing.

 

jump that fan to run constantly

 

the radiator cap one i think is the one that is the problem. there is always mad coolant sizziling out when it is doing this. i have a PWR half size radiaor and i can see that the cap sux....anybody know what other cap would work on this as the stock one wont fit on...

 

did you bleed the system? the simplistic thing as bleeding and getting all the air out of the system could be the culprit.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Midwest Auto Salon &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the radiator cap one i think is the one that is the problem. there is always mad coolant sizziling out when it is doing this. i have a PWR half size radiaor and i can see that the cap sux....anybody know what other cap would work on this as the stock one wont fit on...</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think a stock 1993 rx-7 radiator cap will fit. Don't quote me on that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TurboChrgd_Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">On my last dyno session I made (2) 600hp pulls, and both times my overflow resevoir filled up with collant. When we backed it down to 580 the car ran fine.

1. It's either my HP cometic headgasket that everyone tells me is garbage or...
2. I have an air bubble in the cooling system. Which could have been created from when I got my gt35r and ran the coolant lines. I didn't bleed the system.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah I put my bet on the head lifting. try re-torque head studs first (of course after you see the results of your flush, water wetter, etc..), then if you still have this issue then probably have to change the head gasket.

you most likely have head lifting issues...
I say this because:
1. 600hp civic (I'm jealous)... you say this only happens running REALLY hard
2. I'm just jealous of the GT35R


seriously, let us know the outcome of your first fix attempt

midwest auto salon: also try running with the T-stat taken out

 

I'm going to re-torque the head down tonight. Just to make sure everything is right on. I borrowered my bodies Snap on torque wrench just to have a second one on hand to verify mine is torqueing down properly...

Didn't mean to steal the thread. I was just having similar issues.

Thanks for the help the guys!