KA Overheating Issues.....

[loveskylines]

Ok first of all please dont give me ur two cent crap about searching.:fawk2:

I've already searched and already completed nearly everything there is to do/change with the cooling system just short of getting a new motor....

Honestly if I dont fix this problem by the end of the week the car will be for sale, this is how sick of this nissan KA shit I am.

I have changed thermostats, new and used, flushed the system 3 times, changed the water pump with new and used ones, swapped out radiators, changed out fans(pulley type), and bled the fuck out of the system....my last Acura NEVER gave me this many issues....

Your educated comments are much appreciated, stupid flames etc please move on to another thread. I'm at my wits end on resolving this problem.

Oh and yes I bled the system with the heater on, at idle, WOT in reverse, and while standing on my fucking head.

Oh I also have changed the temp sensor 4 times, and changed the cluster once.

[xsparc]

blown head gasket? bad rad cap? timing way to advanced?

[loveskylines]

compression is at 190-200 all the way across rap hold pressure

thanks for the input

[xsparc]

so let me get this right... you have a known good cap, no leaks, new WP and thermostat (is it in backwards? i did it before), new rad, new fan, new temp sensor (ecu and cluster), flushed everything, good compression, and bled the system?

did you check the timing?
how fast does it over heat?
is the upper hose getting too hot to touch?

[genericforumname]

my s14 seems to have a slow leak from one of the radiator hoses, you should check those if they've never been replaced, also my throttle body would occasionally get stuck in a position and stay open, fixed by cleaning it off.

neither of these are likely problems but anything might work.

the only other thing would be that you just have a crappy radiator thats died (do you have alot of bent fins?)

[super240sx7185]

Jack the front of the car up and open cap sit a small funnel in it fill with coolant like inch from top let car run while squeezing hose. It takes awhile but im quite sure its air like always with ka's

[DreamN]

^ I'm with him. Air pockets are just a bitch to get out with these motors for some reason.

[loveskylines]

xsparc (http://www.zilvia.net/f/member.php?u=2125): timing was good a few months back, and havent messed with it since... but will check again....
it overheats sometimes within 10 minutes under light load(driving) the upper hose is hot thelower hose is warm to the touch...

sometimes the right(drivers) side of the radiator is completely cool to the touch while the opposite side is hot
the temp sensor will stay on "c" for a long time then go middle, then shoot to "h" stay there awhile then come back down.(usually) other times while driving it goes all the way up or all the way down. i've been told that, that is usually air in the line..... but i'm 99% sure there is little to no air




genericforumname (http://www.zilvia.net/f/member.php?u=62701): i dont quite understand the correlation of the throttle body to the cooling system, please explain but it is clean nonetheless

crappy radiator? OEM whatever you consider that i guess??

there are not a ridicilous amount of bent fins, but yes there are a few bent fins... nothing i would go crazy about..

thanks for the input

[loveskylines]

i did the whole jacking up the car thing..i even put the front end only on a hoist and raised it about 18 inches off the ground..

i can understand air causing it to fluctuate up and down, within the middle to top.... but what would cause it to stay down at "c" ????

sometimes after 10-15 minutes of driving it would be at "middle" then shoot up to "h" for 5 minutes then come all the way down to "c" and stay there for 5-10 minutes at a time..??

[xsparc]

A) if part of the rad is cold and the other is hot then its a bad rad
B) if it goes full hot then cold, you have a flow (or bloackage or bubble) problem

... or you have a short (goes to H) or open (goes to C) somewhere and its not really overheating

[Z U L8R]

how many gallons of coolant is in it? if only 1 gallon then yeah there's a big air pocket, if you have 2 gallons in there then lets move on.

1. when you installed the thermostat did you have the the air bleeder at the top.

2. start the car and let it warm up. feel the upper and lower radiator hoses, also feel the heater hoses. a clogged heater core could be a possible culprit in your situation.

you said you have the heat on when you were burping it. were you getting warm air out of the vents?

i also recommend checking the ignition timing. that was a good suggestion.

when refilling the coolant, if you take out the 10mm bleeder screw that's in the intake manifold right where the upper radiator hose goes, you'll find you don't have to spend all day adding that second gallon of coolant/water.

post update
gl,
Dave

2

[DreamN]

That sounds like a bad temp sensor to me.

[genericforumname]

on mine the throttle plate itself would "stick" open and wouldn't close fully, even when idling or otherwise just driving around. if yours is idling normal it probably wouldn't be that.

edit: are your fans operating normally?

[nicku]

my friend with his s14 KA has been overheating for the past half year.
We changed thermostat 4 times....all brand new ones, changed to aluminum radiator, changed the radiator hoses, bled the shit out of the system, new water pump...the only thing we could think of was the headgasket. We pulled out the head and sent to machine shop. It turned out the head was bad. the, he bought a part car with a working KA. Test drove the car, it wasnt overheating at all...the engine was very strong and nice.
so we swapped the engine. and after that the car was still overheating like before. Changed ECU, cts, blocked the heater core..nothing changed.

so we let the car ran without thermonstat. The car is supposed to have lower temperature. however, the car is running normal temperature.

We dont know what is going on now.....anybody any idea?

[loveskylines]

xsparc (http://www.zilvia.net/f/member.php?u=2125) the weird one side hot and other side cold happened to two different radiators..other than the one i currently have..

same with the all hot to all cold??

Z U L8R (http://www.zilvia.net/f/member.php?u=53770) i have nearly two complete containers full of fluid. the heater blows out hot air on hot setting and cool air on cool setting... no funny smells... no leaking on the floor


also did use the bleeder screw....

how does the ignition timing affect coolent temp?


what do you guys think of those "super flush"or radiator cleaner additives?

i've heard that they can ruin seals? any input??

thanks for the input

[Z U L8R]

zomg thread jack >_< lol

let a professional work on the car @ nicku , paying him just to isolate the problem or even fix it for that matter would have been way cheaper than throwing parts at the thing like you guys did.

sometimes the forum gods are only as good as the information the OPer provides. it's a whole nother story to have a car with a problem in front of someone who knows what they're doing.

anywho, gl OPer

[loveskylines]

ya thanks for the thread jack nicku...but its ok..=|

neway.. i mainly replaced my parts for maintaince reasons....but it seems not to be doing what its supposed to! fuck KA's!

[Z U L8R]

advanced timing raises cylinder temps thus raising the coolant temps in the water jackets flowing around the cylinder, thus raising overall engine coolant temp.

does coolant bubble over when overheating? do you have a digital temp gun you can take readings in different areas with? did you put the bleeder screw at the top when you installed the thermostat?

what year 240? is that the ka that came with the car? do you have a fan shroud?

Dave =]

[xsparc]

some irridium(sp?) plugs can cause overheating too. if you have the wrong heat range of plug, the cooling system cant keep up with the head temps. i know this from experiance with my first 240 i got some some dude in long beach, dumbass used plugs 2 ranges too hot.

timing can also cause really high head temps is its too far advanced, like what can happen if you try to set timing without disconnecting the tps. check that shit.

[xsparc]

does coolant bubble over when overheating? do you have a digital temp gun you can take readings in different areas with?
do you have a fan shroud?

Dave =]

those were my next ideas!!! good job dude

[Z U L8R]

*hands you an intercooler while shrugging :bigok: *

i thought i was the only person that has ever seen too hot of a spark plug cause overheating.

OP, you should have bkr5e's in it fwiw
gl :D

Dave

[loveskylines]

Z U L8R (http://www.zilvia.net/f/member.php?u=53770) yes the jiggle valve is at the top with the pointed side toward the front of the car. the car is a 89 the motor honestly is known due to the moron who installed it didnt tell me....but was told it was a 95, i checked for the vin plate above the starter but none was found.

i have a OEM fan and shroud, the fan clutch does engage

i will change the plugs tomm and check the timing... the strange thing is that it didnt overheat for about 2-3 weeks... now it does..?

[xsparc]

when i had the wrong plugs, mine didnt do anything wrong for like a month, when i started to really get on it, then it did it everyday.

oh, when its overheating, turn the heater on, if it stops blowing HOT air and starts to cool off after about 30-60 sec, then you def have a flow issue.

if everthing else checks out, also try to run it without a thermostat, it should take forever to get to temp and never overheat... SHOULD...

[loveskylines]

hmm it actually did not have a thermostat when i first cracked it open......ive read some thread stating good and bad things about it... but it seemed to run fine without it.... i live in so cal too so the weather is not too extreme one way or the other....

i'll take it back out tomm but if it overheats imma take ur maglite and wack u in the head with it...:keke:

[daredevildoug]

i have the same problem with my KA. i thought i was buying defective Thermo's but its seems to be something else. I am running without a thermostat until the prblem is further resolved. the temp stays in the middle for some odd reason, when it should be below the 180 degree mark. good luck with the fix. keep us posted.

[super240sx7185]

I'm still thinking it's air because everytime i open my system i have to spend awhile getting it out, sometime it takes driving until i see the temp rise then breaking the bleeder loose let air out tighten try again, but make sure to keep the overflow full. I have even bought a 240 for really cheap because they thought the engine was bad when it was just air.

[loveskylines]

thanks for the help and words of encouragement, although i just got to work and my stupid car was on "h" the last 10 min or so here... i honestly dont even know if its overheating or not anymore...

[xsparc]

so when you got to work, was it bubbling over?

just to check something, by any chance is the terminal for the cluster temp sensor loose at all? i know they go bad really easily

[Z U L8R]

when you say you changed the coolant temp sensor, you mean the coolant temp sending unit right? it's got 1 male blade terminal sticking up out of the top of it? and you got the coolant temp sending unit for your s13 yes?

Dave

[Saviorsoul]

on mine the throttle plate itself would "stick" open and wouldn't close fully, even when idling or otherwise just driving around. if yours is idling normal it probably wouldn't be that.


edit: are your fans operating normally?


A bad fan woudln't cause it to heat up to the H line.. I drive my 240 without fans almost 24/7 It'll run a tad bit hotter, IF your sitting idling in traffic.. Unless you idle for 20minutes, then it might heat up a little bit.

[loveskylines]

wasnt bubbling over, i checked it with a infered temp sensor 160-179 degrees 5-10 minutes later..

yes the temp sensor with 1 tab

[xsparc]

no boiling and 180 is a good thing depending on where it was measured. where did you take the reading from?

[xsparc]

A bad fan woudln't cause it to heat up to the H line.. I drive my 240 without fans almost 24/7 It'll run a tad bit hotter, IF your sitting idling in traffic.. Unless you idle for 20minutes, then it might heat up a little bit.

hes right, the fans do nothing at speeds over 35ish

[krisdeezy]

That sounds like a bad temp sensor to me.


^ same with me !

[loveskylines]

i took the readings all over the place, cylinder head, outlet pipe, hoses, top/side of block

all over

[xsparc]

sounds like your good to me, just a bad sender (1 pronged one) or gauge

[all stock]

an aftermarket temp gauge sounds like it's your best solution.

for me, 84C-104C is my running temps (driving-idling) anything past 104C, and the oem needle moves up.

[nisans13turbo]

I was too lazy to read through all the tips and clues from other members but if you have your license plate in front of your front bumper center air scoop majejy...I'm 99.9% that might be your problem. Ok...

[Z U L8R]

i'm liking the aftermarket temp guage idea right about now lol

Dave

[loveskylines]

well just a update to things.....so i removed my thermostat and it seemed to stabilize the temp reading.... but still on occasion went a lil past half way to "h"... i poured in some Prestone super radiator flush thinking it may be a small calcium buildup problem... and been driving for a total of 1 hour over 2 days and still no issues to date....:eek3d:


i am still planning on changing over my radiator to a new OEM one just for reliability sake

so wish me luck for the weeek for no problems!! :bite: