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  #61  
Old 11-23-2007, 02:06 PM
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Significant Technical Input
originally posted on 10/20/07

"I recomend you put the front of your car up on jack stands and run it until it gets hot and you find the leak. If it won't overheat at idle full of coolant that is at least a good sign. From that point to get it hotter and look for a leak that only occurs at higher pressure just unplug a fan.

If there is an external leak you should find it that way. If there isn't then you probably have a bad head gasket. Since you are not in the financial place to fix that right, if you do have a bad head gasket, get a bottle of blue devil a new factory thermostat and 2 new factory thermostat gaskets. Blue devil is a clear blue liquid. It does not have any bits and pieces of stuff in it. It DOES work. For it to work you need to drain your coolant. Drain the radiator, remove your thermostat and cut the operating parts out of it (it's only held together by some bent tabs), reinstall the thermostat, fill the system with water, disconnect the top radiator hose from the radiator, and run the engine while keeping up with adding water to the radiator with a hose as best as you can (obviously be prepared to make a mess). Then reattach your raditor hose and fill with water and the bottle of blue devil. Drive it around and get it good and hot. After a couple days drain it and install the new thermostat and coolant. (remember actually follow my directions--it won't work with coolant; it has to be in water; it will glue the thermostat closed if you leave it in). Blue devil is about $40 a bottle but it DOES work."



Honestly after a month of fiddling I don't know why people keep throwing random ideas at him and he keeps trying random things. Maybe he just doesn't own jack stands.....



Quote:
Originally Posted by Suby Fan View Post
an easy way to disable the fuel ignition system is to pull the fuel pump relay you will need a flash light to see the teeth... as far as a picture goes i dont have any but if you really need to see what the teeth look find a water pump at your local parts store LAN whats your process?
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  #62  
Old 11-24-2007, 02:06 AM
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LAN: It won't overheat at idle, that's why I wasn't doing it. I wonder how long it would take to start overheating without the fans...

Thanks everybody. Gonna be away for the weekend so I won't be able to mess with the car for a while.
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  #63  
Old 11-24-2007, 09:20 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nomake Wan View Post
I wonder how long it would take to start overheating without the fans...
About 35-40 mins. It takes mine about 30 mins to turn the fans on at idle.
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  #64  
Old 11-24-2007, 11:28 AM
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I think you're missing the point...it is highly unlikely that it will ever overheat just idling, assuming you've got the right amount of coolant in the system. The spike in the gage reading is due to the pocket of hot gas that occurs due to a very small passage from the cylinder to the water jacket (under the HG). If you really don't want to have to pull the engine and replace the HG, do as LAN has suggested (repeatedly) and get on with your driving.
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  #65  
Old 12-07-2007, 03:53 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SVXRide View Post
I think you're missing the point...it is highly unlikely that it will ever overheat just idling, assuming you've got the right amount of coolant in the system. The spike in the gage reading is due to the pocket of hot gas that occurs due to a very small passage from the cylinder to the water jacket (under the HG). If you really don't want to have to pull the engine and replace the HG, do as LAN has suggested (repeatedly) and get on with your driving.
-Bill
Updating updating updating...

I was going down the freeway yesterday on the way to a friend's house. It was about 45 minutes of driving around 65-80 MPH. I stopped outside his house and turned my lights off, waiting for him to come out and get into his car. After a few moments I heard the radiator fans kick into high speed, and thought to myself, "Wait, they shouldn't be on like that at idle." So I flicked on the dash lights and sure enough, the temp gauge was a little ways over half.

I gave it a little gas in an attempt to increase flow and it just got hotter. So I put my windows down, set the heater to full, and everything was back to normal again.

We drove to a car meet, hung out for two hours, then made the trip back. I left my heater off this time. About 3/4 of the way home the freeway closed and I had to take a detour into a city. At one of the stoplights, the car started doing the overheating thing again, so I kicked the heater back on and the temps dropped to normal once more.

I got home, and let the car sit for 24 hours. Checking the fluid levels, the overflow was right where it should be (bottom line on the tank), and while the radiator wasn't full up to the neck with fluid it did have enough to cover the metal core, which is more fluid than the radiator has ever had after it has one of these stupid overheating spells. Normally I check levels and you can see the shiny metal core but no liquid.

At this point, I don't give a crap what it is. I've already decided on the course of action. I'm re-doing the cooling stuff and replacing my timing belt. If doing that doesn't solve the problem, I'm assuming it's a headgasket, some friends and I will pull the engine, replace all the gaskets, resurface the heads, the whole deal. I'm done. Nice thing about living in SoCal is I have lots of gearhead friends with hookups for all sorts of work.

This engine has plenty of life left in it, I can feel it. No sense getting another one when I can just fix this one up. And this way it'll at least have a brand new timing belt and stuff on it, so it's one less thing I'd have to do to a replacement.

I'll keep you all updated as I do the work. It's raining right now, but if it lets up tomorrow I'll jack the car up and run it without the fans. I don't think I'm gonna find a leak but I was gonna do that test anyway. Even better that the car's been sitting for over 24 hours.

Man... sometimes you just wanna kick these things. But then you remember that they make you smile when they're running right and you just can't get rid of 'em.
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  #66  
Old 12-07-2007, 04:55 PM
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It would appear that your experiences indicate that the radiator could in some way be operating at below proper efficiency, e.g. partially blocked, because the addition of the heater core as an extra cooling medium corrects things.

You are considering an expensive exercise and caution and further investigation could be a wise move, even though at this stage frustration is the order of the day.
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  #67  
Old 12-07-2007, 07:22 PM
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running the heater is a stop-gap measure...you can definitely keep driving it, just don't get too spirited
-Bill
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  #68  
Old 12-08-2007, 05:17 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor View Post
It would appear that your experiences indicate that the radiator could in some way be operating at below proper efficiency, e.g. partially blocked, because the addition of the heater core as an extra cooling medium corrects things.

You are considering an expensive exercise and caution and further investigation could be a wise move, even though at this stage frustration is the order of the day.
Thanks Trevor. Any way to really test this? I can do radiator removal/replacement in no time, so yeah. Man, if it's this stupid aftermarket radiator I'm gonna end up putting my foot into something in the garage.
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