Hello,

I'm new here and I've got an issue. Recently I purchased a 1993 Prelude Si with an H22a4 (180,000 miles on the shell, ~15,000 miles on the engine) swapped into it. The turbo is a GT35R from Precision. The car runs great... When I purchased it, the car would boost to between 16-18psi. I've since turned it down to about 12psi. It was tuned at InlinePRO and dynoed around 380-400whp.

Lately... I've noticed after starting, warming the car up (not smoking or smelling any coolant in this period of time), driving for about 10-30 minutes, then shutting the car off, going inside a store or where ever for about 15 minutes or more, the car will be harder to start and cranks longer. Almost sounds like it is having trouble. Once it starts it sounds like it's missing, I give it a bit of gas and almost immediately start to smell coolant and what appear to be puffs of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. After this it clears up and revs fine. What I've been thinking is it must be a headgasket issue. The car has a cometic headgasket, pretty sure it's MLS. I'm thinking maybe the head has lifted it self up a bit and maybe just needs to be re-torqued? I was thinking it might be the turbo, but the car probably wouldn't be harder to start in that case. I can always hear the turbo spinning still after shutting the car off as well.

There is also a noticeable coolant consumption. Are the head studs on the H22a4 accessible without removing the cams?

Could my assumption be correct? Any help is greatly appreciated, I just need opinions before I start ripping in to it. The weather hasn't been very permitting lately either.

 

anybody?

 

Have you checked to see if it is really losing coolant? Maybe monitor the coolant level over time.

I can't offer anymore advice. Sounds like your car is heavily modified. Makes troubleshooting MUCH more difficult.

 

Do a leakdown test to check the headgasket.

 

Yes, it does a appear to be losing coolant. The reservoir bottle is basically empty and the rad coolant level is not visible when the cap is removed. I had filled it a while back and the reservoir was filled at least a 1/4 to 1/2 of the way full. And it has yet to overheat, I've been keeping a strict eye on that.

As in spraying carb cleaner all around the seam where the head and block come together? And waiting for the car to hesitate? I know I want to do a compression check...

I'm really thinking it might be the cometic just letting coolant pass by after the cooling system pressurizes and everything is warm. Possibly from the head lifting from higher boost.

Please keep the opinions/comments/answers/things to try coming!

 

http://www.c-speedracing.com/howto/l...n/leakdown.php