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*Was originally posted in the "under the hood section" figured I'd post it here.*
Hey guys, hoping someone can help identify if I'm having a blown hg related issue.
I have a 04 s2k with a Laskey built engine, supertech springs and retainers, ARP headstuds, OEM headgasket and a Fullrace GTX3076r turbo kit. Also have coolant lines going to the turbo, SPAL fans, Mishimoto fan shroud and a koyorad radiator. I'm running 23psi on E85. Have been for a long time now.
What has been happening is when I drive the car, my temps used to stay around the 181-187 range, with and without A/C on. When I would beat on it temps would rise to about 190-194. Not bad. When I would beat on it for a long period of time (I.E. getting tuned) my overflow for the coolant would fill up, a lot. Then in the morning would drop back down. My heater used to blow super hot so I never worried about it, even though it was kind of odd. I even changed the rad cap thinking that was the problem, but it still continued.
I got a road tune on Friday and car was great. Temps were solid etc. Let it sit until Saturday evening. Went to drive it and made it maybe 2 miles from my house when I noticed my water temps were 220+. I put the heater full blast and its ice cold. I have bled the coolant hundreds of times on my s, every way possible. Nevertheless, decided to bleed the coolant again.
While bleeding the coolant, the heater would get hot hot, like its supposed to and my temps would stay solid. Fans would also cycle on and off. I'd take the car for a spin around the block and boom, heater blows cold again, and temps rise. I saw something on here about maybe possible head lift with the ARPs, so today I pulled everything off, and re-torqued the head-studs to 90ftlbs. Bled the coolant two more times, heater blows piping hot now. Went and drove it and heater stayed super hot and temps looked perfect. Thought I had solved it. WRONG. I let it sit for a few hours. Went to drive it tonight, heater blows ice cold and temps went to 220+ again. Super frustrating.
I'm not seeing any mixing of oil and coolant. Not in the valve cover, the oil cap, the rad, or the radiator overflow. Even drained the oil. No chocolate, watery looking oil. I'm so confused at this point, and really tired of bleeding coolant. Should I just go ahead and pull the head off? Spark plugs look good too. The car does smoke a bit, but it has since I swapped in the built motor 3 years ago.
Car has been turbo for seven months now and has given me cooling issues in the past. I spent the $ and got the big radiator and giant fans and it solved the issues, but now they're back and way worse.
Hoping you guys can help me diagnose whats going on here.
Thanks.
Forgot to mention that the car was Supercharged before I went turbo and had zero issues with cooling then....
Its overheating during any type of driving. Not so much idling. If I go into boost the temps drop, but as soon as I come to a stop temps rise fast. No smoke other than black smoke coming from the exhaust.
I haven't done a compression test yet.
Oreilly autoparts has high quality free to borrow coolant pressure tester. Also there is a quick chemical test you can do to check for blown head gasket. Agree with compression test plus leakdown test. Those should be done and documented every other month imo if your FI
I've done the Chemical test awhile back when I was having cooling issues, and the test showed the Head gasket was fine. I'll give the pressure test a try, and do a compression test as well.
that test will show false negatives a lot. ive tried it. better just pull the head, do the studs if you havent already. Believe me, ive done more HG that most here and always do every test and they ll seem to be inconclusive/not definite, but as soon as i see the gasket, yup.
Soon as you had someone mess with tune, sounds like HG went.... My guess... too much timing, getting high cylinder pressure/temps, and one lifted head or getting some detonation causing lifting and HG failure.
If you want ill look at your tune, no charge, and if you have any logs...
This is my guess.... Alot of unexperienced tuners will throw alot a timing at a E85 car thinking they cant hurt anything.... well most time it wont "Hurt" anything.... but you can still have too much timing, and doing more bad than good. Than head lifts happen.
BTW all those tests suck, if your coolant system is getting super pressurized, and getting air pockets, car getting hot, pushing a'lot of coolant into over flow... all are characteristics of HG.
09-04-2018, 08:40 PM
Blown HG??
