Coolant problems, the sequel. FFS..

[steve_weegie]

John, you're not serious are you

It pains me to ask, but did the sniffer test get done?

[bertieduff]

No help at all, but feeling your pain

[meatball]

Likewise mate......gutted for you......will Dan give you a discount on a Honda?

[robin]

John,

You need to think about what's different when you test it vs when Dan does.

Describe as accurately as you can what actually happened in the most recent event and exactly what symptoms you observe ...

Cheers,
Robin

[roadboy]

The only thing I can think is that I'm not driving it as hard as John. That's a scary thought though.

The weirdest thing is that I can't actually find any signs of a problem anywhere. Gonna pull the head off again and inspect everything in the tiniest detail for clues. Its just one of those.

Dan@JPS

[Victor Meldrew]

John,

You need to think about what's different when you test it vs when Dan does.

Describe as accurately as you can what actually happened in the most recent event and exactly what symptoms you observe ...

Cheers,
Robin

I think dan said it....

1. get in car.. rag the sh*t out of it... gear shifts when you hit the rev limiter and feather third gear in and out of traffic... start to lift off when you get to arond 120tuts but only when you cant see the road is clear.

[Victor Meldrew]

Dan has been great, dropping everything to come straight to me to pick the car up, even though we were miles away and it was after 6.00pm

As you can imagine, I am felling somewhat frustrated, and you can see Dan is just as pissed off..

"I am going to get that thing back to the garage to get the bloody clam off so I can get the engine out and rip it to bits to find out whats wrong with that bloody thing..." kind of frustrated.....

its just as well neither Noops or I smoke or the search for a box of matches may had been successful and the outcome would have been somewhat different....

[campbell]

Restore it to standard and start again?

[dons flak jacket!]

Chin up John, it will come good in the end, hopefully in time for summer

[Shug]

Dude, in all seriousness, I'd light it.....

Or get an old priest and a young priest....

[meatball]

As said above.......Honda time!

[campbell]

I haven't met anyone who put a Honda in then had no issues.

I have, however, met at least one person who put a new(-ish) K series back in, and had zero problems

Think carefully before choosing...

[Victor Meldrew]

Its either the block or the head.... or something outside of the engine...

The head has been pressure tested... everything outside the engine has been checked several times... so it looks like it could be the block....

unless weve missed something... hence the clams coming off..

[Shug]

I haven't met anyone who put a Honda in then had no issues.

I have, however, met at least one person who put a new(-ish) K series back in, and had zero problems

Think carefully before choosing...

Amen

[robin]

John,

You need to think about what's different when you test it vs when Dan does.

Describe as accurately as you can what actually happened in the most recent event and exactly what symptoms you observe ...

Cheers,
Robin

I think dan said it....

1. get in car.. rag the sh*t out of it... gear shifts when you hit the rev limiter and feather third gear in and out of traffic... start to lift off when you get to arond 120tuts but only when you cant see the road is clear.

BTW, you can achieve a similar load on the engine by keeping the left foot on the brake whilst the right foot is flat on the accelerator. Just do it somewhere sensible (empty motorway) - it means you can keep the tuts the right side of 90

But what actually happens? I assume you're seeing high temperatures on the dash, but what else? Does the expansion tank blow its lid/vent steam, is the radiator actually hot when you pull over? After the event is there any gas in the cooling system that needs to be bled out?

If you pull over and leave the engine running, does the temperature return to normal, or does it keep rising/stay very high.

If it does return to normal on the idle, what about if you pull over, but keep the engine revving at say 3,000 RPM?

Do you know for sure that it's not just a dodgy temperature sensor/wire to the dash? Have you verified >100C temperature at the coolant elbow using a IR thermometer or thermocouple thingmy? When it overheats and you pull over, while the dash is showing >100C temperatures, is the radiator fan running?

Have you measured the temperature across the radiator immediately after it fails?

I cannot help but think that rather than Dan ripping it to pieces again, it would be more fruitful to have you test drive it at Dan's, break it, pull over, Dan jumps out and checks the temperature in various places with the thermometer; indeed with a willing accomplice that could have been done here and saved Dan another trip.

There are, as I see it, only three root causes of the overheating:

(1) The engine is gassing into the coolant, which would probably be combustion gasses; there is a theoretical possibility of the opposite - coolant->engine with no reverse flow of gas. Either way, the cooling system could then lose pressure and boil; it'll take a while to return to normal. If the engine->coolant case you would expect a block check to show up HC in the expansion tank. In the (hypothetical) coolant->engine case you would expect the coolant level to drop after each event.

(2) The coolant flow is not travelling through the radiator. This can be because there is an easier path (e.g. the run through the heater matrix or bypass type circuits is easier than the run through the radiator), or because the stat is blocking the egress from the radiator or because the pump is no longer pumping coolant.

(3) There is nothing wrong with the system at all and it's just a dodgy coolant temperature sensor.

I'm pretty sure you've ruled out (1) by now, as it's what we would all suspect first!

Cheers,
Robin

[woody]

Dude, in all seriousness, I'd light it.....

Or get an old priest and a young priest....

I didn't think Meldrew got on well with the inhabitants of Craggy Island?


John, best of luck