macprotege5

i don't know if any of you remember about a month and a half ago i had an overheating problem. i went through all the tests and they revealed it was a sticking thermostat. so i replaced the t-stat, hoses, fan switch, and rad cap with aftermarket parts. the car has been and still is running very well since then but there is something that is still puzzling me.

yesterday when i arrived home from work i noticed a little wet trail alongside my car. so i got down to look under the car and sure enough the whole left underside of the car was soaked in coolant. i pop the hood to take a look around and notice the overflow tank is completely full. i determined that the coolant was coming from the overflow tank vent again, just like it was when i overheated previously.

the thing is this time the vehicle did not overheat at all. perhaps i caught it in time, before it had a chance to do so. i went out and checked the cooling system level the other day after a complete cool down (about 12 hours) and as i open the rad cap i hear some pressure being let out. from what i was led to believe before this is because my headgasket has failed or is about to. also what i heard was a tell tale sign of a blown headgasket would be white smoke pouring from the exhaust, or soaked plugs. both of these have not happened at all. i guess i am just curious as to whether anyone has any insight? thanks in advance.

snakeeater

Was it overfilled to begin with? It will eventually puke out any excess fluid above the rated capacity.

You positive nit wasn't running hot? Check the operation of the fans and temperature gauge.

Are you sure you got all the air out of the cooling system? Try lifting the front of the car to get the bleeder valves higher than the rest of the system when you bleed it.

Get the cooling system pressure tested. There is a tool that replaces your radiator cap with a fitting for a hand pump. Pump it up to 15 psi or so and see if it will hold pressure. If the pressure drops quickly, start looking for the leak.

If you can't find the source of the leak outside the engine, then replace the radiator cap. Finally, check for cross-contamination of engine oil and coolant that would indicate a blown head gasket.

ChefJ

I drove 80 miles home from the airport with no signs of over heating, even though I was over 1.5 gallons low on coolant.
My headgasket was blown.
It will not draw from the resoivoir at all either which is a tell tale sign that the HG is blown. Check your oil for coolant and coolant for oil. I bet you have a milkshake on your oil fill cap, if you don't now you will soon.

S2Kstuntin

You can always start the car and open the reservoir and look for bubbles. At least this is what we do with all our HMMWV's when we are suspicious of a blown head gasket.

Soul Coughing

same exact thing happened to me. If you opened your radiator cap and the pressure came out as well as there not being enough coolant in the radtiator, you probably have a blown headgasket... That pressure in the system is exhaust fumes, try smelling them and seeing if they smell of burnt hydrocarbons.

I however never had any coolant mixing with oil, so the only thing that would show that my headgasket was blown, was the coolant not going back into the radiator, after cooling down.

I needed to jack my car front end off the ground everywhere i went, so the coolant when cooling down would go back into the block, and then i could just take the contents of the coolant overflow tank and put it back in the radiator. It was a chore, but allowed me to drive my car until i could get it changed. But if you see any mayonaise type substance in your oil, or an oil slick in your radiator, dont drive your car... the coolant in your oil could wash off your bearings, which isnt good!

macprotege5

i did not overfill it to begin with. it was running fine for about a month and then this happened.

i am absolutely sure it wasn't running hot. aem ems shows no more then 205 F and the modifry temp gauge fix shows no more then three bars ever. and the fans always come on at 201-205 F

i am not totally sure i have gotten all the air out of the system, even though i have followed the instructions in xvipers write up to the t. i guess i shall try lifting the front when i bleed it today.

the system holds pressure just fine. there is no leak coming from anywhere. i have an arc rad cap which i believe is a 1.3 bar instead of a 1.1. i just got it about a month ago so i think its ok, although i haven't tested the cap though.

there is no oil in the coolant and vice versa. also there is no smoke at all coming out the exhaust. and no coolant on the spark plugs. there was plenty of coolant in the radiator after i removed it and heard the pressure being let out.

its just wierd though, that it took roughly a month to start doing this after i replaced all those cooling parts. i would think that with all of the hard driving i do that it would have showed up sooner. this sucks but if it does turn out to be a blown headgasket then i think its time to go with a built head of some sort.

macprotege5

well, i went out today to see if there was pressure left in the system and sure enough there is. the car sat for 36 hours, i opened the rad cap and coolant came pouring out. i was just in denial because i really didn't want to have to replace it but i i guess i should just bite the bullet and do it.

while i have the head off i want to see what people recommend for some head work. i looked at laskey racing's web site and the full head job seems like a reasonable price for the work done and was wondering what some opinions are on it. i just picked up a daily driver too, good timing, ha ha.

j_c_a

It had the exact same thing. Pressure in the cooling system. I didn't have oil in my coolant or vice versa, but when we pulled the head, the gasket was definately bad.