Car overheating

[corey170]

Before I start: New thermostat, rad cap, water pump, and radiator looks pretty new. Fan spins even when the car is overheating and air is blowing the right way.
It seems like the problem is air getting into my system. I bleed air out every couple days and I been doing it for about a month now. It seems like a bad head gasket but everything else seems to contradict it. With the thermostat out and rad cap off a bubble will come out every few minutes but it doesn't look like excessive bubbles coming out. I also did a compression test the other day and got 160 +/-3 in all 4 cylinders, engine was cold because the thermostat isn't in there right now.
Where is the air coming from?

[jkerns]

Try to pressure test your cooling system, I believe you can rent the testers with the right adapter from auto zone or O'Riely's. Try to do it as warm as you can.

[corey170]

Ya I have been looking for one of those for a while now. cheapest I can find is $200 and no Autozone in Canada so I can't find one to rent either. I'm gonna try some of that liquid head gasket fixer. If it is a hole in the HG its probly small because not much air gets in there, it just builds up over time.

[lovehateRBrelations]

Before I start: New thermostat, rad cap, water pump, and radiator looks pretty new. Fan spins even when the car is overheating and air is blowing the right way.
With the thermostat out and rad cap off a bubble will come out every few minutes but it doesn't look like excessive bubbles coming out. I also did a compression test the other day and got 160 +/-3 in all 4 cylinders, engine was cold because the thermostat isn't in there right now.
Where is the air coming from?

Unfortunately if there is any bubbles in your radiator, that is a fairly tel-tale sign of a blown head gasket. Just bc its not excessive doesnt rule it out. I would definantly get your entire cooling system checked out, and do more recon into the headgasket situation. Either way be careful driving it until she is fixed up and not overheating

[Greenman666]

Did you bleed it with the bleeder screw? Or at the rad? I couldn't get all the air out of my sohc with a funnel bleeder on the rad, then I found the screw.

[corey170]

Yes I bleed it every couple of days. I have owned a couple of KAs and I know how to get the air out of them (even easier without a thermostat). I just don't wanna have to set aside time to change the HG if it's not necessary.

[OutToWinPAHC]

They didn't bleed it correctly.... If you repalce the CTS you still need to bleed. Having the front of the car up is way critical.

Bleeding coolant
Defiantly fix the gauge and bleed the coolant, but if the header is getting really hot it could be a clogged cat.

coolant temp sensors are about 10-15 bucks

Coolant bleeding

Jack the front of the car up front tires off the ground 4-6 inches.
Take off radiator cap
Take a 2 liter pepsi bottle cut it in half and use some black electrical tape and wrap the bottle neck a little, or get a cooling funnel
Flip it around and place the bottle neck were the radiator cap was at. Pinch off over flow line if not using the funnel.
Now start filling it with coolant about half way
Remove bleeder screw
Close bleed screw after you get a nice even stream of coolant
Squeeze the upper, and lower lined and burp out the air
Add antifreeze until you over fill the rad by a quart
Turn the heat on full blast
Start the engine and let the engine run after 3-10 minutes the thermostat will open and suck in the excess antifreeze (ambient temp affects time)
Fill it again but with about a half of quart.
Let it run until no more bubbles come out. Squeeze hosed time to time.
Replace cap, unclamp overflow hose and then shut off the engine, fill over flow 1/2 to 3/4

Coolant funnel (best to have)

[corey170]

Sorry, I'm not trying to sound like an a** but please stop telling me how to bleed these things. I know how and I have done it about 50 times and there is still air. Anybody have any ideas on whats going on? The coolant is sometimes foamy which makes me think its the HG. I wish block check wasn't so damn expensive

[Greenman666]

That's the funnel I used, and use at work. They are like, 35 bucks from snap-on so they should be a lot less everywhere else.

[OutToWinPAHC]

Sorry, I'm not trying to sound like an a** but please stop telling me how to bleed these things. I know how and I have done it about 50 times and there is still air. Anybody have any ideas on whats going on? The coolant is sometimes foamy which makes me think its the HG. I wish block check wasn't so damn expensive

Well I will tell you something... get up from the computer take you a** to Advance auto, autozone or another place with loan a tools deposit 300-350 on a cooling system tested and get to work.

[S14AZ]

I had this same issue of overheating couldn't use the bleed screw cause the previous owner broke it.
So I just left the cap off and slowly burped the system adding water till full.
Then started the car let run for a couple of min to get the flow shut it off .The air pockets
eventually worked them selves out.
Repeated the process a few more times and then had no issues. Right after all that I drove 900 miles with no heat issues.

You might want to try the way i did mine with no bleed screw.