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severe overheat issue

Joined
8 July 2003
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last night (ambient temp 85) car started overheating anytime I was at red light...temp gauge almost to red. I immediately popped on my heater full blast, as I was stuck in traffic. I noticed no heat coming out...hmm... when I finally was able to pull over, and it cooled down, I checked my coolant...empty! I put in water for the drive home, and had no temp issues. I've never seen a drop of coolant under the car, nor noticed leakage around overflow cap. nor have I noticed any unusual exhaust smoke...

ideas?
 
I've never seen a drop of coolant under the car, nor noticed leakage around overflow cap. nor have I noticed any unusual exhaust smoke...

You might have a very small leak or a head gasket in the beginning of going bad which empties your coolant bottle over longer time. When did you check it the last time? You can do a CO-test and a coolant pressure test.
 
No ideas yet, but a few questions.

1) What type of overflow coolant bottle; OEM or aftermarket?
2) What about the cap?
3) How often did you check the level before? Every oil change? After a hard drive? Never ...... until there is cause?
4) Did it have antifreeze in the mix before?
5) How much water did you add? You know it likes distilled water and not tap water right ..... ;-)
 
As above, if you have one of those shiny overflow cans you never know whats going on unless you look.
 
I know the car likes distilled, however, as I was downtown at 1030pm, the number of people selling distilled water vs. the number of hose spigots is relatively low.

I never check my coolant level. I used to, but eventually got lazy.

I did discuss it with mark basch, and he indicated that the car should continue to overheat after i fillup the resovoir if the HG is an issue.

either way i will continue to monitor it now...

oh the coolant tank is the standard aftermarket one you get with the bbsc... aluminum. I have an 18lb cap, which is 3 yrs old now.

what baffles me is the lack of coolant in the garage floor, lack of staining by the coolant cap, and lack of abnormal smoke from the exhaust.
 
This is indicitive of a bad head gasket. Go to Napa and buy a "Block Test Kit", follow the directions and if you see the fluid turn yellow, you will need head gaskets.

Regards,

Your Friendly Neighborhood Tech Monkey
 
Whoa - looks like we have a new tech monkey

G*dDammit -- Way to go

LarryB - looks like you are getting some help - perhaps you will finally have some time for yourself!!!
 
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fill her up and drive around. bleed the stsyem and if it still over heats you will have to check head gasket.
 
You have MBSCer right ?

last night (ambient temp 85) car started overheating anytime I was at red light...temp gauge almost to red. I immediately popped on my heater full blast, as I was stuck in traffic. I noticed no heat coming out...hmm... when I finally was able to pull over, and it cooled down, I checked my coolant...empty! I put in water for the drive home, and had no temp issues. I've never seen a drop of coolant under the car, nor noticed leakage around overflow cap. nor have I noticed any unusual exhaust smoke...

ideas?
 
If you have a warped head or blown head gasket, you will smell antifreeze and steam coming from the tail pipes. Don't ask how I know this! lol:redface:

Thankfully it was not an NSX
 
taking off the head is expensive.

i would contact your local nsx tech to get a price. its an extensive job.

dropping the engine and do it outside the car and clean up any seals you need to take care of.

good luck on this one.
 
If you have a warped head or blown head gasket, you will smell antifreeze and steam coming from the tail pipes. Don't ask how I know this! lol:redface:

Thankfully it was not an NSX

lol i would cry if my nsx had a blown hg.

straight up sit in my nsx and cry a river. :biggrin:
 
well it's not like i want to throw money at the car... but if I need a build (big if!!) then my bbsc will be at 14 psi asap. I blew through $25k in 2007 on my cars somewhow... my cpa called me to ask if that was correct!
 
lol i would cry if my nsx had a blown hg.

straight up sit in my nsx and cry a river. :biggrin:

LOL same here bro! It was an 89 Ford Escort GT... it took me about a month to tear the engine down and have the heads resurfaced... although I was doing the clutch too. Changing the clutch on a FWD car sux!
 
well car dropped off at basch's shop. I figure it'll be a little while till he can get to it, but i hope soon. if so, then he did point out i'd save $1500 in labor doing the TB/WP!

I did mention if I do need it, big if, then I want everything upgraded to the max... i don't want to deal with this again. I'll keep y'all posted.

Not unexpected, as HG is a common issue with FI, but damn...I need to spend $4k like i need another hole in my head!

Only "good" thing is my new 9 lb pulley is supposedly coming in monday.... keep in mind his machinist has been dicking around for 2 months on this, but we'll see...
 
well car dropped off at basch's shop. I figure it'll be a little while till he can get to it, but i hope soon. if so, then he did point out i'd save $1500 in labor doing the TB/WP!

I did mention if I do need it, big if, then I want everything upgraded to the max... i don't want to deal with this again. I'll keep y'all posted.

Not unexpected, as HG is a common issue with FI, but damn...I need to spend $4k like i need another hole in my head!

Only "good" thing is my new 9 lb pulley is supposedly coming in monday.... keep in mind his machinist has been dicking around for 2 months on this, but we'll see...


Overheating sucks, good luck.
 
ok... headgasket is kaput.

I'm doing arp headbolts, cometic HG, water pump etc...

I'm also using thicker HG.. drops compression to 9.5 from 10.2..should complement my boostaholic attitude nicely.
 
sorry to hear. good luck on the rebuild. mark will do a good job on ur car as he did on mine for years.
 
HG is a common problem due to detonation.

If a car is tuned right and running righ the HG is a tough cookie.

I ran 29 psi on a stock motor on my mr2. it would not have blown the head gasket if i was not experementing with stupid amount of meth injection and ignition timing. :biggrin: due to meth buring 3-4x slower then fuel, there was no real reference to timing advance, so i had to push the limit.

the one cylinder i had a little issue on blew due to ignition being too advanced however the other three looked pretty awesome. :wink:

im thinking the ignition was too advanced but ill never know since the previous owner railed on it too and was definitly not done correctly before my ownership.

a good mod is arp headstuds. put that on the stock head and it solves lots of issues such as head lifting under higher boost which burns the HG and lead to overheating issues.

the way i see it is if FI is not done right the first time.. or on a budget, you better not do it since it will always cost more to fix the motor then if the car was done right the first time.

4000$ for the rebuild buys a lot of.... ecu, injectors, pumps, boost controllers, meth injection, exhaust, nos, intercooler, ...... Mmmmmmm $4000 is sweet.

good luck on your repairs.
 
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hey ron aren't u the one i bought my 91 black/black nsx from?
 
Mark also replaced my head gaskets and I had the same exact symptoms--coolant would keep disappearing and I kept filling and never could find any leak or any water in oil--cause the leak was the type going into coolant...It was a slow leak until it blew entirely but check of gasses in coolant was not done and so until it blew entirely the problem was not diagnosed. I was lucky it blew as I started up the engine rather than when going down the road.
 
Welp... here we are... about 6 weeks later.. all is done.

Bad HG...

I opted to go for ARP lower compression (thicker) HG, ARP headstuds etc. Did waterpump and TB at same time, along with engine mounts, and all associated parts that he could get to without much extra trouble.

Took car to dyno with 8.5psi pulley, Tony at UMS told me i needed new fuel pump... In went the Walbro 255HP...
Unfortunately he overtightened my belt pulley, which very quickly ruined my SC carrier arm bearing. So I had to have that replaced as well. Honest mistake, I doubt he has had to do belt adjustments on any other BBSC's.

Total damage was a staggering $5.5k... .. that included a lot of extras though... (trunk struts.. fuel pump.. HG... TB.. WP... engine mounts.. two tuning sessions.. etc etc.)

Car pulls hard as hell though. Only issue on dyno sessions was my bearing making so much chatter that both tony and mark felt it was interfering with the knock sensors.. so now that it's fixed.. i get to fork over for a 3rd dyno session.

sigh.
 
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