Coolant Spray...

[iceman.chris]

Hey guys,

So I finally got my s13 sr20 build done, and took her for the first rip tonight. Everything seemed fine, the timing might have been a bit off, felt like it could have pulled harder (boost was inconsistent, but not like a boost leak...), but other than that it was alright. Until however, I did a couple highway pulls. After a couple 4th and 5th gear pulls I smelt coolant, so I pulled over to check. As soon as I was parked, white coolant smoke just billowed out from under the hood. I thought I had lost every ounce of coolant in there. Once I popped the hood though, I saw that the coolant appeared to have sprayed from the banjo bolt for the turbo coolant line. The manifold was glowing hot, and the small spray had completely vaporized on impact with the manifold. I let it cool down, and it seemed to be ok.

What I'm thinking is the super hot exhaust assembly maybe caused something to expand and let coolant spray through... Hopefully the turbo bearings aren't done.

There is still a small drip from the bolt, but seems to be corrected now that it is at normal temperature. My questions are:

1) Why did the manifold get red hot? On the highway you'd think it'd be nice and cool. Timing perhaps causing too lean?

2) Is anything damaged? There was a puff of white smoke out the tailpipe immediately after starting the car, but it seems to be normal now. The coolant and oil look normal too, so hopefully no blown headgasket. Coolant was a tad low, but I don't think much sprayed out. Turbo bearings might be a bit facked, dunno how to check. Barely visible smoke out the pipe, but just looks like warmup enrichment (car was started again couple hours later in the cold environment).

3) Course of action? I'm just planning on tightening the banjo bolt and taking a look at the timing. Any else I should do?

Thanks alot guys, Chris
Modified by iceman.chris at 1:08 PM 2/8/2009

[supreamS14]

Get that banjo blot tight, But remember the block is aluminum. Turbo manifolds glow after boosting a minute or two. After a 3 minute drift run mine glows very bright.

[iceman.chris]

Also forgot to mention, no shroud on the fan, have to modify it to fit... any issues with overheating with this setup?

[supreamS14]

I have seen it done but I wouldn't skimp on stuff as important as the cooling system.

[iceman.chris]

Ok so turns out I was wrong...

The banjo bolt was soaked, but not with coolant. The A/C line which ran close to the turbo had made it's way to the wastegate actuator, which caused it to melt and spray R134 all over everything. No wonder the cloud came out so fast.

Poor ozone...