I know there is a lot of threads on this and I have checked out a lot of them and I've done the test I've could so far. Now I'm looking to hear some more options from you guys. Here is the setup. I just bout this car about 4 weeks ago. It's a built ls vtec that's turboed on 10psi right now. B16 head. Now when I had my laptop data logging I saw the temp was getting up to 206 tops. But then cluster temp guage was dead center. So I was like okay time for a water temp guage. Got an autometer temp guage and been trying to figure out this problem ever since. It has an aluminum unknown brand radiator with stock fan that I wired to a switch because it wasn't kicking on and I drive this car daily so even if I ordered a new switch I wouldn't be able to drive it for a good 3 or 4 days. Any how this is what I've tested so far.
1) put a new oem thermostat last night
2) let motor warm up and reved it while grabbing bottom radiator hose to see if it was stiff or under pressure. It was not.
3) check passenger side floor board for leaking coolant or damp carpet from heater core. Nothing there.
4) after I did the thermostat last night I let it idle with the cap off till it hit 210 then it shut it down cause I know 220 is def not good. It did not go down in level and I did not see coolant moving in the radiator.
5) I do know after its ran for a bit and get warm if I pull the radiator cap it does have pressure.
6) if this matters the top rad hose gets real hot but the bottom never much more than warm but it's def not ever cold.
Let me know what to check next. Either I have a huge air bubble somewhere, clogged something or I'm leaving towards bad water pump. Thanks in advance

 

Anyone have any ideas??? I've tried a new radiator now and when I start the car with radiator cap off and it hits 175 180 degrees and no water flows through it... I'm gonna pull the lower time cover off the side so I can see if it's leaking but being open Downpipe it's kinda hard to hear it making any weird noises... Please let me know what u guys think. I'm assuming water pump at this point.

 

Should try taking the thermostat out. then hose the **** out of ur system heater core could be clogged. of course open drain valve. And yeah, could be the water pump also

 

have you bled the air out of the cooling system? i dont see that on your list

 

i doubt water pump.

drain it back down, take the upper rad hose off and back fill the motor through that rad hose till its full then reconnect.

make sure none of your hoses have a high spot or hump in them that is likely to collect air.

jack up the car from the front making sure the rad cap is the highest point.
turn the mixer dial on the dash to full hot.
run the car occasionally squeezing the rad hoses.
that should help any air get out. you may want to grab the throttle and rev it up a few hundred rpm in there too. once the tstat opens you should definitely see movement in the coolant through the rad cap. good luck

 

Forgot to mention heater core is bad didn't notice at first cause I was using water and was only feeling the top of the carpet which was dry. Once I put antifreeze in I noticed the smell and then went further to lift up the carpet to find the padding was soaked. So in the mean time I took the inlet hose off of the firewall and connected it to where the return would be going in the back side of the thermostat. And yes its still over heating. I'll try and back fill the motor and see if I get anywhere with that. Hopefully I get this figured out soon. Thanks for the replies I'm gonna try that when I get off work tonight!!

 

Alright so I drained everything. Filled the radiator up with water. Then I Took the upper rad hose off and filled it till it was full. Put it back on radiator. And put the min amount in the overflow. I left the funnel in the top of the radiator with water in it cause I got it to fit tight. Started the car ran it for about 15 20 min and it bubbled a lot then finally stopped. So I squeezed the hoses a bit and it sucked down the last bit thay was left in the funnel. Put the cap back on and went for a drive. Just crusing around its 180deg. Once I get into it for a couple gears goes up to 210 and doesn't wanna cool back down. Will never go higher then that. So what now??? Not seeing any oil in coolant and no coolant in oil. So could I b in the first signs of a leaking head gasket?????

 

When it bubbled. Did it bubble in the reservoir?, cuz if it did, then that is a sign that u may have a blown headgasket

 

Nah I had a funnel pressed into the radiator cap full of water and it was bubbling through there. I'm kinda stuck on what to do now honestly.

 

There isn't going to be any flow until the thermostat opens up at around 180 or so.

Put a Honda OEM thermo A switch in and call it a day.

Make sure to jack the front of the car up as high as you possibly can when you add coolant and make sure the heater control **** is in full red.