Glad to see you are back on track... Crossing my fingers that you might get lucky and just need to reloom

 

Welp did a compression test and leak down test on the car yesterday. All the cylinders were between 160-165psi with a 25-28% leak down. So put on my coolant burping funnel to try and burp the coolant some more to see if that's what is causing the problems. Ran the car for idk 3-4 heat soaks to get everything flowing, i even held it at different RPM's to help.

Took it for a spin to see if i fixed anything and nope still filling up my overflow tank with the Koyo high pressure cap ~138kpa.

I would think it would be dam near impossible to lift a head at 540hp on a blower car pushing 17psi with L19's.

Bealljk suggest pulling the thermostat to make sure it's functioning and to drill some small holes in it so there is always flow.

 

I did this on my twin turbo setup with two 3/16" holes and two 1/4" holes in the thermostat plate and it was too much - my ECT would fluxuate quite a bit between 160* and 210*. Another consideration is that I was not running any of the OEM auxillary hoses (like the heater core hoses, bypass, etc) so I wanted some flow no matter what.

On my current setup I put two 3/16". Maybe you only put a single 1/8" - 3/16"?? If you want an extra thermostat plate let me know … I got like 4 of them!

My thought process is that these engines are temperamental when it comes to bleeding and air pockets sit inside the thermostat housing and don't/wont let the thermostat gate open up.

Conway - are you getting white smoke out the exhaust?

 

Any update? Got my fingers crossed that it's a minor issue.....

 

Sorry for the delay not much of an update been kinda a busy and upset with the car all at the same time.

Car is still pushing coolant into the expansion tank so i think i have more air in the system. I think there is still more air in the system that i have to get out.

I also have to redo some damn RTV, before i get the car back on the road. My timing chain tensioner access panel is leaking and it appears say driver side cam access panel is also pissing oil all over my belts.

Unfortunately i don't have the time to mess with it as I'm going on leave next week.

 

Da *** causes this?????

 

mine did that when T-stat was not opening........

 

Ya looks like a blockage.

 

Brand new T-stat that i tested before installing, i also drilled a small hole in it to help bleed it.

 

Any known ways of how to track it down??

 

I feel your pain CW. Might you be able to remove the thermostate element all together and repeat the process to see if the thermostat element is the issue?

 

Garden hose through heater core both ways. Had a blockage in a wrangler and this fixed it. /Shrug your results might be different. Did you use a lisle funnel?

 

 

Yes i did

So, basically now i just need to drive it softly or let it idle until i hear the fans kick on. a few times so it gets up to temp and opens the t-stat and bleed it's self out?

Also i get hot air out of my vents is that not a sign i'm getting flow?

 

 

The heater core doesn't go through the thermostat. It's on one of the bypass loops like the hose that goes around the front.

 

did you jack up the front end while bleeding it?

 

Started this process last night. I have a auto zone code reader that also has a live date stream so i was able to see my coolant temp.

I drove the car around the neighborhood at like 15-20mph while saying at less then 2000rpm's and 10% throttle. I watched my temp climb up to 210 then it started to fall back down to about 195-205 when i was pulling back into the yard. So i think it finally opened after driving around for 10-15 mins. I noticed it did push a little water into my reservoir but nothing to crazy. It very hard to grab the lower radiator hose to see how hot it is due to the blower setting right there, but it was firm and felt hot so that helps me believe that it did open.

Once it cooled down i opend the radiator cap and it pulled in some air so it didn't pull all the coolant back in from the reservoir so i'll have to top of the radiator tonight. Then repeat.


Yes, not at a crazy cazy angle but i ensured the radiator cap is the highest point in the car.


Side not: Aluminum radiators suck, they get way to hot and F up your arms when trying to reach for things.....

 

Update: after messing with it for a week it's still same results.

So this morning i removed the thermostat to see if that was my problem. I filled the car with only water since i'll be draining it once i get either good or bad results.

I installed my spill free funnel and filled the car to get rid of the air in the system. Once the car got up to 180 and i no longer noticed air coming out i shut it off to let it cool down.

Once everything cooled down i went for a drive staying put of boost and below 3K rpms. Drove for ~3 miles and temp stayed around ~185. Pulled over to check reservoir and it was where i filled it to.

Next step add boost.... that's where it went south.

Drove about 1/2 mile and temps climbed to 210-215 so nothing out of the ordinary. Checked my reservoir again and FML its filled and air bubbles are a flowing.

Drove the car home and temps started coming back down 205 when i parked.

Next step is to put my high pressure coolant cap on and go for another drive with no boost then low boost to see if it happens again.

I'm out of thoughts.

 

If you only used water that could possibly be an issue when hitting higher temps especially when reaching boiling point. Part of the reason for coolant is to raise the boiling point.
The only other thing I can think of if its specifically when boosting is that your headgasket is leaking compression under boost.(BTW I have an HKS HG for sale if you need one! lol)