Ah. I did not know he was running the same tune for 1-2 years...

Fans should not matter if the car is moving, and the radiator has ample airflow...

John

 

Ill play devils advocate....

The fans dont do too much at speed, and since it was hot and steamy outside when he did those pulls the HG decided to kinda let go. This is what pushed the coolant out of the overflow and what kept his car running hot all the way home. Why if its been fine for 2 years would it just overheat all the sudden? This wasnt even a long drive he said, just wanted to show a coworker what the beast was all about. Little detonation, blows HG ( 3mm are likely to go with more miles too ) and thus we arrive at his current issue.

it wasnt until after the pulls that it was running hot pushing coolant out. Either hes got a bad thermostat or his HG went. But Im still going to bet that the HG went and let air into the system and created the coolant overflow, and the overheating .

 

you defend the 3mm all you want. It wont change my opinion....I think it was the 3mm HG's time to blow for him unfortunately. Pop another on and it would be fine I bet. Soul Coughing has been through what 3 3mm HG's now. Im gonna go with HG failure.

 

Im waiting for someone to say a bad tank of gas. I personally blew a headgasket. Sure my tune is obviously aggressive, but overheating is more likely to kill a headgasket than anything. I never once said and never will say i think the 3mm headgasket is as strong as stock. But a headgasket doesnt blow for no reason. And time doesnt kill a headgasket on a perfectly running engine.

The car was running fine for 1-2 years so it didnt blow from detonation because of the tune being too aggressive and i dont think you can agrue that. It COULD have blown from a bad tank of gas and like I said it COULD have blown from overheating.

 

yes it could have been a bad tank of gas, it also could have overheated first then blowing the HG. Seems to me that the OP would have seen if it was overheating before this all happend. So....something had to cause it to overheat. Thats my stance...lol.

Not trying to be dick...but I dont think you have made it clear that it wasnt the HG, and I cant make it clear that it was. It could be a number of things, but knowing their trackrecord Im going with the HG failing.

 

this is for rob!


Soul C. has had this happen before a number of times.....

 

i know they blow. Like i said i dont think they are as strong as stock either. But at the same time they dont blow for no reason. And they dont blow just because of its age.

Soulcoughing lives near me and i know him extremely well. I know he blew 3 of them. He cant come up with an explanation why any of them blew either.

I have been working on cars a long time (for a living) and know how things work from hands on experience. Its silly to say that a headgasket blew because of its age. Its a non wearable item. Its not a thermostat or a timing belt. When have you ever seen a service interval for a headgasket because i have never.

Im not trying to make you look silly or anything but telling me the headgasket failed just because of its age is ridiculous.

Ive said my points:
1-2 years on same tune without any issues tells you its not the tune.

It simply failed because it had a bad tank of gas or because something else caused the engine to overheat.

You say simply because it never overheated before that it didnt overheat this time. There is a million cars that drive around fine without problems for years and then all of a sudden it overheats in traffic one day. Just about every component in the cooling system can fail. thermostat, radiator, waterpump, fans, hoses, fan switch, I can say i have seen every single one of these go bad at work on several cars at some point in my career.

 

Seems they blow for soul @ a certain mileage....seems related to mileage or age to me.

Just gonna call it like I see it, I am not a mechanic but do all my own builds, help with other peoples stuff, etc....so I know what Im talking about too. Having said that those HG's blow with little to no explanation....seems to me they arent like a regular HG and thus you cannot put them into the same category as a regular stock HG which by the way are proven to not blow all the time.


Yes it does sound silly because a regular MLS HG will and should last the life of the motor that its on. Thats not the case for the 3mm as they dont seem to last the life of the motor or even 1/4 of the life of the motor. Thats why I say for the 3mm HG maybe this is a life expectancy that we should be considering. I know its just a stock gasket material layed over the thicker part....but maybe because its thicker is holds more heat making it more prone? I have no idea. Just trying to figure this out for the OP and anoyone else who runs these HG's.

 

The fans DO turn on at highway speeds and, in fact, play a very large role in cooling the car down. With the intercooler in front of the radiator, it's very hard to get sufficient air flow past it. The fans are 100% needed to keep the temperatures from creeping too high when driving at highway speeds, even if it's just cruising. I do have a water temp gauge and I can watch the temps fluctuate at speed just as they do at a stop light. Rise to ~200-205F, fans on and rad fully open, drop to 190F, fans off rad semi open, rinse and repeat. Fans are not speed sensitive.

 

agree to disagree. You know i like you andy i just state what i know from experience. Im not here to bad mouth anyone here as you know.

You say the headgasket failed, i say it failed because a bad tank of gas or overheating.