colbynorwood

i have a b18c in my ek, it takes about 15 mins idling to warm up to 180*f (temp gage in upper radiator hose, and stock gage almost 9 oclock) after than sitting there it will rise to about 220, fan will kick on at about 210ish, but temp will sit about about 220, will only get hotter if i drive it. im using 50/50 antifreeze mix

i bleed the system, no change

i checked the thermostat, boiled it in water and it opened at about 170-180

i tried the stock radiator(half size), i tried a cx racing half size dual core radiator/slim fan with shroud, i tried stock radiator again with slim fan, no change with any

i did a leak down test twice cause i didnt trust it, 4% leak down all across, both times

while the car is running with the radiator cap off and you push the throttle, coolant will spill out the radiator (i heard that means water pump is good cause its moving the coolant)

the fan is coming on at about 210*f, idk if this is the normal temp.... i also wired in a switch so i can override the normal turn on point of the fan, only slows the overheating a little

if i blast the heat the car will run at about 180 at idle, then while driving hard(autocross for 1 min) the temp will be able 220+ (got to 240 once last weekend) letting the car sit it will return to about 180 with the heat still blasting

also it does puff a little bit of white smoke, which i was told could just be some oil from vtec, but its loosing a little bit of coolant after a day of racing. so i was thinking head gasket except leak down was good and i cant find a leak anywhere else...

DCFIVER

Sounds like a small headgasket leak. A leak down will not always reveal an HG leak,especially smaller ones...

colbynorwood

^^^i was kind of hoping someone wouldnt say that lol, is there is other tests i can do to make sure this is the problem before i start taking it apart and spend all that money, id be doing it myself but still, wanna save if i can if that happens to not be the problem.

colbynorwood

i think im planning on buying a radiator leak tester but then i just stumbled across a combustion leak tester, has anyone used one of these combustion leak down testers before, something like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_SIwHMLmkM

http://www.amazon.com/UVIEW-560000-C...on+leak+tester

colbynorwood

i ended up buying a radiator leak tester, i tested the car at 16 psi because my cap with 1.1 with the stock radiator i have in it right now, and my upper radiator hose was leaking where i cut it to put in my mishomoto radiator sensor adaptor, i got the cheap minivac tool and it worked great especially for like 45$. nothing else was leaking so i tried the car, havent got a chance to run it on the street yet today but it started to heat up to about 200 ( temp in upper radiator hose) then i shut it off, let it cool down a bit and tried another tool, the one in the previous post with the video, the same exact tool

it showed i do not have a head gasket leak, then tested the liquid on the exhaust to make sure it worked and it did so no head gasket leak according to this tester, no leaks from anywhere after i fixed the small one described above with the radiator leak tester, and only 4% leak down across all cylinders with the leak down tester, im going to say with about 99% confidence that the head gasket is good but after a short time sitting in the drive way today idleing it was reaching 200 degrees. im going to run the car tomorrow just driving around and will see what the temp does

DCFIVER

How did you use the fluid? If the leak is small enough, it may take 10 or 15mins for it to change the liquid to yellow. Also you should be occasionaly rev the engine during testing.



Not saying your HG is bad,just trying to make sure you rule it out with certainty...

colbynorwood

took some of the fluid out of the radiator like it said so the tester doesnt suck any coolant up instead of air, i started the car and did the test for like 5 mins cause i havent ever messed with one and it was neat. then i waited for the car to reach 140-160 and did the test again for like 10 mins. then i started reving the motor, it said slowly rev the motor up and slowly bring it back down, having to pump the bulb while doing it, revved it up and down 20 times, it said 10-15 times and you will see a change if any leak is present and it also said if its been leaking for a while as soon as you do the test you will see the color change because there will already be carbon dioxide in there and i got nothing through out all this, then when i was done just for fun i put it to the exhaust and sucked up some gas and it turned color in a couple pumps.

if i drive it tomorrow and its over heating still i was thinking about trying the radiator leak tester and putting some dry cloth in the cylinder, heard if its a really really small leak it can blow some coolant into the cylinders but sometimes only when warmed up so could help me see if any of the cloths get moister on them than its leaking a tiny bit then carefully try it when warmed up again, i didnt do the radiator pressure test while hot yet

semitas

anyone know how this turned out??? im having a similar issue

colbynorwood

sorry for late reply, i ended up doing a headgasket with all oem stuff, checked leak down again, all cylinders are at 2% so thats sweet but that wasnt the problem, still over heating. havent driver the car for a while, been working on other things but now im installing an oiler cooler to help. i think its just too small a radiator for the car even though it is a after market aluminum one with slim fan, but thats the price i pay for wanting to keep ac i guess. installing the oil cooler next weekend if i get the parts and ill try and remember to repost results