Okay I did my first road race this weekend and yes it was a lot of fun but at the 3rd 20 minute run, I saw my temperature gauge pegged to the end. I watched it before and it was fine. So I stopped and coolant was boiling like mad all over. Since then, my temp gauge keeps going up and down like mad and the car keeps oveheating. I also noticed I blew out a vacuum nipple from the skunk2 mani and coolant sprayed out ( WTF? ). Another strange thing is the Hondata IM gasket has a bit of green inside it. How the hell did coolant get into the IM?

I looked around but is this a sign of a blown the headgasket? I think I may have overboosted because of that vacuum leak.

I will try flushing the coolant and replacing the thermostat because it doesn't look like it's cycling enough and the fans are coming on only sometimes (but they work with the a/c). The fans don't seem to get the temp down either

Also, the coolant is clean (no oil in the catch tank or anything).

 

Get a compression and leak down test. This should tell you alot about the condition of your motor.

Replace the coolant line that you blew that went into the intake manifold, clamp it down this time.

Definitely fluch the rediator and replace the coolant.

Jon

EDIT: are you getting any smoke when idleing/cruising/boosting?




Modified by shadow103rd at 5:38 PM 8/10/2004

 

The nipple that I blew was replaced at the track. Didn't seem to make a difference.

 

Okay, replaced the thermostat and fan switch and idled ok. Went for a drive and temp went through the roof right away.

Tested compression and got 165,165,170,190 (cold,craftsman gauge). WTF!!!

I think something is going on here. Compression was 180 across the board a few months ago. I will test again with warm engine. Should I try putting some oil in there?

Any more ideas? Helms says 28 variance is within spec. I read 10 is pushing it. Is it time to take the head off or should I look at the cooling system some more.

 

maybe u have some air trapped in the lines somewhere, i had the same prob with my moms dondge intrepid, there was a relief nipple that i slackened at let it all out, it was blowing steam for like 4 mins straight. had alot of air in there. not sure if u have any relief nipples or not, but just letting u know that that could be a prob, i just had a similar experience, might be the same for u. check it out. after i let it all out i topped it back off and havent had a prob since.
daniel

 

c'mon you guys....what do you make of those compression numbers?!

 

Okay, did hot check.... 180,185,190,200. I can only guess that deposits got in more on some that the others.

Still overheating....

 

I'd take the advice of RudeLude. Your cooling has nothing to do with your compression. These are two completely different mosters. I just recently put a Fluidyne radiator in my Integra and it ran a bit warm at first. After I got all the air out of the cooling system, I topped off the radiator and haven't had a problem since. So there are only five different significant problems that can cause your car to over heat.

1) Bad Head Gasket. This will cause water/coolant to escape. It will be under high pressure so it will generally blow all over the place.
2) Air Pockets. This will cause the water/coolant to be completely trapped or not circulate properly through the system which will in turn cause the car to rapidly heat up.
3) Hole in Radiator. If you have a hole in the radiator, you will lose water/coolant and your cooling system will fill up with air. The hole can be the size if a needle. It doesn't matter.
4) Over Flow Tank. Is your car using liquid from the over flow tank? Like you go driving for a while only to find out that the over flow is bone dry? If this is the case, you have a bad radiator or head gasket
5) Water Pump. How many miles does the car have? Perhaps it's time to replace the water pump. Maybe it went **** up on you.

Also, this topic has nothing to do with Forced Induction, you should move it somewhere else. Good luck with your cooling problem.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Haleiwa-Brando &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">1) Bad Head Gasket. This will cause water/coolant to escape. It will be under high pressure so it will generally blow all over the place.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Unless the coolant escapes into the combustion chamber. If the head is lifting under WOT boost, you probably will not notice any smoke from the tail pipe since EGT is high and escaping coolant will be completely in a vapor state. Most likely, if your engine has uneven compression numbers that are not too far from acceptable levels, coolant has made its way into those combustion chambers and steam cleaned the carbon deposits away, lowering compression. In your case, the damage may have already been done since the car overheats regardless of driving hard or not. BTW, drilling a 1/8" hole in the top of your thermostat will allow any trapped air to bleed out. All newer Honda thermostats come with coolant bypass holes in their thermostats. I'd do a thorough cooling system check and if you can, use an exhaust gas analyzer to check for exhaust eminating from your radiator indicating a blown head gasket.

 

yeah definatly check for exhaust in your coolant. a local shop can do it cheap and quick or you can get a block tester from napa.

the napa piece is pretty cool. you put a tube of colored liquid over you radiator fill hole while the engine is running and if the liquid changes color you have a headgasket leak.

 

definantely sounds like a headgasket to me. I've blown two of them .

 

sart ur car and idle it till it over heats, then feel ur rdiator, if its not extremely hot, then that means the collant isnt flowing through it, thats how i figured out that air was trapped in my situation. so check that out and see whats up, if coolant is flowing through, then u know theres no pockets or blockage.

 

Thanks for the responses.

I changed the oil and it's perfectly clean. No milky signs whatsoever. Car doesn't smoke, there are no leaks, plugs look great, no small bubbles in the radiator. I really don't think it's the HG.

I noticed the fans were not turning on this time. They work with the A/C though.

Items to check next:

1. All under dash fuses
2. Cooling relays under hood
3. Short out fan switch to see if fans come on
4. Try the NAPA liquid stuff
(is this it? link)

BTW: It's a turbo car at 10psi, stock B18C1, stock radiator (!) so I thought it would be more appropriate to discuss among turbo experienced people that have had cooling problems.

 

So you are getting coolant somehow leaking into your intake manifold when the manifold is of a non-heated design and has no coolant passages? Interesting...

 

you might want to look at your air filter placement. if your spraying any coolant from the overflow it might be spraying into your airfilter and getting in the intake that way.