is it a bad thing when..?

[Liquid_Neon]

coolant disapears... the outside of my block looked wet tonite. also... i noticed the boost doesnt seem to go past 4 or 5 psi. Um, car didnt seem to wanna go like it should either....

Im kinda scared... did i do something bad to my car??

[mazdaman]

I am no expert here, but lemme try...

First off, it's not that bad. BUT it's not good either!

It could be a blown hose or blown head gasket.. A little more info will be needed on this one

[Logan76]

does it studder, and seem like its gutless? doesnt seem to want to get up and go? especially once it warms up? sounds like a headgasket to me.

[Liquid_Neon]

it seems like its been getting weaker.. and kinda stumbles in low rpm. wtf, I literly JSUT replaced the HG within 1000 miles. how would that do that to itself!?

Ill try to get a couple pictures up at some point tomarrow. It does look like its leaking aroud the HG area, but then again there is what appears to be some gasket maker crap in that area too.

I really cant afford the downtime of tearing my head off again, its my daily

[Logan76]

yeah that sounds like a leaky HG to me, your losing compression, causing power loss, its still driveable, probably isnt even overheating, its not 100% blown, its probably just leaking enough to cause you problems, seems as if she needs replace again, maybe take it to a machine shop have the head cleaned up a little this time?

[Liquid_Neon]

well i checked the head when i had her off, she measured within spec. i think the worst was in the middle, but still .010 from the limit. and the rest spots were pretty clsoe to that. i dunt remember specs rite now.

and no, she isnt overheating. just kinda weak and seems to run a bit off at times.

[ch187]

the fact that you did change the headgasket tells me that its probably your headgasket. dont take it the wrong way, seems like the ca's are pretty tricky when it comes to that. ive just seen a lot of people with your same problem, ive never changed mine so i wouldnt know from experience. did you go by the factory service manual specs and procedures?

[Bwana]

What kind of gasket did you install? Most metal gaskets require you to re surface head and block or you'll have a high risk of failure.

[ch187]

What kind of gasket did you install? Most metal gaskets require you to re surface head and block or you'll have a high risk of failure.

haha thats what i meant to ask him. but yeah your absolutely right. they require basically a full rebuild because you have to machine the the surface of the cylinder head and the block. correct me if im wrong

[mikesim]

unless you've overheated it badly, it's not imperative to do.

from what i've gathered, all you need is copper gasket spray and stock metal head gasket FTW. going on two years with that method and 15 psi daily.

[Liquid_Neon]

I had printouts from alldata and i checked the fsm a lil bit. Its an OEM nissan ca18de gasket. I cleaned everything up with razorblades before mounting.... but i didnt use any kind of adhesive spray? I dont recall seeing that anywhere.

[Bwana]

Pull the plugs and give them a look, that can tell you a lot.

[Liquid_Neon]

The plug will get pulled today after work.

Also, im done freaking out about it, i looked at it this morning in actual light (see: the sun). Its not just wet under the gasket line, areas above it are wet too, so i think its coolant/water from another source spraying around my engine bay. I plan to add some dye to it possibly tomarrow, see where its coming from.

Also, i think my gauge might be reading off, and/or i have a small exuast leak around the manifold. It sounds a lil buzzy up front sometimes. OR i have a boost leak somewhere.

Side note, i have one of those cheap ebay fake HKS bovs... why does it only seem to blow off at less then 5psi? or maybe its leaking... anyone got a GOOD bov around that they can sell?

[ch187]

i had one of those bovs. i thought it was broke or i hooked it up wrong but ended up needing a really long bolt and tightened the **** out of the spring. it worked wonderfully for an atm. bov after that. sounded like the real thing too.

[Liquid_Neon]

wait wait... fully tight?

I had mine fully loose.... what is that screw suposed to do anyway??? How does tensioning the spring change anything except maybe make it harder to open....?

I dunno if its a boost leak or exuast leak.. but i hear something up front that i didnt hear a week ago... almost kinda 'farty' and honda ish... not deep and mellow like the CA usualy sounds. I'm gonna tighten the turbo bolts or something tonite.

But the turbo also isnt sounding right either, thats why i thought it was a boost leak.. but maybe its getting messed up from a leak before it..??

[Logan76]

Your going to want to tighten it up a bit, because that screw decided how much pressure it takes to "blow off", you have to adjust the screw comparatively with the amount of boost your running, so if its blowing off at low psi, its pretty much acting as a big boost leak.

[Liquid_Neon]

haha, found the problem, the stupid bov flange isnt sitting right. so its leaking AROUND the bov. i cant get it to sit right because the c clip is messed up.

So i wanna get a differant kind of bov design. greddy style with the two hex bolts? I can get a good one through my work connections pretty cheap.

[rico05]

Or just order a new snap ring and get a new O ring as well. Also, a good set of snap ring pliers is a MUST. Mine (real HKS SSQV gen. 1) was leaking in that same spot. Car ran like crap, then I found it. Now, it's back to awesomeness.