So heres the situation, my b20t is using water. I can drive from Campus to Pickerington and the CEL comes on and the temp gauge starts rising, pull over and sure enough time to put water in it. The car runs fine, but I did notice that it started backfiring between shifts on saturday when i was heading up to Polaris and has continued to do so since then.

There is no oil in the coolant, and I havent found a leaky hose yet. I did notice a small miss to the cars sound on saturday as well, leading me to wonder if its a blown head gasket. But the car pulls the exact same way it did when I took it off the dyno, so im doubting a blown headgasket but have seen crazier things. The car doesnt smoke at all even on start up in teh morning theres nothing. No puddles of water under the car either.

 

have you drained the system at all lately? I know when I pulled my motor I lost the majority of the coolant and upon Reinstallation, filled the radiator up.. started the car and had to keep adding coolant every 30 sec or so for a few min. untill it ran all its cycles and all the air was out of the system.. have you let it idle for a while? just to watch the coolant level and/or check for drips?

 

this is everytime I drive the car, not once in a while. I put the motor in 8 months ago. I have purged the system numerous times and same results.

 

o, sorry I couldnt help then

good luck tho!

 

I once had a BHG with no oil in coolant or vice versa, no smoke, no leaks etc.. All my car would do was overheat and coolant would come out of reservoir.

 

i have the same problem? but coolant comes outta the cap. ive changed the cap like 4xs and still the same problem, so maybe time for a new radiator

 

Hows your water pump? Theres a weep hole on the side of it so that if the bearing starts to go bad it leaks water. Alot of the time the water evaporates before it is seen becuase heat of the engine.

How is your t-stat. It could also be a blown headgasket leaking beetween the cylinders leaking water into the combustion chamber and burning off unvisably. I have seen this happen on a friends single cam?

Hope some of that helps you

 

yeah well i had a water pump go bad on my b18, and that **** was so gay to change haha. and when it was bad it leaked realllll bad, so i dont think that would be his problem, but the BHG could be the case, i would say to change that, and then hopefully your problem goes away.

good luck man!

 

You don't have to have oil in the water for it to be the head gasket.
If you're losing water there is only two answers. Head gasket or a leak.
Hope all goes well either way.

 

one of several ways i know to test for blown hg...

one, go to autozone w 100 bux, loan them your 100, borrow this tool:

http://www.autozone.com/in_our...r.htm

be SURE to rent the smaller radiator cap tool as well, other wise it will be useless. pump up the cooling system to w/e it should be at, and start looking for leaks. if the pressure stays, then it's going else where. if pressure starts dropping, well there you go. look for leaks if pressure starts dropping. best way to check blown hg w this is just pull out plugs on each cyl. one at a time imo. when you're done w the tools, take them back and get money back.

other way (might not ALWAYS work) is you can put a rubber glove over the fill neck of the rad. when cold. if it starts filling up w air, blow hg, or some sort of air leak.

had this problem w a single cam... eventualy pulled the head off, to find a SHINY piston and about 3" of coolant/water just chillin in cyl. 3.