After a 1000km trip this past weekend, I get home to find out my overflow/reservoir was spewing out coolant....tried a few things over the past couple days.
Put in a new T-stat (dealer)
Changed the res. cap.
Put in another waterpump.
Bled the system to get rid of any air pockets.
Same thing, too much pressure.
I searched and read of few similar posts, and have spoken to a buddy of mine who says headgasket, what do you guys think? Safe to say I need to change the hg?
Got my own little fountain of hot water goin on...
Vid 1
Vid 2
could very well be a headgasket. If a piston is pumping air into the cooling system, I could see it getting pressurized and coming out like the 'fountain' in your video. Do a compression test and see what the #'s are like, they should be within 10% of each other.
Hopefully I will get a chance to get to the shop....does it make sense that it only does that after the coolant warms up and does a couple cycles?
its the head gasket mine did it this winter and i chnged it with 30 below weather in a heated garage and it sucked but i saved like 400 plus dollars
Ya, I have done it before in my 97....not worried about labour costs....looks like I have a project for saturday morn....
My headgasket change didnt go very smoothly today,
Got the gasket changed started bolting everything back up, started installing the rockers, made it to the fifth one and when it started to snug up and compress the valve spring, the damn thing popped right off and pulled 7 threads out with it, cant get it to bite at all....
Well, got the head changed, new gaskets, and i flushed everything I could trying to get rid of the air. Same symptoms, coolant is bubbling over in the overflow....you guys think its air??? Any secrets to bleeding this thing???
does the coolant look black or like theres oil in it at all?
do you have in the dex-cool? If you do get ride of the s#$t it eat the head right off. I had to buy a new head and all new gaskets for my car this week. It sound like the head gasket is done for. check your oil is it milky????
Regardless of what coolant is in there - you need to do a pressure test of the system. If pressure is getting into the system somewhere, then there has to be a way for the coolant to get out as well.
You didn't see anything unusual with the head off? Usually if it's allowing pressure into the cooling system, it will also allow coolant into that cylinder. The spark plug would have likely looked very clean on the one that has any coolant getting in. If the coolant has gotten into the oil, then you could have worse problems. Other than the gasket, a cracked head or block could allow this to happen as well. Coolant in the oil tends to do very nasty things to bearings in a very short period of time. The last time I experienced that with an engine, I started shopping for a good used motor - it was easier and cheaper than trying to fix the old one once it's that bad.
A compression test may also help to find the culprit. I suspect though that your spark plugs probably had a story to tell though...
Keep us posted.
John
Yes, Turns out that the rad cap I swapped too must have been bad/weak as well, went and picked up a NEW 15psi Prestone Overflow cap, problem solved.....
Sure I feel like a dick, and knowing a rad cap coulda saved me some trouble....but that's life, I will know for next time...
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Thursday, July 10, 2008 5:44 AM
I used new everything on mine even a new head.
ya, my oil wasnt milky, coolant wasnt oily, just boiled over, most of the stuff I used was swapped over from a working vehicle, until after I changed the gasket/head and found it still boiling over, so I tried a brand new coolant cap...and so far after half a dozen heat cycles no loss of coolant and not a drop has come out of the tank...
