So the over heating.....

[ganma_ca]

Continues lol...... My last post I had lost the coolant via the hose under the intake manifold. I have replaced the hose. Tried it, over heated. So I tried a little trick by placing my heat on 4 and all the way up then ran fine for a bit and overheated, my guessing was the thermostat. So I replaced the thermostat. Sweet everything worked fine for a little bit. So I added an electric fan, keeps it pretty much cool for a little bit can drive around for awhile and then the over heating again.... I'm guessing maybe I need a larger radiator???? I am using the stock kae radiator which blows nutz because it;s a 1 core and the core is like a cm thick... Bleh and old as s***e but it worked for the longest time before for some reason? I checked for coolant in the oil and no dice so the hg should still be good. Any idears? I'm stumped. Oh an on another note, the electric fan I added stays on all the time, and when it does start to overheat I crank the heat back to 4 and all the way up and the temp starts to drop again but it takes a bit.... P.S. If indeed I do need a new rad. anyone have any awesomeness for cheap like a 3/4core???? Thanks

[sjbsuperman1425]

try "burping" the cooling system. take off the rad cap and squeeze and release the upper hose and see if bubbles come out. sounds like you may have air in the system.

[ganma_ca]

Ok, i'm not sure I can't burp it really:( I had to use one of those custom flex hoses with the coil inside for my setup so I can't really squish it and see what happens. On that note I tried to burp it as best as I could which probably wasn't super awesome.... But I did what I could. So I took it out while it was pouring rain outside, and cool, and drove around for awhile, and it still overheated (though not as bad and I'm guessing because of the rain) once again I turned the heat up to 4 and all the wayyyy up and it started to cool down again. I'm wondering if there isn't something blocking it on the inside? There coolant is kinda merky and the previous owner that had it before I did the ca swap had said he had put some gunk in to solve some sort of sealing issue. Maybe blocking it up? The radiator is from 89 so I'm sure it's seen better days.... Any other ideas????

[fabio240]

You dont have enough coolant thats why it fluctuates like that also run the car with the cap off is you cant squeeze the hose but DONT LET IT GET TOO HOT. And to answer your question about the radiator cx racing from Ebay makes a pretty good aluminum radiator for like 140 shipped its core is 2 inches thick.

[Ca_Silvia]

You can also squeeze the lower rad hose if that on doesn't have the coil in it.

I agree, bleed out the coolant system as best you can and see. Lots of swapped CA guys run those rads with no issue so im doubting that.

[ganma_ca]

Ok I will try running it w/the cap off and see what happens. I did buy one of those fancy pressure relieve radiator caps, and I'm wondering if that isn't what's causing the problem? So weird. And I will try squeezing the bottom radiator hose this time instead. I hope all this works so I can get this figured out. It's starting to get frustrating. Like I was saying I had used this setup for months with no issues. Keeping my fingers crossed this time!

[sjbsuperman1425]

yea i ran a stock rad when i first got it and it was fine. i only went over to CXRacing because i had a $100 off coupon.

but really im banking on air in the system or low level.

[m_wolfenden]

i would agree do ca's have a bleeder on the engine like the ka's do?

[ganma_ca]

Nope, well not as far as I know or I would use it lol. We have jiggle valves on the thermostats though! lol Well I'm going to work on it right now and see if I can't get this hidden air out!

[ganma_ca]

Ok so listen to this weirdness and maybe it will present an answer? So I ran it with the rad. cap off holy crap ran cooooool as heck even at temp. it was still barely warm. Just right. I put on the radiator cap and the temps go through the roof!!!!!! WTF!???!?! As soon as pressure was added it was like it was too much for it to handle or something. So wtf is going on??????? I don't understand lol. I was like shoot I should just drive with the cap off lol. Yeah I have no idea. It didn't look like there were any bubbles either. All I know is the car sat over night, I took the rad cap off and ran it at idle for at least 15 min till it was up to the standard heat, (and was still running at a good cool temp then) and I put the rad cap on and woosh temps go through the roof.... Any ideas? If this is something really simple I'm going to go a little crazy

[fabio240]

Get a new radiator cap!!!

[ganma_ca]

Dude it's brand new lol I bought it yesterday lol rated at 13psi..... That's why I'm still like wtf lol

[fabio240]

Im not sure what the stock one is rated at but I would get an OEM one.
Modified by fabio240 at 1:10 PM 6/1/2009

[sjbsuperman1425]

try a different cap just to be sure.

[ganma_ca]

Crap lol. Well my old one was crap it was pretty much falling apart. 20 year old rad cap pshhh. So are you guys saying I should go get another new one lol? I guess I could but not to sure what good it would do in having 2 new rad caps? Granted the one im using might have been the down fall for some weird reason, just because it's got the special pressure reliever lever on it, and maybe for some weird reason it's not good on our radiators lol but I seriously doubt that. Unless maybe it defective or something.... I guess I'll buy another new one and just make sure it's a regular cap and see what happens.... Dee do you have any ideas???Thanks

[mbmbmb23]

Either you didnt bleed the coolant system with the thermostat open, the thermostat is upsidedown....or you are leaking hot gasses from the combustion chamber into the water passages on the engine (blown HG).

[float_6969]

It's one of these;

Old radiator with plugged up passages.

Cracked head.

Blown HG (they won't nessicarily mix the oil and coolang).

Maybe a backwards, T-stat, but I doubt it. When you put it in, did you put the little hole at the top?

[ganma_ca]

Ah actually come to think of it I'm not sure if I bled it with the thermo open or not? It is possible that I may have let the the jiggle valve fall to a bad position when I was putting the stupid thermostat cover on because I did do it at night in my parking lot with not a lot of light, but I was pretty sure at least before I tried putting the cover on that the jiggle valve was in the upright position. I have tried looking multiple times at the oil like every day to see if there is coolant present in it. And haven't seen any so far. Maybe I will take the thermo cover off tomorrow and see if the thermostat is in the right spot. Idk what a headache. Just for curiosity purposes when you have the radcap off and the engine running you should see the coolant flowing by right? And the other thing when I got the thermostat I asked for a 87 pulsar with the ca thermo?

[Buddyworm]

It's not the rad unless it's clogged up or something. I run the skinny rad and I've never seen my aftermarket temp gauge go over 95*C. That said maybe your passages/rad are clogged up?

The murky coolant you mentioned reminds me of when I first got my Silvia. I overheated on the way home once to discover my water pump had had the biscuit and all my coolant leaked out the "i'm broken" hole. I'd been having issues with murky coolant at the time too and no amount of flushing could clear it totally. At any rate, when I went to replace my water pump, upon popping the busted one off the block this brown rust sludge literally oozed its way out of my engine. I cleaned it up as best I could and installed the new pump. Haven't had problems with coolant or cooling since.

I'm not really sure how to check if you've got sludge or how to fix the problem without taking off the waterpump. Can you CLR an engine's cooling system?

[mbmbmb23]

I'd think CLR would eat away at your seals/gaskets etc. The best way to avoid buildups is to use distilled water and not tap water.

To answer the above question regarding the movement of coolant, it doesnt flow like a river with the cap off....from one side to another. The best thing you can accomplish with the cap off is to see the bubbles coming out while its bleeding. I screwed up bleeding my KA when the thermo went, I installed a new one and assumed the thermostat had opened....thus I thought I'd bled it all the way. I was on the highway driving...and suddenly my temps shot up (my thermo opened) and now I didnt have enough coolant.....the coolant I did have boiled in the corner of the OEM radiator and melted the plastic end tank.....thus leaving me with even less coolant. My car started detonating and that was about it....HG was blown out the back of the head.

To burp the engine properly you can buy a special funnel that fits on your rad cap spot like its a cap...it screws on there. You fill it with rad fluid and let the car warm up.....and gravity keeps feeding coolant in there and letting bubbles escape. By feeling the radiator return hose into the rad you can tell if your thermostat has opened or not. The KA also has a bleeder screw near the thermostat intake so you can let bubbles escape there. Im not sure the CA has that. You can also jack up the front of your car to help the bubbles escape....which is known to be useful on SR's. Be patient (5-10 minutes idling) and let the thermo open...you will be able to tell when it does cause the coolant in that funnel will dissappear quickly and you need to keep replacing it until you stop seeing bubbles. Jiggling the hoses and squeezing them helps massage the bubbles out also also.

Worse comes to worse you can take your car to a mechanic that can pressurize the system and force the air out and/or see where the leak actually is.

Good luck...dont warp your head in the meantime.

-M

[ganma_ca]

Crap I still don't know what to make of it. But i think that may end up being what I have to do is taking it somewhere to have them pressurize it. So some added details... I can drive the car for about 20 minutes of hard driving before it starts to overheat. Then I let it set for about 10 minutes and can do the exact same thing for about 20 minutes. I tried getting all the bubble out today. No such luck it seems as though maybe the rad is clogged possibly. I tried buying another rad cap and it actually made it run a bit cooler for a few minutes. When I take the cap off the radiator burps when hot, like the level inside will sink a bit and the overflow sink a little and overflow, and that's with the car off but at temp. I think maybe something might be clogged up somewhere in the system. I really just want to try everything possible before I go the headgasket route because I really am not equipped to handle that situation at the moment, as I do not have a garage. The water pump looks brand new on it (because everything else on it looks old and oily), don't know if there's any test to see if it works or not. But I know the radiator is utter crap there is just some much gunk inside it, like I can put my finger under the lip inside it and some orange-ish crap comes out(probably rust from something or from the gunk the previous owner put into it. So i'm not sure at this point. Maybe someone can explain the burps as the cause for this overheating?

[mbmbmb23]

Maybe someone can explain the burps as the cause for this overheating?

As mentioned above, if your HG isnt sealing you could have exhaust gasses being forced into the water passages, which would be the burps coming out as the air is entering the passages and boiling the coolant. It wouldnt do it for the first 10-20 mins....but once the thermostat opened and let the water start circulating...it would soon heat up all the water and the temp would shoot up. I would take it somewhere to get it pressure tested.

[zero_gripS13]

ill mention it again.. autozone rents a fluid u drop a few drops in a sample of your coolant itll turns colors if exhaust gas is present if it is bad hg bad head.

[KEMP]

if the rad cap is too low pressure then it will bleed off into the coolant overflow rapidly, causing rising temps.

get a good stant 16psi cap, not one with the bleed valve on top, i have had bad luck with those.

i had this problem with my DSM, the cap fixed it once, then it started again, ended up being a cracked block, thought it was the HG replaced it, and still overheated..