Ke55 - Overheating

[jara]

well things didnt go as planned. theres no thermometer around here but the thermostat gasket was leaking a bit and i needed to replace the thermostat housing so i did both of them. then i parked on a dirt ramp and started then engine to get out any air and after a few bubbles the bloody thermostat gasket stated leaking again.... not wanting to screw anything up more i stopped it all there. I'll give it another shot at idling the air out tomorrow before i go up to chermside for a couple days. really hope the car lasts the trip. i've got another gasket, should i just replace the one on it or will it set overnight or something?

[altezzaclub]

Sort out why its leaking-

 

I usually rub that housing top on oiled sandpaper (about 280grit) on a flat surface (piece of steel I have) to get the corrosion cleaned off it. The bit on the engine I file gently & clean out the groove where the t'stat sits. Run a hacksawed bolt (poor man's tap) in and out of the holes a few times to make sure the threads are cleaned, as those bolts break off at the worst time possible!

 

I don't know if the gasket will swell after a night in water and seal itself... it might.

[ke70dave]

edit: altezza is quick!

 

yep pull it off, if you are only using a gasket (no silicon), it shoudlnt need time to set before filling up with coolant?

 

when you pull off the thermostat housing, make sure both surfaces that the gasket is going to be touching are VERY clean and FLAT.

 

i usually do this with a flat file, rub the surface back and forwards to make sure the whole surface is flat.

 

Any imperfections on the surface and it wont seal with a gasket and just leak again.

Edited January 9, 2012 by ke70dave

[jara]

thanks, I'll get on that now then. but i'll still wait for tomorrow before idling that air out

[jara]

well i got to the car and decided that i'd idle it one more time and if it leaked i'd replace it later today when it cooled down. but this time, after about 7 minutes or so the radiator spat out about a cups worth of fluid and then went down to being about half a centimetre from the bottom of the part where you can see. sorry if i'm bothering you with every little thing that happens. i just figure the more i say, the better chance you'll know what to do.

 

is there anyone from around chermside that'd be able to help?

[ke70dave]

yeah it will spit out water and carry on. just keep filling it up so you can see the level, and keep idling it.

 

i did this exact same process on my mates s13 yesterday, we had coolant all over the ground by the end of it, and used probably an extra 1L of fluid, but we got all the air out.

 

we idled it for about 20-30mins. watched the thermostat open and close a few times.

 

then when you reckon youve got all the air out, fill it up to the brim, fill up the overflow bottle, put the cap on the rad, and take it for a spin.

Edited January 9, 2012 by ke70dave

[jara]

i'll do that tomorrow. i'm new to this, so i thought a big spit meant bad haha. but shouldn't I only fill the bottle up to the bottom of the hose?

thanks

[ke70dave]

yeah sorry overflow bottle up to the "max" line on the bottle.

[jara]

So i did it for 50 minutes and by this time the bubbles were smaller and less frequent but i thought i should give it a rest. is this way too long? should i give it another go later?

 

also, it only gave one big spit at 6 or so minutes in. after that was very slow overflow. i took a few pictures of the kind of bubbles it had throughout it needeed

Edited January 10, 2012 by jara

[ke70dave]

sounds like you got a bit of air out! 6mins i would guess is about when the thermostat would open, so that would make sense to see a large bubble there. 50mins shoudl be more than plenty.

 

take it for a spin? hows the overheating?

[jara]

i'll have to take it for a long drive to find out if it helped. so i'll do something within a week hopefully. should i idle it again without the cap though? cause i was still getting bubbles

[ke70dave]

still getting bubbles after 50mins....that suggests something else is up.

 

possible headgasket.

 

you can do a cooling system test, which involves pressurising the cooling system. and seeing if it holds pressure.

 

any mechanic will do this, or if you have a compressor you can buy a kit for it, essentially its just an attachement for the top of your radiator cap, and you pump compressed air in, there is a guage so you can see if it holds pressure or not.

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Universal-Radiator-Pressure-Cooling-System-Leak-Tester-/120771521868?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c1e8b2d4c

[jara]

i'll give it one more go this afternoon. if it still bubbles, i'll take it to get a pressure test done. thanks

[altezzaclub]

cooling system test, which involves pressurising the cooling system.

 

The opposite of the leakdown test, which involves a compressor on a spark plug hole and pressurising the cylinder to see if it hold pressure.

 

Whichever one you can do easiest will tell you if the headgasket is leaking between the coolant and the combustion chamber.

 

The option is this one-

http://www.hannuahoconsulting.com.au/gallery/Tools/block-tester-combustion-leak-detector/63532

 

Which you might find a garage or radiator place able to do for you.

[Trev]

You should never let a car idle for long periods of time with the radiator cap removed, this allows localised boiling to happen sooner, 10 minute bursts should be efficient to remove air from the system.

 

If it comes to it getting to hot then put the cap on and turn the car off for a while.