Hey everyone,

had a few issues since buying this car and I'm starting to lose interest in the car completely.

After about 4-6 weeks of owning it I started to notice the heater was blowing hot and cold intermittently, decided to change the thermostat and see if it made a difference (thought thermostat may have been faulty)

anyway that wasn't the issue and after replacing it and burping the system I noticed that it started to overheat after a few journeys, I then noticed that the coolant was overflowing out the reservoir and obviously after enough coolant had left the system the car began to overheat. Instantly thought it was headgasket/waterpump.

I've replaced both and cleaned up the top end along with a new timing belt kit. The thing was awful to work on and gave me multiple issues along the way including the tensioner bolt hole stripping and numerous nuts and bolts rusted and rounded out. The whole process took me 6wks! (I had limited tools and due to other things in life it took me a while) along with limited garage space and other things I eventually finished the job started her up and everything was fine or at least that is what I thought........

two days go by and I start to notice the coolant overflowing out the reservoir. Again everything points to a headgasket leak or cracked head/block.

im now at a loss, I've tried to use some headgasket sealant that you pop in the coolant and leave to idle for 30m although I'm not a huge fan as these usually gunk up the cooling system I've done it as a last effort/resort but to no avail.

Now I'm stuck at a crossroads with the options being

A) engine replacement with a d16

B) engine swap to a k20a2 or k24a3

C) get rid of the motor altogether and save my money.

Budget is tight so the top and bottom is most likely just that option b would be the best return for power etc

any help or advice is appreciated, thanks

 

Did you try engine block tester? Did you machined the head when you did the head gasket?

If you did and still overheat. Just scrap the whole single cam and go k swap. Even the K24a4 that nobody wants is still way better than single cam.