Ive had this problem for awhile now, and I still cant narrow the problem down. I'm not sure if its a blown head gasket or my coolant lines are hook up wrong and its getting back pressure.

Here's the problem:

-I have to pour coolant in the radiator every morning before I drive the car, and If i pour in coolant the night before the next morning when I open up the radiator cap, it would be empty...but the reservoir is always full...

-Theres no oil mix in with the coolant, no smoke coming out of the exhaust.

-When I constantly drive it hard ( hit boost ) the coolant would somehow shoot out of the reservoir and after awhile when all the coolant in the radiator is gone the car will gradually starts to overheat. But if i just drive normal it doesnt over heat.

Below is the diagram of the coolant lines:
-The red circle indicates that I dont have that nipple on my connecting pipe
-The blue and green color corresponds to where I hook up the hose.



The car drives fine, and hit boost hard...my friends are telling me its a blown headgasket, but I'm hoping it might be the coolant lines hook up wrong..so im just trying to narrow down the problem before I take the head to change the hg.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks


Modified by DC2point0 at 9:43 AM 3/21/2006

 

when you drive is there smoke coming out of the exaust? if there is get your headgasket changed a good friend is on his 3rd head and gasket because he drove his car hard and didnt know what was wrong

 

nope theres no smoke coming out of the exhaust.

 

if you lose coolant over night.. you probably have a leak somewhere. pressure test the cooling system. on the topic of coolant overfilling the resevoir.. it would indicate a blown head gasket under boost, combustion pressure is leaking in the cooling system and over pressurizing the radiator cap into the resevoir.

 

wow that sounds crazy.. hopefully its just a coolant leak somewhere and not a HG leak. But i would guess a line leak somewhere. I had a similar problem and it ended up being my lower hose from the rad to the thermo.

 

you could just fill it up one night b4 going to bed . park it on a flat surface and put a piece of cardboard under it big enough to be completely under the engine . when you wake up there will be a stain on the cardboard and you can go from there

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sleeping93 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you could just fill it up one night b4 going to bed . park it on a flat surface and put a piece of cardboard under it big enough to be completely under the engine . when you wake up there will be a stain on the cardboard and you can go from there </TD></TR></TABLE>

what i did to find out the leak on mine.

 

i had a bad head gasket on my first civic and it would shoot out of the reservoir. keep driving on it and you'll get the smoke out of the exhaust soon enough. id change it now before you do more damage.

 

[<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sleeping93 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you could just fill it up one night b4 going to bed . park it on a flat surface and put a piece of cardboard under it big enough to be completely under the engine . when you wake up there will be a stain on the cardboard and you can go from there </TD></TR></TABLE>

I did tried that, it was leaking from the water pump so I thought it was the water pump and had it changed..but i still have the same problem.

 

 

it might have been leaking above the WP and it was dripping down onto it and leaking down onto the ground search around the WP real good

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sleeping93 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">it might have been leaking above the WP and it was dripping down onto it and leaking down onto the ground search around the WP real good </TD></TR></TABLE>

Ive already had the Water pump changed at honda, it doesnt leak there anymore.

 

I didn't read any of the replys.. All I read "When I hit boost" and "The resivoir is always full"

Blown head gasket..


Here's a test to try.. Fill your cooling system to the top.. empty your resivoir.. Hit boost once around your block and park it.. if you have anything in your resivoir, your head gasket's gone.. If you remove your rad cap and it's already under pressure, your head gasket's gone..

Blown head gaskets only SOMETIMES result in white smoke.. on the intake stroke, coolant will be sucked into the combustion chamber along with air.. on the power stroke the coolant is burnt and produces smoke.. That's only in some instances.. however on power stroke the combustion pressure is so great it leaks past the head gasket and charges the cooling system blowing coolant out of your radiator..

Take the head to a machine shop.. Have it milled to clean up the mating surface for the gasket as well as true the head, and put a new gasket on.. This time use ARP head studs..

Good luck..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Gadget &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Here's a test to try.. Fill your cooling system to the top.. empty your resivoir.. Hit boost once around your block and park it.. if you have anything in your resivoir, your head gasket's gone.. If you remove your rad cap and it's already under pressure, your head gasket's gone..
</TD></TR></TABLE>
what do you mean "already under pressure"? should it not be pressurized after that run or what?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Gadget &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I didn't read any of the replys.. All I read "When I hit boost" and "The resivoir is always full"

Blown head gasket..


Here's a test to try.. Fill your cooling system to the top.. empty your resivoir.. Hit boost once around your block and park it.. if you have anything in your resivoir, your head gasket's gone.. If you remove your rad cap and it's already under pressure, your head gasket's gone..

Blown head gaskets only SOMETIMES result in white smoke.. on the intake stroke, coolant will be sucked into the combustion chamber along with air.. on the power stroke the coolant is burnt and produces smoke.. That's only in some instances.. however on power stroke the combustion pressure is so great it leaks past the head gasket and charges the cooling system blowing coolant out of your radiator..

Take the head to a machine shop.. Have it milled to clean up the mating surface for the gasket as well as true the head, and put a new gasket on.. This time use ARP head studs..

Good luck.. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Ill deffinately try that. thanks

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CivicVX94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
what do you mean "already under pressure"? should it not be pressurized after that run or what?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The cooling system has a few components that are mandatory for proper operation..

a couple of them are coolant and a radiator cap..

coolant serves several important things that water alone does not..
-it lowers surface tension so the liquid "adheres" itself to the metal of the block and head to become more conductive of heat so can absorb the heat better..
-it lowers the freezing point of water to in cold climates the water will not freeze and crack your block like that can of coke you left in the freezer..
-it raises the boiling point of water, so the water is less likely to boil (This is REALLY important)
-it prevents "Etching" of metal in your engine through a process called "Electrolosis".. Have you ever pulled off a intake and notice it looks all messed up inside the water passages where you can tell it used to be machined perfect at one time? that's what electrolosis does to metal..
-It also prevents oxidation of aluminum (blotchy white areas) and steel (Rust)

A correctly operating radiator cap contains a pre determined ammount of pressure in your cooling system to help raise the boiling point of water, it acts as a positive 2 way valve to keep water in your cooling system, and as a bonus helps the lower radiator hose from collapsing when the thermostat opens..


When water gets hot, coolant or not, it steams and creates pressure.. but it takes a while to obtain 16-18 PSI (Which most radiator caps are rated)... in a good functioning cooling system with a 50/50 mix of coolant/water it generally takes 20-30 minutes (Depending on alot of stuff) to get that kind of pressure build up.. if you build up pressure like that just driving around the block (~2-3 minutes tops) then you have a big problem in little china..