Hey fellow s2k lovers. I'm new to this forum stuff (1st time post)but have learned some good things from reading diff problems solved. Had my 03'S for 5 years now with almost 86K miles. Basically stock w/K&N intake system a year ago. In January I decided to tackle cylinder head removal myself after compression issues. The machine shop reseated the valves and shaved .008" off the head due to warpage. Everything went back together fine, valve adjustments, new NGK IR plugs, belt, injection gaskets, cleaned out intake manifold system and cleaned up heavy burnt oil and carbon off the cylinder heads, taking care to tape off the rest of motor to prevent debris and left old oil in place to drain out any crap at the end. Of course all new gaskets at cylinder head intake & exhaust manifolds, vtec sol gasket too & manifold cover etc. The car is running good. I like to wind it up. (That's why we like these cars.) Now to get to my problem which I hope you all can help with. I've done all the radiator bleeding, burping and just bought the funnel fill kit. That thing works great. I understand the air & steam problem. Replaced both thermostat & rad cap w/oem. Pressure tested both rad & cap no leaks. When I drive car normal and don't exceed 5K rpm, the engine cooling system cycles fine, fan switch at 209 F when stopped and idle, 187 to 192 when driving air flow. After this the reservoir level stayed same at min. Let cool a little and start driving up to 6K rpm. Engine cooling system still working fine, but reving the engine a little harder and at 6K while driving. Reseroir level is now at max level. So I park the car and let it sit over night and it's still at max level. In other earlier runs at 7 to 8 or 8.5 K in 4 to 5 gears the reservoir fills up completely, but the engine does not over heat. (I have an Inovate Motorsports OBD-2 wi-fi temp guage to my iPhone). ??Under normal conditions WHEN SHOULD the overflow siphon back into the radiator cooling system? I can tell the thermostat opens at about the proper temp by watching the actual temp guage and feeling the lower rad hose go from cool to hot and the temp drops down to upper 180's/190 F. If I drive it easy no problem. No Fun! I'm considering removal of the thermostat. I've checked everywhere for leaks. Water pump weep holes look fine. Pressure tested up to 24 psi and cap releases at about 20 psi. Never had any coolant issues before the engine rebuild. Do I have a blockage somewhere? High rpm water pumping creating too much pressure and cap releasing into reseroir? How can I test flow of radiator if there is a blockage of some kind there or in the water pump itself. And no codes either. Oil looks fine too. That's it. I hope someone, two, or more of you all can help me solve this problem or give me some insight where else to look.

Thanks for taking time to read.

 

What were the compresssion issues that caused you to originally rework the head?

 

I had low compression in #1 Cyl and the leakdown was like 80-90% which I tested myself and then verified at a local Jap shop. I have to replace the bypass bleed cap tonight as the original cap cracked and split from age and bleeding. But I had a temporary fix to seal it and pressure test was good. I'm going to use the spill-free funnel system (warm up and cycle engine for a while)along with bleading both valves to get all the air out and then pressure test again and hope for a better result, but still looking to know what's normal time for coolant to siphon back into rad system. I would assume after engine cools down. How do I get this into the Under The Hood forum? I thought I put it there.