Overheating on turbo ka: radiator or blown headgasket?

[klattr1]

Well, I've been overheating alot lately and before I thought it was possibly the headgasket but now im starting to think its the radiator or something.I have rust in my coolant and somehow air pockets keep forming even though i keep bleeding the system. My car still runs great. It makes plenty of power but i want to fix this issue asap.So I'm thinking that the crack is shooting out coolant somewhere while i'm boosting and then its letting in some air causing the thermostat to close.Does this sound right?I'm just gonna pressure test the whole cooling system and if it comes back faulty, then its time for project AL-U-MEN-E-UM radiator.

[nismofan14]

Maybe you have already thought of this but my car was doing the same thing (minus the rust part) after testing out new nitrous setup and I thought head gasket right away. Let it cool down, took it for a drive w/o nitrous and it only did it when i smashed the throttle. Then for some reason before buying a head gasket i checked the radiator cap. **** thing was bad. Replaced it and everything was fine.

[klattr1]

thanks for your help man.Ill check it out.Here's what i noticed:One of the times I was overheating, I looked on the bottom of the hood and saw coolant right above where the radiator cap would be.Hmm. Thats prolly what it is. Its just not maintaning pressure or something.

[klattr1]

what about a faulty water pump?I blew off one heater hose like two months ago.

[Structure240sx]

that heater hose must have sucked. i would first buy the $6 radiator cap especially since u see coolant right above it.

[WDRacing]

If you were burnin water you'd be billowing smoke...

[klattr1]

well, i think i fixed the problem. Sure enough the radiator cap was bad or had a bad seal. I could push down on the dimple part in the middle of the cap and coolant would seep through.So basically a little coolant was getting out and air was getting in. It should take care of the overheating issue.Thanks Nismofan14!

[nismofan14]

No problem. Crazy *** radiator caps anyways. Glad to see the problem was something easy to fix.

[klattr1]

i did a leakdown test. Basically I put air through the spark plug holes and tested each cylinder at TDC. No air bubbles came through the radiator and my compression test showed consistent numbers all the way across the board.I pulled the thermostat and left it out and the car has not overheated since. It takes a while to get to normal temps but once its there, it stays there.So it sounds like no more overheating.

[Touchdown038]

Why would you wanna run without a thermostat? When you run the motor cold, the amount of wear is greatly increased, shortening your motor life.

Other than that, good job on fixing the problem.

[klattr1]

im not running the motor cold. It eventually gets to operating temperature but it just takes longer than normal.

[huguetpj]

As long as it gets to normal operating temperatures then there is no problem on not running the thermostat. Just make sure to let the car warm up before smashing that pedal...