Coolant Bottle Fills

[Bluefire16]

So please help me ASAP. Im leaving for a long trip Monday and need to fix this...whenever i drive my car for around 45 min the coolant bottle starts to fill. It gets almost all the way to the top...but my temps never rise. As a temp fix would it be ok to remove my thermostat? Secondly...i just replaced the thermo 2 months ago.... what could be causing this?

 

[mindset]

Sounds like thermostat.

 

[Bluefire16]

I still have my old one, should i try putting it back in? ### this never happened to me in the past before i switched it...i changed mine ### my temps were jumping but i think it was ### my coolant was low...

 

[deflator]

Does the cap for the overflow bottle keep blowing off? Is there oil in it? If so, you are pushing coolant

 

[jrohner]

Either the cap or your head gasket if you're not pushing it out from getting hot.

 

[Bluefire16]

Oh... so if the cap isnt tightened on the bottle? Because that would explain it...im using a Gatorade bottle at the moment haha. Yes risky i no but its all i could do, so this probably wont happen if the cap is tightened down good then huh, because mine comes off all the time because it doesn't fit correct.... and most of the time i haven't worried about it and just let it rest on top.

Oh and im pretty sure its not the head gasket, my car doesn't smoke at all and i did a compression not to long ago and had 145-150 across the board.

 

[->PrOjEcTGS<-]

I would get a new pressure cap or test your old one. If it's opening up prematurely it's dumping coolant into your overflow tank.

It would be your thermostat if the temperature would rise and rise and rise and then suddenly fall down to normal. Or if it never warms up then it's stuck open. If you're not having temperature problems I'd look into a faulty pressure cap.

 

[Bluefire16]

Mine popped off while driving a week ago... ha stupid me, i left the cap loose, so i actually JUST bought a new pressure cap. So both pieces are fairly new....so i duck taped... yes duck taped the coolant bottle top down. Hopefully this might help?

 

[stevestevesteve]

im using a vitamin water bottle as my overflow bottle becuase mine had a hole in it. the cap kept popping off all the time.... i just took some double sided tape and taped the cap on the bottle very very tight. i cant even get it off if i pull hard. yeah the thing is full but it doesnt matter the bottle is like 3/4 the size of the stock bottle. just keep a bottle of water with you when ## driving. and when you stop let the engine cool down and pop the radiator cap off and see if its running dry if it is, put more water in it. simple...

this is what i boguht like 3 days ago, and it came yesterday.

Oil Catch Tank Can Chrome Universal Celica Eclipse EVO:eBay Motors (item 330339598417 end time Jun-24-09 13:48:23 PDT)

i did some drilling on it though. i took the dremmel to one of the inlets to make it a lot bigger. reason why is so i could fit a rubber hose in the inlet that would reach the bottom of the tank just like the stock one. the clear level marker leaks on the top of it so i have to seal it... but its pretty good for only 10 bucks

 

[Bluefire16]

Ya, but i dont want to wait 2 hours every 45 min so i can start driving again... so i leave tomorrow morning at 8 am... so i need to figure it out tonight and i work 4-10. So here is the deal...i got the cap down tight now, t-stat is in, its 2 months old, pressure cap 1 week old, compression is 145-150 all the way across, no oil in coolant, and temps always stay normal. So what can you make of this?!

 

[jrohner]

Oh and im pretty sure its not the head gasket, my car doesn't smoke at all and i did a compression not to long ago and had 145-150 across the board.

That doesn't mean anything. Many times when the head gasket is bad, pushing coolant out is the only issue. It just puts combustion pressure into the cooling system. It would only effect compression if it was blown between cylinders.
You should be able to tell just by squeezing the top radiator hose if there is air in it or just coolant. If there is air pressure in the system your headgasket is bad (or you were fairly low on coolant to begin with).

Replacing the head gasket can easily be done in a day's work, so it's really not that big of a deal if you can do it yourself.

 

[deflator]

And try listening to your radiator and hoses after a good drive. When my HG went, you could hear the coolant boiling in there

 

[Calan]

Are you actually pushing coolant out of the overflow, or is it just rising and then going back down as the car cools off?

If it's the latter, that's normal and what is supposed to happen. If you are actually pushing and loosing coolant, then you're pressurizing the coolant system somehow, most likely from a blown HG.

Have you done a leak-down test (not a compression test) to see if you are bleeding cylinder pressure into the coolant system?

 

[Bluefire16]

It does go back down, but im just skeptical i guess...i mean it fills up then after like 2 hours its all back in the system...only once did it boil over but i was beating on the car hard for 2 hrs

 

[JusMX141]

If you're filling the coolant recovery bottle and it's not being drawn back into the system you could have a faulty radiator cap or a stuck thermostat, both of these normally result in a rise in coolant temps as there will be an air gap in the cooling system after the coolant has displaced.

A worst-case possibility is a blown head gasket, allowing combustion chamber pressure to enter the cooling system. This rise in pressure will push the coolant away from the engine and into the recovery tank. A bad head gasket will also normally cause a rise in temperature as the coolant is being pushed away from the engine, and the engine cannot dissipate heat through the coolant.

 

[Bluefire16]

Like i said...it fills but goes BACK in....so the bottle will fill up then be empty later when i come and check out the car.

 

[lacroixdp]

If it's drawing it back in, then you're just fine. However, you could be boiling it all out, giving the appearance that it drew the coolant back in. Check your coolant level - that will verify if it boiled out or if it properly sucked it back in.

 

[Bluefire16]

So i did a little checking just to be safe... i grabbed a can of pop because i didnt have another Gatorade bottle handy. So i filled up the can, poured it into the reservoir...had a lot of space before the "Full" line...so i filled another can... so at 24 ounces it just goes over the full line... so the Gatorade which is 20oz never over fills so im still within limits....at this point im not so worried, thanks for the help guys.

 

[jrohner]

If it sucks it back in, then you're either getting too hot or your cap is just bad.

 

[lacroixdp]

If it sucks it back in, then you're either getting too hot or your cap is just bad.

Quite the opposite - it's supposed to suck the coolant back into the system. If it doesn't, then you've got a problem.

 

[Bluefire16]

I think my cap is bad...i thought i heard it leaking so im replacing it

 

[Bluefire16]

So problem still not fixed, im going to my buddies shop after i get a few paychecks... and having the radiator flushed ( if the machine cant get suction its the headgasket...so we are going to find out that way if its the head) and secondly what if its just under boost? I read somewhere that if it is only filling up under boost it could be head studs and the head slightly lifting?

 

[deflator]

So problem still not fixed, im going to my buddies shop after i get a few paychecks... and having the radiator flushed ( if the machine cant get suction its the headgasket...so we are going to find out that way if its the head) and secondly what if its just under boost? I read somewhere that if it is only filling up under boost it could be head studs and the head slightly lifting?

Lifting the head would blow the head gasket. That is how it happens, and why ARP headstuds are essential on 2Gs. You can actually stretch the headbolts so the headgasket no longer seals

 

[Bluefire16]

Ahh...ok so what i read did have some truth....well if im going to pull the head to redo the studs i might as well put a new head gasket on... well i guess we will see what happens though when i get my radiator flushed. The car does have 78k on it and i bought it at 56k....and hadnt had the radiator flushed so im hoping its just that it needs a cleaning.