Overheating issues with CA18DET

[forsakenskyz]

I can start my car and let it sit and it will be fine and stay cold. When I start driving it the engine will quickly get up to temperature and stay in the middle of the temp gauge. If i stop and keep the engine running while it is like this The temperature will not rise at all. It is after about 5 minutes of this that the needle starts rising rapidly ONLY when I'm driving. It seems that my coolant level drops during this time. It does not build pressure like normal so even while overheating the cap can come right off with NO pressure at all. I have just purchased a new thermostat and will install it shortly. Also I have lost my heat. This all started when i was driving along normally and the bottow hose of the radiator popped off and all fluid drained out and car overheated. After fixing the problem (rusted hose clamp) and filling up with fluid this is where i stand. Any advice??

[ri120]

theirs probbly big air pockets in the cooling system. try bleeding the air out as much as you can. try that and go from their.

[slo]

do you have enough water in your reservior tank?

[forsakenskyz]

well today i drove her around for about 45 minutes.. she never made it into the red, but she made it aweful close at the very end of the drive. I no longer lose coolant, but it seems the water temp gradually grows hotter and hotter after stay neutral for about 25 minutes of easy driving.. on the upside.. i now have heat again lol I'm going to install the new OEM thermostat and try again. I'll keep you posted

slo - yes, the reservoir tank has plenty of water

[slo]

I know...

You have lots of air in the system. Rock the car side to side (as best you can) and burp the system. I think there's a plug/hole where it helps you bleed the system

[capowered240]

To "burp" the system of air bubbles, raise the front of the car or park on a relatively steep incline so the radiator filler neck is at the highest point of the system, and run the car without the cap until no more bubbles appear at the opening. Shut the car off and cap the radiator, you should be good to go!

[Bwana]

After you have the system successfully bled you should have NO cooling issues with a CA. If you do it's likely your radiator, fan setup, ducting or the possibility that you have a leak in the system somewhere.

BTW, the stock gauge really only has 3 settings; cold, normalish and screwed.

[float_6969]

That stock gauge is crap. It sounds like a thermostat problem, or an air pocket. You've go the heater on full hot, right?

[nocwage]

When you drained the coolant did it come out orange instead of green?

My rad was so full of rust/calcium it was unbelievable, the guy in japan that owned it must have just used straight tap water.I had to replace my rad, now I have a Koyo.

[forsakenskyz]

it was my thermostat.. I had burped the system and gotten all the air bubbles out and all that good stuff, but it still would gradually start overheating and as soon is i would drive it around it would get hotter and hotter.. soo i put in the new thermostat and everything is ok now.

float - yep had the heater on full hot

nocwage - YES.. ridiculous how rusty it was. now that i got it running cooler again i'm going to do a cooling system flush and try and get all that stuff out of there..