Rep Power: 511

well, my sister said that my car (which is in vegas while i'm in washington so i cannot check it myself) is starting to heat up at a stop but cools back down when she starts going. now, this led me to think headgasket is starting to go due to searching, but from what i've read, the coolant level would go up and you would start to see oil in the coolant. however, she tells me that the coolant level is going down. she said her and my dad put it at the happy level about 3 weeks ago, and when she last checked it, it was pretty low..


while we're on the subject of cooling, i need to get some slimline fans as well.. anyone got a part number for FAL fans that they know will fit or have used on their cars? and/or 10 or 12 inch? or perhaps somewhere to get them for not that much? thanks in advance..

 
Rep Power: 811

when my gasket was starting to leak, i was adding coolant alot too even tho the coolant and oil looked fine (no mixing).

 
Rep Power: 511

hmm.. what would be a good way for my sister or dad to check if my headgasket was starting to go?

 
Rep Power: 424

first make sure the fans are coming on.
I'm using 10" slimlines... I kinda wish I went for 12s.... At least one would fit (use a 10 and a 12), but I think 2 would.
As far as checking a HG, do a compression test.

 
Rep Power: 511

hey boilermaker, you got a part number for those fans? i found 12" universal FAL fans on optauto.com but no 10's..

 
Rep Power: 424

I dont have FAL fans, they're too dang expensive. I bought them from www.vsracing.net
They're cheap as hell, they work, and everyone on HT has em. I measured em, they're exactly 2" thick.

 
Rep Power: 343

^^^^^ when i had this same prob. mine was the fans. well fan. and it cools down when driving because the air is going through the rad. and when the engine reaches a certain temp its supposed to turn on the fan and pull the air through. at the time as temp fix i just jumped the fan to stay on all the time. until i could fix it.

 
Rep Power: 297

want me to take a look at it

 
Rep Power: 0

Even at the center? Maybe I should have ponied up another $40 then. I got two 12" slims at www.siliconeintakes.com for $30 a pop. They both fit with no problem and they're 2.5" deep at the center and 2" deep on the rest of the fan shroud.

 
Rep Power: 265

get the car up to operating temperature, pop the hood and see if the fans turn on

 
Rep Power: 0

I would also recommend my tried and true method of leak testing in the dark. Taste the fluid. I know its not for everyone but AC condensation and anti-freeze have two distinctly different tastes.

 
Rep Power: 388

^ can you leak test during the day time in the light? lol
I think that antifreeze is poison, maybe i'm wrong.

 
Rep Power: 511

eh.. i forgot to mention that the shop that tuned my car took the liberty of taking out my a/c fan.. it was fine when i put the turbo on, but they decided it wasnt a good idea to have it..

thats another reason i've been on the hunt for slim fans

i've been kinda outta the loop for month so it slipped my mind until i PMed xproducitonz

 
Rep Power: 265

is the AC fan necessary? Dont most earlier generations only have one fan ?

 
Rep Power: 0

I can't believe your letting your sister drive your car with an aftermarket turbo, no offence to the ladies but they tend to have a heavy foot and drive cars into the ground!

 
Rep Power: 511

she listens to me when it comes to my car and i told her to stay out of boost as much as possible.

now, mind you, i'm not lending my car to a 16 year old "i just got my license" sister.. she's 2.5 years older than me and i lent it to her while i was deployed out in the persian gulf..

 
Rep Power: 0

still very kind of you! hopefully when you come back it's still in one pice! lol

 
Rep Power: 511

she's hand delivering it (lol) to me this coming friday, so hopefully it gets her safely up here

 
Rep Power: 329

I used a 12" slim pusher fan on the front of the radiator.
Some small triming of the metal bumper is necessary but in hot temps it works the best.

 
Rep Power: 279

When my HG went, I never had mixing coolant and oil at all. Just had low coolant levels, white smoke and a very noticeable drop in power.

 
Rep Power: 811

i just had low coolant levels and misfires when starting the car.

 
Rep Power: 511

here's a little update on the situation..

I have my car, been driving it around.. it will heat up pretty quick in hot temps (like in vegas), especially with the a/c on.. i bought 2-12" slim fans that boilermaker suggested and installed one to replace the missing a/c condenser fan. I now have 2 operating fans and i'm prolly going to swap the radiator fan since i have one to replace that, too. Just before getting the compression check done, i bought a thermostat to see if that thing shat itself, too..

i just got a compression test done and the shop said that compression looks good across all 4 cylinders.. here are the numbers they gave me:
1 - 200
2 - 190
3 - 185
4 - 210

i dont know what units they were reading it in, so any of you engine gurus, please help out with your insight. I'm assuming since the readings are fairly close to each other, its doing alright. Also, i noticed today that my charge piping is hot, too.. moreso the piping going to the TB.. i'm assuming the turbo is putting out more heat than it rightfully should at this point, so i'm thinking about pulling the turbo, ripping it apart and seeing if everything is all nice and happy. also, i should prolly take a look at the oil supply line to see if there's a clog or anything.

now, with my boosted tune with 11.9 (or was it 12.9..?) at full throttle boost, would swapping the turbo assembly for my kamikaze header be safe for daily driving until i get it all fixed and stuff? i know i'd have to plug the oil supply/return lines and have a makeshift SRI out of the charge piping and a filter.. i've also been looking at getting a turbo assembly made from dezod using the AAA manifold..

any additional insight would be GREATLY appreciated.. thanks

hell, i may just stabilize this situation and save up for a k20a swap.. lol.. at least it'll be somewhat more reliable..

 
Rep Power: 297

Post more about your setup, maybe we can be of more assistance. Turbo and manifold placement, etc. may be a factor. You might not have to go too far into ripping things apart though. The compression numbers are in PSI. They arent too bad I guess, depending on your mileage.

 
Rep Power: 511

73k miles, using a SF kit (not using the inline pump) with a garrett (i think) t3 super 60, rsx-s injectors, tuning with a VAFC-II (i kno, i kno.. AEM F/IC on the way).. this issue started happening about a year after i put it on and got it tuned

the manifold is a bit big and burly, and i'm planning on running with a dezod turbo assembly as soon as i get a mailing address he can ship to..

another note, sure, coolant is spitting out from the overflow, but that may be caused by the extra coolant added by my sister/step-dad when they thought i had a leak (which i have seen no signs of since i've had my car in my possession again) and pulling the dipstick out, the oil has a healthy brown color, no signs of looking milkshaky at all, both checking the dipstick with the engine cool and running..

 
Rep Power: 297

heres something funny.. we just had the same problem with an automatic 2001 come into the shop 2 days ago... car was totally fine.. there were 2 things we did... one.. we noticed there was still air bubbles in his radiator.. so we bled the radiator.... the other thing we noticed was that he had a inen intake... the the hole for the valve breather had a hose that connected fomr the valve to the intake.. however the hose was crimped so no air was going in or out of the valve.. so we fixed that.. and based on the 2 things we did his car never overheated yet

 
Rep Power: 511

Hmm.. I'll get my coolant system checked out to see if there's air in my radiator. As for the valve breather, I have that going from the breather to an oil catch can to the intake of my turbo, so I don't think that would be the problem..

Got any advice for my new problem?

 
Rep Power: 350

Your compression readings are off by too much. You shouldn't have more than a 10 psi difference MAX between any of the cylinders. From 210-185 is a 25 psi difference! That's huge! Your headgasket is gone. The only way you'll know for certain is to pull the head and visually check the gasket or do a leakdown test to check for leaks.

 
Rep Power: 511

Thanks for the insight. I'll get it checked out ASAP

 
Rep Power: 279

When I blew my HG - my compression was:

1 - 130
2 - 135
3 - 130
4 - 140

How's that for really low? Ha ha...

 
Rep Power: 511

lol.. wow.. So.. would you guys recommend I go to a dealership to get the headgasket done or should I find a god shop to do it? I'd do it myself but I dont exactly have a facility to do so (I live in a barracks room on a navy base and they closed down the auto hobby shop)