How hard is it to blow a headgasket on a KA?

[LA_phantom_240]

Apparently, it must be harder than I thought. I had to bring my dad the some keys so he could lock the shop up, and left the car running because it was supposed to be an in and out affair...but he decided to lecture me about something while the car was idling in the lot. I finally left the shop to see my car billowing out steam from the reservoir. Apparently my fan didn't turn on when it was supposed to so I manually turned it on. At this point, the temp gauge was PAST the line on the hot mark, and I thought I was totally boned. Within seconds the temp started to drop, and within a minute it was at normal operating temp. No steam from the tailpipe, and I'm going to check the coolant tomorrow for oil contamination. Just as a little insurance, I made sure not to shut the car off, and also left it running a few minutes with the fan manually on just to make sure nothing else was going to happen. I've been told that if your coolant is boiling over not to shut off the car because it stops circulation and actually gets HOTTER as it sits. She ran great on the way home, no problems yet... but I'm DEFINITELY going to look into a better fan controller, and a small primary fan to run all the time, with the bigger only coming on when needed.

Apparently KA's are hard to kill.

[drift-it]

Yeah I wouldn't be too worried about it, it should still be fine, take a peak at the coolant just in case.

[LA_phantom_240]

Boy, the smell of boiling coolant inside your car after something like that sucks. It brings a feeling of guilt like you just abused your girlfriend or something.

[LA_phantom_240]

UPDATE: LOL.
It has been cold and rainy here in Louisiana for the past couple days, and so my temperature needle never left the 'c' while driving, which lead me to believe that I either had a bad thermostat, or no thermostat. Well, after this overheat escapade, now it comes up to normal operating temperature, even while moving (gasp). This is either good or bad. Good if it fixed a sticking thermostat, bad if I don't have one and now it is just running hotter. In any case, she still idles fine, has plenty of power, and doesn't need my fan running as long as I'm not stuck in heavy traffic.
God I love my 240.

[burnsauto]

i'd still get in there and make sure everything is working correctly...ie. thermostat, fan, coolant temp sensor, etc. BUT, im glad to see another ka hasnt died just yet. :)

[LA_phantom_240]

i'd still get in there and make sure everything is working correctly...ie. thermostat, fan, coolant temp sensor, etc. BUT, im glad to see another ka hasnt died just yet. :)

I sure would hope not. This is the 2nd KA I know of that has been in this car. The first died of reasons unknown to me before I bought it. I would assume it was drift abuse, judging from the mass of melted rubber in the rear wheel wells. The fan works fine, the thermostat is going to get replaced as soon as I have time and money (I'm flat broke), the temp sensor is getting replaced as well. When I go to take it tomorrow, I'll check the coolant and oil for contamination.

[!Zar!]

KA's are too easy to blow from overheating.

Chances are you head is warped. Just not bad enough to have problems yet.

[scrod]

hahaha it happened to me one time. my resivor tank was boiling for like 5 mins after i turned the car off

[lilredstiffy]

Don't trust the stock thermostat, I've lost a motor to it before. If you have bad enough of an issue, it will stick on normal from reading steam in the motor or something like that. Are you sure you don't have a leak in your system?

Also the motor shouldn't sit at cold after running, so could be thermostat or temp gauge. The gauge temp sensor is the one on the right (one wire).

[LA_phantom_240]

Don't trust the stock thermostat, I've lost a motor to it before. If you have bad enough of an issue, it will stick on normal from reading steam in the motor or something like that. Are you sure you don't have a leak in your system?

Also the motor shouldn't sit at cold after running, so could be thermostat or temp gauge. The gauge temp sensor is the one on the right (one wire).

The temp sensor works fine. The gauge reads just a hair below where i think it should as far as at normal operating temp (approx 170*). There are no leaks in the system, I take meticulous care of my car, especially the engine bay. I clean it like every week to make sure I don't have any new leaks starting.

Like I said, the car overheated because I have a shitty probe-style thermostatic control for my electric fan. We all know they don't work as well as they should, and I've learned my lesson. As soon as my income taxes come in, I'm getting the FAL 212 fan setup, with an adjustable fan controller. I'm not sure how I'm going to set up the temp sensor for the fans yet, but it has to get done.

[unicoladron]

an an event such as that (overheating) you should immediately turn your HEAT on full blast mang. i had something similar happen to me when i had air pockets in my coolant system. and it's def agood practice to keep the car running, bad bad bad to just turn it off like that.

[LA_phantom_240]

an an event such as that (overheating) you should immediately turn your HEAT on full blast mang. i had something similar happen to me when i had air pockets in my coolant system. and it's def agood practice to keep the car running, bad bad bad to just turn it off like that.

Yeah, well my blower only works when it feels like (Bad HVAC control?), but it was on heat. It was cold as hell outside, which is why it was on heat anyway.

I took her out for a drive today, and the temp gauge was more stable than I'd ever seen. Idling at a light, she didn't climb, cruising at 55 she didn't drop all the way down like usual. I'm thinking that in some strange coincidence that my thermostat was stuck open and somehow boiling the hell out of it freed it. Idk, but she's more stable temp-wise than ever, and still runs like a champ.

[unicoladron]

Yeah, well my blower only works when it feels like (Bad HVAC control?), but it was on heat. It was cold as hell outside, which is why it was on heat anyway.

I took her out for a drive today, and the temp gauge was more stable than I'd ever seen. Idling at a light, she didn't climb, cruising at 55 she didn't drop all the way down like usual. I'm thinking that in some strange coincidence that my thermostat was stuck open and somehow boiling the hell out of it freed it. Idk, but she's more stable temp-wise than ever, and still runs like a champ.

lol looks like you've discovered a new method to enhance troubled cooling systems; you should call it...."cooling system therapy"

[LA_phantom_240]

lol looks like you've discovered a new method to enhance troubled cooling systems; you should call it...."cooling system therapy"

Hey, at least I'm not overcooling the motor anymore. I would go out for drives in this weather, and when I got home, the radiator would barely be warm. I can still take the radiator cap off without getting sprayed though. S14 cooling is beastmode.