Part car, part kettle! Help me!!

[__Nick__]

Need to rack everyones brains again here, hopefully somebody can help me.

Basically my cars been a ****(you choose) recently. Had lots of problems with overheating. Followed by exhaust blowing, followed by lights bursting and screws going everywhere but where they should be!!! These things happen in threes peope keep telling me

Everything else has been fixed, expensively, but fixed. However, the car is being persistant in overheating at random times.

So far, my mechanic has....

1) flushed it through
2) replaced the thermostat
3) removed the thermostat (test)
4) sniffer test to check if head gasket is playing games
5) power flushed it (bigger hose i presume)
6) replaced the radiator with one from rogue - he wasn't so keen on the minus one bleed valve.


This is getting long so I'll wrap it up.....Does anybody have any suggestions as to what on earth it could be?? (The mechanic has been doing the work free of charge since the 2nd visit because it's annoying him as much as it is me btw!)

So yeah,

HELP!!!

[Dale_V]

Headgasket or cracked block?

[__Nick__]

Headgasket I've been told is fine, sniffer test came back good.

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic. ... c&start=20

Have been reading through this thread (amongst many others), seems like a lot of people have similar problems.

Forgot to mention a defining feature of this one. Basically to avoid those problems, I've been filling the coolant up every morning, and recently even after a good 12hours of sitting there is pressure in the system and it sprays out each time I open it up.

Coolant cap has been replaced also btw.

[Frustrated Pilot]

Then you have the same problem I had... cracked block.

Take the head off, and the shiney cylinder (steam cleaned one) is the culprit..

[Frustrated Pilot]

forgot to mention.. I had EVERYTING REPLACED... then found out it was a cracked block... then needed new engine.

[Dale_V]

I had same problems as you describe too, it was a cracked block

[Dale_V]

Headgasket I've been told is fine, sniffer test came back good.

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic. ... c&start=20

Have been reading through this thread (amongst many others), seems like a lot of people have similar problems.

Forgot to mention a defining feature of this one. Basically to avoid those problems, I've been filling the coolant up every morning, and recently even after a good 12hours of sitting there is pressure in the system and it sprays out each time I open it up.

Coolant cap has been replaced also btw.

if there is pressure in the system after 12 hours of a cool down, then that means exhaust gasses HAVE got into the coolant system. 2 ways it can do it

1) through the headgasket
2) through the block if its cracked

is there any external leaks on the engine block?

leak down and compression test would be the next way forward

[2barGee]

Part car, part kettle! Help me!!

My old old old old mr2...... i've had a few now, used to sound like a kettle, basically the rad cap in the engine bay was slightly leaking so it would actually start to whistle.

Get that changed mate and all your problems might go away, worth a try fella

[Tiny]

fisrt things first is a leak down test

if thats negative and from what you have been describing about the pressure in the system 12 hours later you probably dont need this next bit.

Have you checked the Water pump?

Have you bled the cooling system properly ?

[__Nick__]

some fairly grim answers there!!

Being the hopefull soul that I am, lets play with the other options...

1) Leak down test - what and how?? (coolant system has been bled about4 times, although mechanic has complained because the radiator doesn't have a bleed valve - any suggestions??)

2) The kettle thing died down a bit with the new cap i must admit, now just plays yoyo with temperatures and boils out the cap

3) Pressure test? again what, and how?

Then the scary one....being utterly useless at the technical side, is the cracked block an easy thing to check for? If so, anybody willing to give me more details on the how?

Really hope it isn't that after just spending a fortune on it

Thanks for all the input tho, much appreciated!

[Frustrated Pilot]

hmmmm...

I will let tiny detail the leak down test...

But as far as checking the cracked block... you have to disasemble the entire engine back to the bottom half of the engine.

When you open it up you should see one shiney cylinder and piston.. there even may be a small hair line crack visible.



see, the shiney one is the faulty one...

looks like this in detail.

[__Nick__]

Hey again, bringing this topic back to the top for a min.

Just a word for anyone experiencing problems such as mine, after all the hassle I had, basically have managed to sort the problem by taking out every part of the cooling system and having each individual part washed/scrubbed individually (so the mechanic has said)...

Have given the car a good boot for the past couple of weeks on nothing but water, and haven't experienced a single blip on the temperature! Idles perfectly and cools like it should.

Thought the masses suffering similar problems might like this as a suggestion before resorting to the expensive stuff!
Car is going back in for nice big service and some new coolant next week!

My wallet and I are chuffed to bits!

Thanks again for all the help tho, everybody was very helpful and friendly!

[JJ]

Yours being a normally aspirated is less likely to crack the block. Your note in indicating no bleed tap on the radiator will have been the culpret as there is no way in bleeding the system properly ....

Reading through the post, I would have said the head gasket would have been a gonna, even if you have had sniffer tests done.. you're introducing water all the time and diluting the coolant !!

Fingers cross for a permanant repair !