Overheating... (yes, I searched)

[AadosX]

I just replaced my friends water pump, thermostat, and radiator. After all of that I flushed the system. Basically I just took off the lower drain plug, filled the radiator up, then ran the car with constant water pouring into the radiator and out of the drain plug. The car ran fine and once it was at operating temperature it stayed there. One odd thing I noticed though was that the needle very suddenly jumped from cool to normal during the process, instead of gradually getting warmer. Once it was at operating temperature I ran it for a few minutes to flush out the engine, then turned it off. Then, I put the drain plug back in, and filled up the radiator with coolant/water.

After this I turned the car back on with the intention of bleeding the system. I filled the radiator all of the way up, turned car on, and let it heat up to normal. I added water to make sure the radiator was full, then put the cap on. I forgot that you were supposed to bleed the system with the cap off, so at first I tried with the cap on. Also, the heater wasn't on, but I don't think that's an issue. With no success, I took the radiator cap off (remembered...) and tried bleeding it that way. At this point the car had been running since I filled it the first time (took cap off while car was still on and bleed screw was still out).

Now, when the bleed screw is out, a TON of gas/steam is pouring out. It's crazy. I've bled (sp?) another S13 before and the coolant started to buble out fairly soon. I let this car run for a good 5 minutes with the radiator cap off and steam was still going out. I was putting water in the radiator to try to keep it full btw. Could it be that there's just THAT much air in there?

Here are some other intersting facts. Once I gave up on the bleeding, wondering what was up... I just screwed the bleed screw back on (car was still running... but no coolant was coming out of it yet), and tried to fill the radiator up. I've watched a car run before with no cap on the radiator, but all the water did was just overflow out of the radiator. For some reason, the water would kinda go down then BURST out of the hole. And it was making a weird popping noise. Like huge air pockets were going all over the place... it was just very weird. It would just kinda act normal then water would suddenly spew out, etc. So then I turned the car off, and filled it up the best I could... squeezed hoses, topped off, put cap on. Went for a drive and the car overheated after about 2 minutes. I got out and looked under the hood and there was a rather large gurggling noise coming from the radiator and upper hose. The reservior was almost full. I let it sit turned off for about 10 minutes. During those 10 minutes the gurggling noise moved throughout the block, and finally ceased, and the reservior eventually fully drained back into the radiator, and was bone dry (reservior). I turned the car back on... and drove for a good 5 minutes with no overheating (led me to believe it's air). After those 5 minutes, I turned the car back off... and opened the hood. Once again the gurggling was there, and the reservior was almost full. I let the noise go away, the reservior drain back into the radiator, opened the radiator cap, and it was full (radiator).

No matter what it's like I can't get the air out of the engine and get enough coolant in there. I figured the air would move into the radiator, and escape so that I could just fill it up some more... but the air seems to want to stay in the block. I gave up with bleeding because it seemed like a never ending process. Could there be THAT much air in there??

Thanks!

[sepulchral]

u sure its not a headgasket? what does the exhaust smell liek during this

[driftyour40]

I had something similar happen to me and the thing that I had to do was make sure the passage to the heater core was open and take the bleeder screw out while I was filling the radiator. There is something called a heater control valve on one of the two heater hoses running to the heater core make sure that its open. You have to figure out witch way is open on you own because I can't recall. But yeah I did all the same things you did w. the same burble noise and it's really just that much air. At least that’s how it went for me. Good luck.

[AadosX]

Thanks man. Ok though, I'm a noob and have no idea what a heater core is/where it is.

Thanks!

[driftyour40]

Okay you'll see two inch and something hoses right be hind the intake mani. They run from the firewall to the engine on the passenger side one will have some sort of plastic/metal bracket thing and that’s the heater control valve. Yeah it shouldn’t be that hard to find.

[89s132b]

LOL, that is the same valve that is opened when you turn your HVAC controls to hot. You MUST turn your heat to hot when bleeding the system. You can keep the blower off but the temp selector should be all the way to HOT. If air keeps comming out of the radiator cap and bleeder valve, just keep adding coolant. Unless you have a massive leak, it just isn't done burping yet.

Sounds like you are doing everything right except for the HVAC controls.

[pr240sx]

First of all, dont ever add water to a hot/warm engine,ever!!

Second, what is happening is that the water is boiling inside the block (expanding) and creating vapor, so basically you have a big coffe machine.
Try this.
shutdown the engine, wait until is cold to the touch, remove the upper rad hose, with the rad cap off and add coolant (or whatever you add) thru there, until the radiator overflows. Add it slolwy. As of now you have removed almost all the air inside. Put the hose back, refill as necessary, open the bledder screw, turn on the heater (at least move the slider towards hot) then start your engine and continue to add coolant slowly. Fill the overflow tank, wait until the guage (is useless anyway) move to the middle. Slide the heater back to cold and there you go!
It helps a lot to raise the front of the car as high as you safely can (I use ramps).
Also, next time you want to flush the system, dont let block dry as you may did (not on purpose of course)
Also, make sure that the thermostat is opening!!
hope this helps!!

[Dream240]

First of all, dont ever add water to a hot/warm engine,ever!!

remove the upper rad hose, with the rad cap off and add coolant (or whatever you add) thru there, until the radiator overflows. Add it slolwy. As of now you have removed almost all the air inside. Put the hose back, refill as necessary,

:wtf: ?! I've never heard of this method...? Why owuld you need to remove the upper hose when the upper most part of the radiator is the cap? Removing the hose is only going to create a mess.

Just move the HVAC controls to hot, start car, leave bleeder valve closed, open rad cap, continue to fill until the fluid stops going down, put cap back on, fill resevior (with coolant only!!) to the full line, let car heat up to operating temp, remove bleeder screw and replace when fluid begins to come out, and that's it!! really it's that simple.

NOTE: once you put your rad cap on, NEVER REMOVE IT TO REFILL THE FLUID!!! ALWAYS add the fluid to the resevior. That's what it's there for.

Once you've done all this, drive it around the block, pay attention to the temp guage, and keep a bottle of fluid with you in the car. after each round, pop the hood and check the resevior, if the level has gone down, add more coolant, not water, to the fill line. Repeat this ass necessary until the resevior level stays at the full line. If you're still overheating then you've got a bad thermostat. It's that simple.

[elevator]

headgasket

[old_s13]

1) test compression to see if you have headgasket issues. also check engine oil (do oil change) to see if there is any coolant in it.

when changing coolant, follow these steps:

a) car off, fill up radiator as much as possible.. to the brim
b) start car, loosen (do not remove) bleed valve. keep radiator cap off

as the temps go up in the block, you'll notice water start streaming out of the bleed valve through the threads in the screw. you'll also notice air bubbles.. after a while, you should get a constant stream of water out of the bleed valve.. drip drip drip, time to start on the radiator, so close the bleed valve.

c) keep adding water in the radiator, the thermostat should have opened by now and you'll need to keep the radiator topped off. once its filled, you wont see much bubbles if any coming out of the radiator filler.. so put the cap on and yer done. make sure to have the overflow bottle filled as well.

if you have headgasket, well.. you got a lot of work to do -- good luck.

ps: factory water temp gauge is 3-step, so dont expect it to change gradually. if you really want to monitor the temps properly, get a good quality gauge and that will be realistically accurate.

[FRpilot]

1) test compression to see if you have headgasket issues. also check engine oil (do oil change) to see if there is any coolant in it.

if you have headgasket, well.. you got a lot of work to do -- good luck.


i tihnk my headgasket is weakening. :wtc:

that means i have a lot of work to do.. i gotta check the compression first.

[The Hamsterball]

damn... you all are wrong.

this guy flushed the whole system in a totally incorrect manner.

Flush it all over again, but do everything in this order.

First off make sure your heater is set to HOT all the way. you do NOT need to turn it on. just leave it off and in the HOT position.

Turn the car off. Leave it on jacks. have some buckets handy

1. Take the radiator cap off. Pull the radiator drain plug and drain radiator.

2. Drain coolant from block (there's a screw on the manifold side of the block that you have to get under the car to get to).

After draining both, put the BLOCK DRAIN PLUG back on and tighten it.
(Don't put any gasket on it, just tighten it)

3. There is an air relief plug on your intake manifold. It should be in front of the injector closest to you when facing the front of the bay.
Unscrew that shiet.

4. Bring a garden hose and turn it on.. fill the radiator with water and have a friend turn the car on while the water is flowing through the radiator.

(don't worry, it won't over heat. As long as you have your clutch fan installed)

5. let the engine run while letting the water from the hose flow. Have your friend rev it up to 2,000RPM and hold it there for a few seconds. Do this a few times.
Look at the bottom of the radiator drain plug and see if the water is clear.
If the water is all clear, you can stop the engine.

6. Now you have to let all the water drain out. Let the water from the radiator drain out with the car off.
ALSO, drain the block again. So, get under the car and unscrew the block drain plug.

7. After it all stops draining and you don't see any water spilling out of the radiator and block,
put the engine block drain plug back on. tighten it down and rub high-temp gasket maker all around the plug. you won't have to worry about taking it off again.

8. Cap the bottom of the radiator (put the radiator drain plug back on).

9. Take off the coolant reservoir and drain that as well. Put it back on.

10. Mix 50% water with 50% GREEN coolant. Pour it all into the radiator with the car off, pour until it comes to the top.
(MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS SLOWLY. DON'T JUST DIP IT IN THERE.)

11. NOW YOU MUST CLOSE/RE-TIGHTEN THE AIR RELIEF PLUG. TIGHTEN IT DOWN.

12. Turn the car on with cap.. Turn it off. Take cap off.. Fill radiator with more 50/50

13. Put cap back on. Turn car on. Fill coolant reservoir close to max (but not too much).


I think the reason the car overheated was because you did not "bleed" the system right. You should not tighten the bleedscrew/air-relief plug while the engine is running/flushing with water from hose.
That screws it up..

Also, you don't have to worry about no damn heater hoses.


Another thing. After flushing the system CORRECTLY, if it still overheats, my guess would be the thermostat you may have purchased may be faulty.
It's a possibility.

I mean, some are like $5 from autozone (yes, i have an autozone one in my car.. but luckily it didn't give me any problems).


If all else fails, even after the thermostat is fine, water pump, radiator, and correct flush procedure... Go ahead and do what the other man suggested, compression test for headgasket.

[driftyour40]

damn... you all are wrong.


I'm not wrong, A hole. I've done this on three different s14s and many times on one of them. The reason I mentioned the heater hose is because on one of the s14s, the cable ro the heater control valve stretched, and broke so I had to manually open it, and it makes sense to manually open it because that way you can be sure your not dealing with any faulty equipment. Also in my experience I have always taken the bleeder screw on the intake mani out and left it out until I was done. The reason its there is because its the highest point on the cooling system. Don't just come on here telling people there wrong, that’s stupid, we just might do it differently than you.

[weirdstyles.net]

Okay, is there really ONE right way to drain/flush a radiator? There method is simple, old coolant out, new coolant in, air out. Theres a billion and one ways to do so including a top-feeding (aka force feeder) and the such but why start some bs drama over it?

fool...

[The Hamsterball]

I'm not wrong, A hole. I've done this on three different s14s and many times on one of them. The reason I mentioned the heater hose is because on one of the s14s, the cable ro the heater control valve stretched, and broke so I had to manually open it, and it makes sense to manually open it because that way you can be sure your not dealing with any faulty equipment. Also in my experience I have always taken the bleeder screw on the intake mani out and left it out until I was done. The reason its there is because its the highest point on the cooling system. Don't just come on here telling people there wrong, that’s stupid, we just might do it differently than you.

k i didn't mean to offend you. i probably should have left the "you're all comment out"...

but i had a suspicion that he was putting the air relief plug back in at the wrong times..

just wanted to help him out if he was doing that.

[driftyour40]

sorry, about my post I wasn't as pissed as it seems. :D

[pr240sx]

As far of removing the air from the block without having the engine on is easier so fill (at least for me) via the top rad hose.
but hey, everyone of use has their own tricks, I shared mine and work for my just fine.
And the uppermost part of the cooling system isnt the rad cap,is the bleeder hole in the manifold (at least on the S13)
Also, good luck in removing the block drain, is really not needed, the lowermost part of the cooling system is the drain plug on the radiator.
Everybody can do whatever method wants, just dont add cold water to a warm/hot engine!!
unless you want a warped head or a leaking headgasket.

[Dream240]

And the uppermost part of the cooling system isnt the rad cap,is the bleeder hole in the manifold (at least on the S13)

:rolleyes: :bash: :duh:

Okay, re-read my post, I said the upper most part of the "radiator" is the cap not the cooling system. Obviously the bleeder valve is the upper most part of the cooling system, it has to be to bleed the system. :doh:

As for you Hampsterball, why did you waste 15 min typing that HUGE post when it's exactly what I said? Um......did you read my post? Seems silly to me to just repeat someone that you are saying is "all wrong".

There's alot of newbies on this thread so I'll save most of the flaming. Just don't come out and call everyone wrong, and then repeat what they say!!! Very hypocritical....and just plain dumb.

Poster you have your answers, this thread is done.

[AadosX]

Haha wow. Well, thanks for all of the help guys... I think this is now the king of all overheating threads. Either way, right after my post about not knowing what that thing was, way back when, I fixed it myself. I just let the car cool and added more water, then bled it. There really was just that much air in there. It was pretty simple... I just couldn't imagine there was so much air. Either way thanks a lot... car seems to work great now.