Hey guys, I was driving my car over the past week and everything was fine, car started to overheat while I was driving turned off the car. Started to fill my car with 50/50 liquid anti freeze and it started to boil up and spit out what looked like pieces of a sealant gasket up through the radiator. What would be causing this? Would it be a bad thermostat or possibly need to flush my radiator out? Also what could that sealant have been from? Any help would he great

 

As for mods on the car, it a powerlabs turbo on the car

 

stock rad?

 

did you install the kit yourself or have someone do it... you can raise the front of the car all you want to try to get the bubbles out but you have to remove the rear bleeder nut beside the battery on the actual coolant return

its a black plastic phillips head screw and remove it run your car its gonna spill out just bear with it... theres alot of air that can be in your motor after a complete drain of the system.

its a long process but mine even overheated and shut down on me one time and i had to pull over and let it cool off after i installed my TT kit so trial and error

try that ans see what happens, and keep checking it for a few days and then wait a week it will balance out rather fast

 

Yes stock radiator

 

Initially I did but the motor had to get pulled so the second time it was a shop. I appreciate the info I'm gonna try the bleeder and see how it goes. Any idea what the sealant/ gasket gunk is? It was coming up from the radiator

 

Why was the motor pulled? It sounds like you have air in your system still. What does the gunk look like rtv?

 

The motor was pulled to replace headgaskets and studs because of a mechanics error the wastegate was installed with the top port being plugged by the hose instead of side port. So literraly when the mechanic was driving the car the head lifted

 

Yea exactly like RTV, I also noticed that the water in the powerlab reservoir was boiling

 

how long have you driven it since the last head gasket replacement?

Also, you should drive it so the heats up, then look at the coolant level in the reservoir. Then let it cool all the way down to room temp and see where the coolant level in the reservoir is. Normally the coolant level should go down. If the coolant level doesn't go down then that means air has been forced into the cooling system and almost always that air is from a bad head gasket.

the black can be 2 things: rtv or the black surface from a head gasket.

 

the rtv sealant was a light brownish color not black, new head gasket has maybe 500 miles on it.

 

head gaskets can blow with 0 miles on them on the dyno if something is wrong. Miles doesn't really mean it's solid.

Did they check the heads and block to make sure when the first one blew it didn't warp or cause any hairline cracks?

definitely test the coolant levels. that will tell you if coolant is being pushed out by air. From there you can determine what to do.

 

Yea the heads were checked and so was the block, the car was driving completely fine up til yesterday. Car over heated and i pulled over and waited for it to cool. started her up again and she did it again. waited a little more at a gas station. then drove the same distance home and the car was fine. wouldnt the car continue to overheat or drive different.

 

Okay i drove the car around for a bit and temperature stayed normal. the reservoir didn't get any water in it and the little water that was in was sucked out. Car was sitting after drive and I heard what sounds like metal pinging. This should be normal as metal tends to expand with heat right? never really noticed it before.

 

Okay A little bit of water started to sip into the reservoir, should i be concerned? I'm still wondering what the light brownish RTV could have been from.

 

when it heats up water will be pushed into the radiator. that's normal. That same amount should also be drawn back into the radiator once it fully cools. If the coolant isn't pulled back into the radiator after it cools then that means air was forced into your cooling system.

If that is working normal then there is a slim to none chance you have a head gasket leak. If no head gasket leak then the only thing that would cause random overheats would be an air pocket that is trapped and is moving around. Sometimes it's where it causes a problem (near the thermostat usually) and sometimes in another area that doesn't cause a problem.

If that's the case i would recommend a spill free funnel and a proper bleed. I personally don't think a proper bleed of our cooling system can be done without a spill free funnel since our heads are above the radiator cap making it almost impossible for air to travel down out of the heads then back up to the radiator cap to come out. With a spill free funnel the filling coolant level is above the heads therefore eliminating that issue.

napa or amazon will sell you one. Best 20$ i ever spent. Bled the car perfectly, fast, and didn't get any coolant mess on the garage floor. I use it on all the cars i add coolant to now.

 

Agreed spill free funnel is great money spent.

 

FYI If your overflow tank is sucked dry then you're pulling air into the system... when cold you should be at least 1/3 full and it will fill up higher as engine heats up, then drop back down. Never let it go dry.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll make sure to monitor that and make sure it doesn't get dry

 

Those little pieces of gasket in your coolant are likely head gasket material. coolant should not spew and overflow/overheat under boost. It's normal to see a rise in coolant level but not overheating and severe overflowing.

I'd check your headgasket, after doing a thorough purging of the cooling system. Best of luck.