My 00 gsr motor keeps overheating.

Rundown:

-New radiator as of last year, its an ebay, but i have 4 friends with the EXACT same d series half sized rad running the same setup i have with no issues so i know its not that..

-Good radiator cap
-New thermostat as of last year
-Bled the system properly - iv don't this a number of times to insure of all air pockets being out and still the same thing happens..
-New head gasket as of 3 months ago, NO white smoke
-NO coolant leaks
-Upper radiator hose and bottom are both hot, and pressurized
-resivor tank hose is NOT plugged, checked that already
-Fluid level is good in both resivor AND radiator
-Radiator fan comes on and is spinning the right way..

I have been having this problem for the last year and a half and i have to drive with the heat on at least notch 3-4 to keep it from overheating...

-I noticed that if i just drive around town and stop and go traffic the car doesn't get AS hot as fast and is nearly as bad, If i do steady THRUWAY driving for more than 15min in 5th (gsr trans) my car will overheat bad, if i leave the heat off my temp gauge just keeps rising, once it hits 220 deg on my aftermarket gauge the OEM temp gauge will then rise and keep rising until i turn the heat on...

-I have also noticed that once overheating if i come to a stop, turn the heat off and sit and wait with the engine RUNNING the temp will slowly go back down to normal...Weird huh?? Its like it gets hotter when driving on a thruway where it gets the most breeze vs just b boppin around town. i dont get it..

Seems like its a restriction of air to me, but iv checked everything, and there is no restrictions, no air blockage, the radiator is clean and NOT dirty, i just don't get it, im ready to give up... Some days i wanna run it str8 into a tree i swear ha.

PLEASEEE HELP if you know of any thoughts that maby i haven't done yet, i know its the original water pump at about 85k but i reallyyy dont think its that..

 

Have you checked the engine temp using a temp gun? Maybe its the temp sensor thats gone out of whack since both gauges read high temps.

 

Which sensor are you talking about? the coolant temp sensor?

IF not i have two different temperature sensors... one is an aftermarket that tells me my exact temp, the other is the OEM or factors temperature sensor...They are two totally different sensors, they cant both be reading wrong..

Like i said once the aftermarket reads 220 the OEM starts to follow and raise more than half way on the cluster..

 

i would say u got a bad water pump....omp if ur driving it on thruway with air passing the radiator no reason why ur going to overheat unless ur pump is not working or worn out or u have bad head gasket which u replace already....pump wont able to pull or push cold water from radiator to the engine thus when turning ur heater on, water actually circulate thru the heater core releaving heat from the engine...but thats just my opinion hope this help u....

 

Honda water pumps cant really go bad unless they break or leak they always rotate off the timming belt, Everything seems good but I would still check my rad though its new. I put regular water before and clogged my new rad. Even new thermostats have got stuck on me for what I have A feeling is your problem.

 

What kind of thermostat? I had 3 different aftermarket (autozone, advance, etc) and they all suck. Only the OEM honda worked correctly.

 

Honestly for all of us we tend to beat on our cars! But get this the cheapest ones usually crack more than the hot versions letting the engine retrieve its water flow better than the high priced any ways

 

I thought the exact thing as you about the water pump which is what really makes me think its not it...it just doesn't make sense...they are always spinning so if its not leaking and obviously turning with my timing belt then how could that be it? unless it was soo caroaded or something that the fins didn't make water flow? idk

The thermostat was an autozone, normal temp one, and i had already taken it out twice to check it it feels fine...
I have ran water in my car, i actually ran on mostly water all last year, maby it clogged my radiator? could that happen that easy?

I obviously want to change the easiest/cheapest parts 1st. Also could a bad TW sensor cause this? i didn't think so but just a thought

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

an easy way to check if your radiator is clogged up is to open the drain plug and spray a garden hose down the hole in the top. i don't know why water would cause it clog by itself, though.

 

I thought the same thing until I pulled the water pump off my grand prix a couple of weeks ago (also spins all the time as do all water pumps that I know of). The weep hole had become clogged so even though the bearing was bad and should have leaked it didn't. As soon as I changed it instant cooling. Here's a pic for reference

what it should look like



what it did look like

 

Word, i see what your saying man...Damn i just wish there was a way to tell if that was for sure the problem or not..

Looks like i really dont have any other choice but to do it then do i?

 

i have almost the same overheating issues with my car. turns out the brand new radiator i bought only about 3 months old was no good. now i am running a turbo integra and used a honda delsol radiator off an automatic and it solved my problem. also try running your car a couple of days with no thermostat and see if that makes the difference. i am not using one in my car right now because that was also part of the problem. at least that will let you know if your thermostat is working correctly

 

I'd replace the thermostat with an OEM honda since it is like $10. Just off my experience because I did the same thing and thought my brand new autozone one was fine and it turned out to be the problem.

 

The waterpump thing is pretty important. I'm from across the road (VW land) and we have tons of problems with the impellors separating from the shaft. This leads to exactly what you are describing - the pump runs ok at low rpms, but at high rpms, it's basically useless.

If both hoses are hot, the tstat *should* be ok, but those are cheap and easy to replace, so I would start there. Definitely do a boiling water test on the old one and see if it was good to begin with. That way you can rule that out. Not sure of your engines here, but can you stick a finger up into the pump housing to see if the impellor is loose while you have the tstat out?

 

check ur water pump..they do go bad..

 

[QUOTE=atomicalex;42541334]The waterpump thing is pretty important. I'm from across the road (VW land) and we have tons of problems with the impellors separating from the shaft. This leads to exactly what you are describing - the pump runs ok at low rpms, but at high rpms, it's basically useless.



X2....pump go bad also...is the only one you havent check....all seems ok...i dont think you have clog. water flows fine at idle but high rpm water seems to flow slower....

 

HAHAA I got kinda same problem here. When your on freeway temp starts to rise. Then after like 1 or 2 min, seems like the thermostat opens and lets the water go cool off its weird too.

btw like 2 years ago i was running a bit hot and could not pass smog. The performance guys drilled 2 little holes in my thermostat and that fixed the problem then

 

The drilling the hole in the t stat i already did lol, and like i said both upper and lower hoses are hot adn presurized, i highly dought its my t stat...

I seriously think the only things that are left are my radiaotr posibly being clogged, OR my water pump...

I remember draining the radiator a few weeks ago and the coolant rushed out and spued out with out a problem, if it was clogged i would think it wouldnt of done that... Its gotta be the water pump

 

Could a bad TW sensor cause my car to overheat? We know the fan sensor is good right because my fan goes on when too hot..

 

i have an OEM water pump with 120,000 miles on it laying around if you're interested. : )

 

No...tw dones its job telling you what exactly ur engine temp is....thermo switch is also done its job, turns the fans on when it reaches certain temperature....

 

I say its your water pump. Change it out, and even if that is not the problem, hey, you got a new water pump that should last you a few more years...What s it going to hurt?

 

The whole antifreeze thing isn't just for cold weather, it helps with corrosion.

If you ran mostly water for that long, I would definitely check the w. pump.

 

I live in germany and I just sold my 02 Civic type R loved the car but hard as hell to work on the K series engine. Anyways I had to replace my water pump because it gets so cold here that the anti freeze mixture I had in it froze, and the gear inside the water pump sheered itself off. I thought it was the thermostat but come to find out it was the pump. It was a pain to change because I had to lift the left side of the motor up just to get the top 4 bolts out then lower it to get the bottom 3.

 

Thanks for your responses guys, b4 i change the pump i think i am going to try one more thing...

I jumped the fan relay so that the fan is always running, now if it makes a huge difference and does not overheat with the heat totally off then i think i have an issue with my radiator and air flow/movement across it...if it still gets hot or hotter than in normally should be then i will change the pump, ill let you guys know where im at tomorrow...