Did you have the head checked if the gasket surface is still true?

I thought about just parking it and wait till everything its bought for my rebuild and have the block and head veryfied/machined which was my original goal i just want to be able to drive it while i gather all the parts.

BoxheadTim said:

Did you have the head checked if the gasket surface is still true?

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yes I did, but theres no smoke, no visible leak, no oil/mixture, cant be the gasket.

If you're not leaking out from the engine or anywhere else in the cooling system, the coolant can only go in one other direction - into the engine.

If you're seeing a constant stream of bubbles at the filler neck, that suggests you get exhaust gases into the coolant. And there are only a handful of places that I can think of where the two can mix.

When you pressure tested the system, did you check how long it held the pressure?

that i didnt, I should have waited and see how long, as to the bubles i dont know if they are constant since i can only see the once pressure its off the cooling system because i cant see it while its running.

I'd definitely try to see if it holds decent pressure for a while - say 15-20 Minutes minimum.

Your right I had it preasurissed for 10-15 minutes looking for the leaks I admit I didnt check exact numbers but its stayed at above ~20psi, I still dont know why water shoots out the top if i leave it open even if engine its cool. As soon as i turn it on whith cap open water just burst out.

I keep seeing you say "water". Are you putting straight water in the cooling system or are you putting a 50/50 mix of coolant and water? Straight water will not work. it will do whats happening to you. It will evaporate. A nice mix of coolant and water will raise the boiling point of it and it doesnt evaporate. If your filling it with water, drain the radiator and fill it with coolant. Make sure all the air is bled out as well.

Leave the cap off, fire the car up. Yes, it will purge a little. While its running, top off the coolant. Wait for the thermostat to open and let the air remove itself from the system. You will see the coolant start to move in the filler neck when the t-stat opens. Keep topping the coolant system off untill there are no more air bubbles. If you see a tiny stream of air bubbles after 20 min of running, Congrats on having to redo your headgasket.

hey my gsx was doing the same thing did a block test and guess what the headgasket was bad but i also replaced the water pump at the same time, and if that hasnt been replace i would redo the headgasket and put a new pump on it then burp all the air from the system there is a special funnel for this that makes the water inlet about 7 in above the engine to ensure all air is out of the system

one other thing did u tq the head bolt in the right sequence and to spec in 3 equal steps if not that could also cause and issue, when u build boost its blowing the coolant out of the cooling system in to the resavor and its not under pressure and letting it evap do to the difference in the boiling point when its not under pressure

I agree with water pump gasket, check again, I just went through this with a local dsm.

Replace the thermostat again. They're cheap and they can come out of the box bad.

There's a lot of great replies here.

I want to say I think that a new gasket makes it more likely to be the issue if you've just installed it. It's easy to botch a gasket job.

Another possibility is a warped head from excessive overheating. But I don't know if you've overheated it that bad. I kind of doubt it, because I've never actually known this happening to anyone - it's probably an extreme scenario.

Side Note: I wish our cars had a buzzer for the coolant temperature. It's easy to not notice overheating.

Also - not that I think this is the issue here - but it's possible to get a leak in your heater core, which is under the dash. You'd probably notice the water on the floor and the funky smell in your car when your car sits overnight with the windows up.

just and metal against metal noise like a chopsaw when going over 6k rpms,

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This is worrying. I had a sound like that and it was my A/C compressor. But the difference is that mine did it all the time, and it was very loud.

If the water pump is bad, then the water can often leak from the water pump itself, and you didn't find any leaks.

My water pump went bad after about 76k miles. It didn't make any noise, it just leaked really bad.

Just for your information, in order to replace the water pump, I think you need to replace the timing belt as well.

But replacing the timing belt is a good idea anyway when you buy one of these cars unless they have provided you with documented proof that they have done it recently. You're supposed to change the belt every 80,000 miles. I wouldn't even wait quite that long, personally (maybe 78,000). If it breaks it will damage your engine.

Welcome to DSMs! FYI, these cars are reliable when treated right - at least in my experience - it's just normal wear and tear on an old car.

Nasty Dream said:

There's a lot of great replies here.



Also - not that I think this is the issue here - but it's possible to get a leak in your heater core, which is under the dash. You'd probably notice the water on the floor and the funky smell in your car when your car sits overnight with the windows up.



This is worrying. I had a sound like that and it was my A/C compressor. But the difference is that mine did it all the time, and it was very loud.

If the water pump is bad, then the water can often leak from the water pump itself, and you didn't find any leaks.

My water pump went bad after about 76k miles. It didn't make any noise, it just leaked really bad.

Just for your information, in order to replace the water pump, I think you need to replace the timing belt as well.



Welcome to DSMs! FYI, these cars are reliable when treated right - at least in my experience - it's just normal wear and tear on an old car.

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Thanks, I want to add that when I installed the new head gasket I also replaced the timing belt it seemed like the right thing to do.
Also I don't have any leaks in the heater core I thought about that prior to the forum,and cealed the inlet, and outlet. Car still overheated. I'm going for the rebuild because it will only get more expensive adding thing that will get replaced I'm going to keep posting and adding pictures as I go hopefully I'll be able to find what had me going for so long

Get the car to temp. check to see if the upper hose is the same temp as the lower hose. If the one hose is colder you have a blockage either at the radiator, a collapsed hose internally or the thermostat.

SLIDER121 said:

Get the car to temp. check to see if the upper hose is the same temp as the lower hose. If the one hose is colder you have a blockage either at the radiator, a collapsed hose internally or the thermostat.

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If the radiator is working (and especially the fan is running), you'd hope that the coolant leaving the radiator is of a lower temperature than when it enters the radiator so on a non-blocked radiator I would expect to see a temperature difference.

The lower hose is the feed hose to the radiator it will be real hot, if there is blockage or no flow the upper hose will be cold if there is correct flow the upper hose will be hot. Don't forget the car depending on the thermostat runs at 180 degrees plus. It's a start.

Oh, I agree with that , I was just trying to point out that you'll see *some* temperature difference between the hoses in case someone uses a thermometer on them and thinks the radiator isn't working because the two hoses are different degrees of hot.

SLIDER121 said:

Get the car to temp. check to see if the upper hose is the same temp as the lower hose. If the one hose is colder you have a blockage either at the radiator, a collapsed hose internally or the thermostat.

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That's something worth trying, thanks.

SLIDER121 said:

The lower hose is the feed hose to the radiator it will be real hot, if there is blockage or no flow the upper hose will be cold if there is correct flow the upper hose will be hot. Don't forget the car depending on the thermostat runs at 180 degrees plus. It's a start.

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The bottom hose its about the same temperature as the to but when you squeeze the top hose its empty, hot ads hell, but you can't feel water in it. I know the thermostat its opening, also its a fail-safe one.

If you don't feel water in the upper hose take it off make sure. If not remove the bottom from radiator and start car (watch the guage have someone help you) you will know fast if the waterpump is pumping. If water is forced out the radiator is clogged, if not then waterpump is probably the issue.

Thank you everyone for all your suggestions, i brought the car to big o tires and asked them to pressure test it, they had it for 15 minutes and called and said it was fine...i wasnt satisfied that they did anything at all...i brought it to a local import garage and had them pressure test it which revealed 3 leaks in the system, and a small hole in the bottom tank. i got a stock replacement and new hosing and a new t stat and BAM no more over heating. im now noticing "creeking" noise whenever i turn the wheel even slightly, the import garage said my rods were shot and needed to be replaced...i suspect after getting all the small issues out of the way i may actually enjoy my car,

That creaking could actually be a ball joint on one of the control arms. I would get a friend to turn the wheel while you search for where the noise comes from.

Sounds like the lateral control arms, or possibly a random balljoint. Mine creak too. No vibration though.

Sounds like ball joints to me. On my last car it was the ball joints and not having the money to fix them lead to my lower passenger side ball joint separating while backing out of a driveway. Thankfully it was in a driveway and not while driving down the road or highway. I would have them checked or check them yourself as soon as possible.

Alright so I have been having overheating issues for a while. The car only does this after you park it and turn the key off. Sometimes the temp will rise a bit at idle/low engine speeds. But never enough to be alarming.

I am running an OEM Radiator, OEM Thermostat (new), Gates Replacement hoses. OEM waterpump (works great), OEM Fans, OEM Heater Core, oem Pressure cap (new).

Compression Check was 177, 175, 177, 174 From cylinder 1 to cylinder 4 respectively. This was a dry, hot test with the throttle fully opened. I checked all 4 cylinders twice and got +/- 1 psi for each cylinder.

I don't own a leak down tester but that will be the next step I go to before having the radiator rodded out even though it seems to be flowing fine.

For anyone else that reads this.

THE CAR DOES NOT OVERHEAT UNTIL PARKED, WITH THE KEY SWITCHED OFF

Results look good, as long as it isnt overheating i would just keep drivin it and look for leaks.