if not a blown headgasket...then what?

[YoungGunSupra]

hey guys, ive been having such bad luck recently with my car. within the last 2 weeks i got a fix it ticket, someone hit me, just a fender bender but 1000 dollars in damages regardless. couldnt pass smog, and to top it all off as im exiting the freeway to get to driftmotion my car shuts off on me and i notie the temperature gage is 80% up (hasnt hit the red yet). so i pull over and pop the hood, the fluid reservoir is shaking violently, all the hoses are burning hot. i let it sit for a little bit and coolant/water starts leaking out of the reservoir slowly. let it sit for a bit more, drive it over to aarons open the hood again and when i open up the resevoir it is 90% full with a dirty murky water. i open the radiator when it cools, and theres some brown sludge near the opening. at this point i was almost sure i blew my headgasket.. (its not a MHG, didnt have to rebuild the engine yet) so i wait for carlos to get in to take a look at it. They do a block test and miraculously he said it wasnt a BHG. i was so relieved. but what what explains the brownish murky water and the over heating? we couldnt find any bad hoses, (visual inspection didnt really look through everything). so anyways after that the car wasnt over heating anymore, i took it over to Aaron's smog guy, sam over at arrow smog (who is the best smog guy i have ever encountered, explained everything to me, took his time, and got me to pass smog. (the other guys told me i needed a new cat and i wouldnt pass smog blah blah blah. anyways he told me i had an exhaust leak, (exhaust manifold leak) which i guess is a bitch to get to on our cars, i was told over 4 hours in labor. and someone bypassed my EGR solenoid. so i just gotta get that fixed. (anyone have input on the exhaust leak?) anyways, sam said a reason i might have over heated the way i did is because i had the AC on, on a hot summer day in southern california, and iw as driving up a pretty big hill on the 10east (off kellog where CPP is) cuz thats happened to him before, so he suggested i just dont use the ac anymore to avoid over heating. so i drove home after (about 80 miles) and it was fine. no more over heating..

Anyone have some input on m¥ over heating problems?!


** i forgot to mention after i let her cool down and tried to drive over to aarons, the car would start up to 1k RPM and in about a second or two just die on me. i did this three times and finally just revved it right when it started up to 3k and it stayed on. this happaned again today , took me 3 tries.

thanks

john

 

[Turbo Habanero]

Do you have a Fan Shroud?

I live in Southern AZ just as hot if not hotter and i have never over heated just cause.....

I'd do a leak down test

check out your fan clutch and do a radiator flush.

After doing the flush inspect old Fluid for oil.

 

[YoungGunSupra]

yea i have a new fan shroud, new radiator, new hoses, fan clutch is fine, did all this about a year ago. carlos did a block leak down test i believe. he used a blue fluid and put it with some canister on top of the radiator. im pretty sure thats a leak down test isnt it?

 

[Backlash2032]

No, thats just testing the coolant for combustion gasses.

A leak down is pressurizing the cooling system (with a gauge of course) and watching to see if the gauge goes down at all. It shouldn't
Or pressurizing the combustion chambers and watching to see how much the gauge goes down (it will. Rings never seal fully. Thats why we need PCV systems)

 

[YoungGunSupra]

well the car isnt running like shit or anything..so it shouldnt be a blown head gasket right? ive been driving it for the last 4 days. hasnt over ehated. running normal

 

[mk3_7m]

With my engine, My water pump was made out of cast iron, so the fact that it would retain heat way better than stainless steel (which was the new water pump I swapped in) It would pump in coolant hotter than what it was in the radiator. That was my experience though.

 

[bioskyline]

. so i pull over and pop the hood, the fluid reservoir is shaking violently, all the hoses are burning hot. i let it sit for a little bit and coolant/water starts leaking out of the reservoir slowly.

john

your boiling over, which means collant isnt cooling or flowing right. common prob is mineral/rust deposits in the cooling jackets that dodnt allow full transfer of heat. and having the ac on uphill in the heat was to much for it to handle. also im assuming that you have antifrezze in the rad and not just water, and the water pump is fine.

one way to test this is use a inferred themometer on the motor and rad for hot/cold spots. also check the themostat, make sure its working.

 

[Poodles]

Radiator cap or any other way to lose pressure in the system will cause localised boiling and rapid overflow and overheat.

 

[bassjunkiens5]

What condition is your turbo in? That could explain the murky coolant. The start up issues could be the ISC, TPS, vac leak, or the EGR not hooked up properly. 4 hours in the exhaust mani is bs. It shouldn't take more than 45 mins for a comptent mechanic.

I had a similar issue with smog. Everything was correct, new cats, good gas, all the little tricks. Well, it was orginally my brother in laws car and while I was overseas he took it to Firestone who did a bunch of pointless work to fix an overheating issue (fan blade broke causing the water pump to fail). Anyways, they had the wrong thermostat in it as well as cracking the insulators in the spark plugs. So, check the plugs for and cracks (black lines on the insulator, white part) and pull the thermostat and see what it's rated for. It should have a 192*F in it.

 

[YoungGunSupra]

turbo is good, had it rebuilt and installed by driftmotion less than 8000 miles ago, we checked the egr and all that everything looked ok, but some mechanc had bypased the solenoid but it dindt make a big difference..are you sure about the no more than 45 minutes? i read on here a couple times somewhere that alot of people said its a bitch and i was told by a reputable supra repair shop that its about that much labor