Nick
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,483
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Jul 12, 2006 10:28:14 GMT
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Right good folks, I'm having some serious issues the last few weeks with the supra,
first off at rotorstock(5/6 weeks ago) whilst drifting, i noticed a bit of water under the car after pulling back into the "pit " area. it had the orangey colour that my water/coolant had so i knew it was from my car,
ever since then I'm having to top it up with water daily, i just assumed that the rad had a leak in it, but after taking the rad out recently i cant see to spot any visible sign of leakage, the rad looks old though and has picked up a few dents and dings along the way though.
ive also noticed that my heaters don't blow out hot air for very long/
this all worries me as for weeks i had just been topping up the water daily and still driving it reasonably hard (digital temp guage never went above half...i now suspect it isnt reading correcttly)
so is this pretty much proof my headgasket has gone? thing is, doesnt seem to be any contamination in the oil, its not using oil any more than it always has.. and it still pulls and drives as well as ever.
I'm going up to teeside on saturday fro some drifting competition thing, so yeh any last minute ideas or whatnots,. as i am slightly worried about driving on the motorway for any prolonged period as i have enough trouble with water disapearance on my 20mile trip to work in the morning.
any help/ideas really appreciated.
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idea stolen from rattely eddie.
this weeks car count "5"
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Jul 12, 2006 10:31:56 GMT
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Sounds silly, but have you checked all the hoses etc for splits & leaks? Might just be something as simple as that.
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Jul 12, 2006 10:32:54 GMT
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I had the head gasket go on my last imp when it had the 998, strange one as it blew the gasket out the side of the head/block interface. This meant that the car drove fine with good compression and no contamination, but would lose substantial amounts of water.
J
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Last Edit: Jul 12, 2006 10:33:22 GMT by Blown_Imp
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Water leak/headgasket? helpBenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Jul 12, 2006 10:45:11 GMT
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Yeah head gaskets can do strange things - if it's blown between cylinder and water jacket, you won't get oil / water contamination. But it will pressurise the water and blow it out. The fact that the heaters don't work is a bit concerning. I'd do a compression check, then you'll know for sure. Saying that, I took a car with a busted head gasket 300 miles up the motorway before the engine went into meltdown.... I didn't know the head gasket had gone before I set off, obv ;D
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Last Edit: Jul 12, 2006 10:45:41 GMT by BenzBoy
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Jul 12, 2006 11:14:06 GMT
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It sounds fairly unlikely to be a head gasket to me, if there is no water in the oil, no oil in the water, and no bubbles coming up in the expansion bottle when it is running, you can discount the head gasket with a 97.613% certainty.
Sounds to me like a poxy little leak from somewhere - radiator, rusty coolant pipe, perforated core plug, that kind of thing.
Surely next time you see it leaking you can pop the bonnet and trace the source of it?
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1972 Fiat 130 1985 Talbot Alpine 1974 Lancia Beta Saloon 1975 + 1986 Mazda 929 Koop + Wagon 1982 Fiat Argenta 2.0 iniezione elettronica 1977 Toyota Carina TA14 BEST CAR EVER!!!!!!!! 1979 Datsun B310 Sunny 4-dr 1984 Audi 200 Quattro Turbo 1983 Honda Accord 1.6 DX GONE1989 Alfa 75 2.0 TS Mr T says: TREAT YO MOTHER RIGHT!
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Nick
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,483
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Jul 12, 2006 11:20:25 GMT
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well ive managed to check a lot of the hoses, but a couple of them run in really feckin awkward positions and being my daily driver and working a wierd shift i havent had the opportunity to check it yet. what i have just done though is had the rad and all that gubbins out again giving it a thorough going over, and what i have just noticed is, when running the water is being pumped up into the overflow pretty much straight away, and then when i turn it off the water level subsides, so i have to top it up.. then repeat that.. but not all of the coolant/water is coming out as when i drained the coolant earlier still a substantial amount came out, despite the bottom hose and top hose feeling empty.. and I'm not sure if iam technically overheating as the guage is reading right, it just gets up to middle of the guage quicker if i don't top it up in the morning and when i leave work. blah blah blah. pain in the .
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idea stolen from rattely eddie.
this weeks car count "5"
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Jul 12, 2006 11:25:50 GMT
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Massive airlock problem? I had this on a (ahem) Ford Ka, I mean Mustang GT. The heater didn't work, the car would run ot and occasioanlly throw water. All it was was an air bubble of epic proportions had gotten in there. My horrible bodge method of dealing with this is to run the car at a fast idle with the radiator cap off and stand back. After a bit it runs really hot and then theres a big old burp from the cooling system and it throws some water (not much) but the water level drops right off, then top up with hot water/antifreeeze mix. I'm not sure I advocate other people doing this but it works for me on airlocks I can''t cure by running the hoses off Another problem for running hot and losing water is the thermostat jamming. Hook it out and see if it looks shonky, test run without it and replaceif necessary. The final one I'll mention but probably won't affect yours (but others reading this thread may finnd it useful) is on older cars with the radiator cap is the twist on rathe rthan screw on type, there is a spring loaded pressure relief valve built into them. If this jams then the coolant system effectively becomes a sealled system without an expansion facility - pressurised coolant eventually blows off a hose or finds a weak point in the rad and blows out. You can get your rad pressure tested. I had a problem with the Buick when the rad didn't leak when stationary or cold but when it got good and hot (motorway running) the expansion of the metal opened up a hairline crack just enough to blow the coolant out.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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Nick
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,483
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Jul 12, 2006 11:57:02 GMT
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lets hope its a massive airlock problem, as no chance I'm going to be able to change headgasket before driving up to teeside.. i foresee stopping every 30minutes to top it up...lame:(
thanks for the help so far guys,
mr borrox the only problem with tracing the leak is ive only seen it leak once ever...and then never again, but then today saw it just pushing water straight up and out.
things like this really are a pain.
alistairk, the rad cap is one of those twist on spring loaded thingy majigies. and i have wondered about that as it looks like the original rad cap and not new and fresh, but yeh with the cap off it was just pushing water up and out. buggersss.
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idea stolen from rattely eddie.
this weeks car count "5"
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Jul 12, 2006 12:23:02 GMT
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The best method to test for head gasket failure imo is with a block tester, although unless you re in the trade you are unlikely to have 1. Its a bottle with a rubber tapered end onit which sits in place of the rad cap. You then fill it to a level with a special blue fluid that turns yellow if contaminated by exhaust fumes. If the gasket has gone between the cylider and water way then exhaust fumes get in to the water and turn the fluid yellow. don't be too hasty to be pulling your head off yet though as there are a number of reasons that could push out your water, blocked rad, thermostat to name a couple. Any restriction of the water's flow will cause back pressure which will find a route out, in your case your expansion tank.
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Jul 12, 2006 12:24:13 GMT
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thats the sort that includes a pressure relief valve. thats the spring loaded thingamajiggy.
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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