Monday, August 24, 2009

Dr. Josh, what's the diagnosis?

Quick recap. 
1. Motor over heated
2. Union exploded
3. No more coolant in the system

* According to my dad, coolant/steam was spewing out of the blown coolant line and out of the reservoir tank along with excessive smoke out of the exhaust.

* Did my head gasket also blow due to over heating.

- no coolant = replaced with new coolant x bleed the cooling system
- motor oil = replaced with new motor oil (just to make sure the motor oil was clear of any coolant, the motor oil may have also broken down due to excessive heat)
- exploded union (connector that holds 2 coolant lines behind the motor together) = replace with new union

The plan was to start up the car and watch for white smoke... Instead this is what i get.

- dead batter = replace with new battery
I start the car up, but its already 1:00am, too loud for the neighbors. I go to start the car the next morning and the NEW battery is dead. I start looking for a an electrical short. I jump the car, finally get it started. No white smoke, thank god. Car dies when i pull off the jumper cables.

- dead alternator = replace with new KA alternator
I start up the car, no smoke again, with in 15 miles the car goes from slightly miss firing to not being able to run at all. 

- nasty spark plugs - replace with new spark plugs
I start up the car, the car runs exactly the same "SHITTY"

- loose ground (motor to firewall) - tightened ground
I try to drive the car, of course it does not run for shit, for some odd reason the electric fans come into my mind. I turn off the fans and the car runs perfect. Weird thing is the fans are wired up perfect, ended up being 1 loose ground.

I finally get the car fired up again, car is running fine, i get to the highway and the water temp gauge says 240F!!! I lug the car to a parking lot. I figured there was probably a massive air pocket in the cooling system. After further inspection this is what we find
- dead koyo radiator cap = replaced with spare mishimoto cap (thankfully my buddy had one)
- split coolant line = replaced with new coolant line

I bleed the cooling system in the parking lot. Drive the car to the next location, car is running around 190F. On the way home about 10 miles into the drive the water temps jump to 240F again. I pull over at the oasis and jack up the front end of the car and bleed the system AGAIN!!! On the drive home approximately 25 miles the motors water temp progressively increased from 170F to about 220-230F by the time i got home

- dead nismo thermostat = removed thermostat, last measure i could think of to diagnose cooling issues
its been about 3 days, the car has been running fine, water temps stay around 180-190F cruising, when i turn the fans on the water temps drop quickly. Its definitely a pain in the ass to try and control the water temps. At least the car is running, I'm broke as hell, i have a spare oem thermostat that i plan on putting back in. I hope this is the last of my issues this season.



8 comments:

Kev!n said...

good luck man. so much bad luck for you lately :(

Tipsy Turtle said...

damn man that sums up my problems too.

Nigel said...

Im not sure on your engine setup but i would ditch the thermos and run a stock SR or RB25 clutch fan with factory shroud. At least you would have 1 less thing to worry about.

Revgasm_Josh said...

kevini -yup, i'm the master of bad luck

nigel - totally been wanting to do that, it seems to be difficult to locate an sr20 shroud. I switched my old twin fan set up to altima twins, i'm very pleased with them.

I'll make sure to test my oem thermostat before i put it in.

s0apgun said...

taurus fans! lol

tough break

Anonymous said...

your actually very lucky, this time is all ends with a happy ending

:O)

Risky Devil Drift/Street Rodder Club said...

By the way, my names malik
The five-foot freak
Lets say we get together by the end of the week
She simply said, no, labelled me a hoe
I said, how you figure? my friends told me so.
I hate when silly groupies wanna run they yap
Word to god, hon, I dont get down like that

Teddy said...

Jesus Christo man.