Another DA9 Turbo

[mooshie]

Yeah I was thinking I would replace the radiator cap too. the one on there at the moment is just a CPC brand replacement and about 7 years old. might do that first and see if it fixes the problem. Will still test the compression regardless.

Car goes on a truck back to Adelaide tomorrow morning and should arrive later in the week, hate having to wait to fix things up...

[A-man]

i had a cpc one before i went turbo and it was only a few months old and was buggered....

[FR33K]

i had this problem too
i only tightened my radiator cap halfway to release the pressure..

[A-man]

because increasing the pressure increases the boiling point... u might find its not sealing.. and u might also find y it isnt creating a vacumn in the tank and its being replenished by the overflow


nice setup btw where the rest of the frnt moutn pipes can u post it up

[mooshie]

I'll get some pics of the cooler pipes next weekend when I pick the car up. Basically hot side goes across the bay and through the hole under the headlight, then loops down under the bumper support bracket then across the top of the cooler.
Cold side follows the normal route, up through the resonator chamber hole.
setup is a bit long, but I did not want to cut up too much in the front end. still seems to come on boost very nicely and not much lag.

[A-man]

yeh maybe u shouldve looked at a cooler like mine then?

[Limbo]

the bubbling & use of more coolant, no leaks - i'd say luke's prob right and its a head gasket problem.

Its prob small at the moment but once it starts it will get worse, especially on a boosted car. Best to get it looked at before it frys the motor

[mooshie]

yeh maybe u shouldve looked at a cooler like mine then?

I almost ordered one exactly the same as yours, but in the end went for the more conventional design, just preferred the look in the end I guess.

Anyone know a good place in Adelaide for Honda head work?
I know of Graham West Workshop, good service and good work, but they dont specialise. Not that it is that hard a job to do, I would prefer someone with experience though.

[Weq]

Does the overlfow water appear dirty?

Those slimline fans are shit. And i guess u are missing your fan shroud too. From the wat your intercooler piping is run, i also am guessing u are missing AC. If its heating up at a stop, i would be looking at optimising the cooling system firstly. Get a shroud for the AC hole, so air flows through ur radiator and not bypassing it. Get a shroud for ur fans, or get good quality slimlines (check hondatech for brands).

An easy way to tell if its a headgasket or not is to:

1. Bleed cooling system, make sure the fan comes on atleast twice before you are done. no bubbles be present at the end. If there is, or u cant bleed it fully, its ur head gasket.

2. empty overflow bottle.
3. Take her out, hit fullboost and rev it out once or twice.
4. Examine overflow bottle.

If there is no water in the overflow, repeat from step 3. Do this atleast 3 or 4 times. Get her nice and heated up.

If there is water in it, after the first time, i would be worried. Espically if:
As u take the lid off, take note of the smell. You can smell the exhaust gases most of the time. If the water is like a fizzy drink, with bits of carbon or black stuff if it, those are other signs of headgasket.

[mooshie]

What makes you say these fans are shit?
I would have thought that it was pretty obvious that the cooler piping both comes out the same side so as to give enough room to leave the AC in there.
there is no AC hole, as you can see in the photos I still have a full size radiator. with a 12" and a 10" fan. It was heating up at a stop with only the 12" in there but as soon as the 10" went in as well I have not had an issue, temp actually came down slightly while i was at a set of lights. I am sure that the cooling is up to it.
I checked hondatech but a search for 'fans', 'cooling' and 'radiator' turned up zero, any particular brand you would suggest? I had a Davies Craig 12 inch previously rated at 140w (prior to turbo) and this FAL one is rated at 200w and feels like it is pushing a lot more air. cant remember the CFM rating, something like 2000, not that you can judge by that kind of advertisement anyway as CFM ratings can be twisted a bit.

followed steps 1 to 4 twice. I am sure it is the headgasket, although the coolant is clean and I did not notice an obvious smell (not that I sniffed it)

[Lukezen27]

What makes you say these fans are shit?
I would have thought that it was pretty obvious that the cooler piping both comes out the same side so as to give enough room to leave the AC in there.
there is no AC hole, as you can see in the photos I still have a full size radiator. with a 12" and a 10" fan. It was heating up at a stop with only the 12" in there but as soon as the 10" went in as well I have not had an issue, temp actually came down slightly while i was at a set of lights. I am sure that the cooling is up to it.
I checked hondatech but a search for 'fans', 'cooling' and 'radiator' turned up zero, any particular brand you would suggest? I had a Davies Craig 12 inch previously rated at 140w (prior to turbo) and this FAL one is rated at 200w and feels like it is pushing a lot more air. cant remember the CFM rating, something like 2000, not that you can judge by that kind of advertisement anyway as CFM ratings can be twisted a bit.

followed steps 1 to 4 twice. I am sure it is the headgasket, although the coolant is clean and I did not notice an obvious smell (not that I sniffed it)

Sorry I was the bearer of bad news

My coolant was also clean, I think it depends what quality coolant and age you have weather or not it gets smokey..

Better you get it fixed now before you really break something anyway!

Head gaskets are cheap to replace compared to a complete rebuild after a big overheat...

New HG + ARP head studs torqued down to 72 - 75

Also this may be just a coincidence but my temps dropped round quite a bit about the same time my problems started happening..

Luke

[mooshie]

Car made it on the truck ok yesterday aside from a small scratch on the bottom of one of the sideskirts. Wanker driver tried to tell me it was there before! like he know the condition of the car in Sydney...(I have photos) Told him he was a dickhead and he didn't like that, nearly didnt unload the car! All good, I don't really care that much as I have a full OEM kit to go on the car at some point.
Ended up getting the car delivered straight to the workshop, supposedley I had paid for local delivery and not just to the depot, pretty good for $454 Sydney to Adelaide!
She only got there at 5pm so they didn't have a chance to check it out.