Still having cooling problems.
 

Hey all.
Had some major cooling problems not long ago. I figured Id replace the thermostat, fan switch, thermostat housing, hoses, and radiator.. So I did.

The radiator is a skunk2 Alpha Aluminum Radiator, with a Skunk2 High Pressure rad cap on top. The thermostat and fan switch is mishimoto. OE hoses.

It has not been overheating nearly as much as it was, if rarely. However, I have been having to add coolant to the radiator (can always tellwhen it's time, because the temp spikes!), and I could not find where it was going. However, I realized it's gushing out of the overflow. When the car is cool, it's pretty full of coolant in the overflow, as well. I cant figure out what's going on, honestly, and it's getting frustrating. I see no milky looking oil, or smoke/coolant coming out of the tailpipe. None of the obvious head gasket signs.

So, Im wondering what is causing the gushing? Could it be because of the High Pressure Cap on it? (If the motor is cool, I can take the cap off and it releases heaps of pressure and causes a small gush from the overflow) I've bled the system. New fluids. It got the works. It's a D16Y7, by the way.

Have you changed your radiator cap?

The radiator came with the skunk cap on it. Its about two months old, so yes. It was all brand new (from skunk2)

Burp the system man.

Do you by any chance know if the car had some "engine additive" thrown in it?
If so, you might want to flush the whole thing out since those additives clog up and ruin some systems.

Two results it could be. First is air in the system. 2nd is head gasket. Most likely headgasket. I had the same issue. Wouldnt leak into cylinders but when running, compression would leak into coolant passages and pressurize the cooling system and cause it to overflow out resevoir or in my case cause my weak radiator hose to blow up.

Try this, run the car with your radiator cap off and see if you get bubbles coming out in consistant intervals. I would have bubbles every 10 seconds and it would do this the whole time and thats how I figured it out that I needed a headgasket replacement.

^that (2d paragraph to be exact) :)

Make sure the surface that the radiator cap seals on is smooth, if not this can cause the cap to not hold pressure....or you have a head gasket leak :)


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Alright, thanks you guys. I was kinda fearing that, but oh well. Looks like I know what I'll be doing shortly!

How many miles are on this motor? Was the water pump ever replaced?

There are 194,000 on the motor. Im not sure if it has been replaced or not.

Also, it did the whole gushing/overheating thing the other day, I popped the hood and used a towel to open the cap to add coolant, since I couldnt wait for it to cool down since I was on the way to work.

Anyways, I felt the upper hose - it was hot, BUT the lower hose had no heat to it, at all. It was cold. Whats this mean?

That means your thermostat is not opening. You should swap it out ASAP.

This man is exactly right. Your thermostat is toasted. Its stuck closed and wont allow flow of coolant.

I figured as much.. Oh well.

I sent an email over to mishimoto, as it should be under warranty still. We'll see.

So, update. Tried out a new thermostat - it made the issue much worse. My Mishimoto thermostat was not stuck closed, as I did a simple boiling water test and it opened up perfectly.

So, come this last weekend (Saturday), I finally got some things done, after buying a nice list of parts. Replaced the Head Gasket, new OEM head bolts, with new Timing Belt, Valve Cover Set, Crank Seal, and Water Pump and my problem is finally gone. The water pump seemed to have just about rusted stuck, so there was my main problem. And I was able to throw a better looking valve cover on her!

The cars running great, and no longer gushing coolant, so it's safe to say the problems gone, and Im happy to be driving her again. This time around, the cars going to be cooling correctly, with a correct water/coolant mix, and not just water, as I assumed is what the past owner had done.

Did u change timing tensioner? And if u get oil leaking from the valve cover try silicone on the corners