No Crust Racing

hah, pass mate, we have a baby on the way so no toys for me for a while. The Silvia will stay though.

I'm not into water sports, 1) I do not float 2) I've got a pale complexion so the sun is not my friend. I could always get back into dirt bikes, at least when I'm out on those I'm covered up lol

Drove it last night, no gurgle that I could hear when I got back, but the coolant level had dropped a small amount in the overflow over night. I'll have to fix that braided line to rule that out too.

As above. Given that the car and driver combo is a proven performer, I'd be inclined to paint it one colour and try for some sponsorship, could ease the financial burden a bit. I fully understand the social aspect though, that's often been something I've thought about too. What other hobby could I have that I can do more regularly and involves more people.

It's weeping at the fitting, where the line joins the banjo fitting on the turbo. It's the outside line also and very easy to access on my setup, I can remove it, but of course it will piss coolant out everywhere during the process. I'd ay I'd have to get a hydraulics place to remove the end and re-crimp/attach whatever it is they do.

Very nice. What's on the cards for 2013?

Spent some more time on it tonight and thought I'd test the tester. I inflated the bladder in the neck of the radiator and just let that sit, low and behold the gauge started dropping so I'd say the tester has a leak of its own. I pressurised the system fully and looked for leaks again, only one I can find is that tiny weep from the braided turbo line so I'm not super worried about that. I'll drive it some more and see what the coolant level does and go from there.

OK done for the day as I'm a bit over it now. Flushed out all the radiator flush stuff, ran the car for a solid 25 mins, jacked up and levelled out with the top radiator hose disconnected and waited for the water to run clear. I had the heater on the whole time on full. I let the car idle for a few minutes without anything in the radiator just to pump out the last of the fluid then reconnected the top hose and filled the radiator with coolant. After filling the radiator and the overflow tank it only took 4L of fluid, though the FSM says the system takes 7L. I let it idle way up on the jack for quite a while to free up any air bubbles then took it for a drive. Temperatures were stable and the heater worked fine. After coming back it still gurgled from the same spot, not for long though, and I got under it and still can't find any obvious coolant leaks with the exception of a very tiny weep at one turbo line. After letting the car cool down, it looks to have drawn a little coolant from the overflow and there appears to be a little bit of sediment sitting on top of the coolant in the radiator, nothing serious though. I'll drive it a few more times and get it hot/cool it down and see if the overflow levels out after a while. I still have the pressure tester also.

Working on the car at the moment, just stopping for lunch and waiting for it to cool down. Emptied out the radiator and ran the engine with clean water flowing in while watching the water flowing out. Plugged it up and put a bottle of radiator flush in it, filled it up and let it idle for a good 25mins. Towards the end it started frothing up as shown. I'm assuming this occurs as the radiator flush does its work. Once it's cooled I'll flush it again then put new coolant in it, no doubt it'll take a while to bleed out the air but at least once I'm done the coolant should be clean enough for me to TK test it if needed.

Lol nah I work in an industry where it can take ages to solve an issue so I'm pretty patient. Yeah still has heater in it.

No luck today, tightened a few more things but there still seems to be a very slow leak. I can no longer see any coolant leaking (exception being a very tiny weep from one turbo line when the car is warmed up), just the gauge dropping slowly. I also still got the gurgle after driving it.

I should add that one leak is right where I hear the gurgle and is quite high in the system.

Found some more leaks this morning, working on fixing those.

Long time without an update...

Ahh, OK. Yeah I've got a rough idea on what needs to be done so I'll test out all the theories when I dump the coolant this weekend to remove the stuff that was oil contaminated from the HG failure.

No offense taken mate, all advice is always welcome. This is a CA18 so there is no bleed screw as was mentioned earlier which is what makes this system one of the trickier ones. I'll keep at it and report back how I go. My main concern is that the head is sealing properly.

Yeah I've read through that before when I had my 33s, This is a CA S13, so no bleed screw but I've pretty much done all the other steps. I might look into a radiator cap for cheap insurance. I'll know more this weekend when I've had some time to fiddle.

It is, just doesn't feel as hard to me.

After looking at the pic I posted again in more detail you are right, the PSI is on the outside of the measurement ring, which shows 15-20-25 etc against it.

I'll re-check the tester then maybe it;s not psi and in fact something else. It's definitely 100 somethings. At 100 (whatever the unit is if its not psi) the radiator hoses are almost rock hard to touch, they were not anywhere near that hard after driving it and keeping the cap on while it was hot and pressurised.

Clutch fan seems to be working fine, car doesn't get hot on the factory or after market gauge. It's certainly spinning as expected and I have the shroud in place. Just get that noise and I thought it may have been using coolant but as I fixed 3 different leaks it's entirely possible that was why. 100psi on the gauge has test next to it, I went 140 after fixing leaks and could hear/see nothing else leaking. If I let the car idle long enough with the cap removed the coolant level rises to a point where it would start over flowing if I left the cap off which is why I don;'t want to follow a suggestion I was given of driving it with the cap off. I've jacked it way up twice and let it idle for 15-20mins each time, my jack goes 498mm. I'll get under it and triple check the coolant hoses up under the manifold. This weekend I should be able to drain everything, flush out the old coolant and put fresh stuff in so I can TK test it without the old stuff in there.

Agreed Jeff, but look at the most recent update. Drove it last night after fixing some leaks and it gurgled without the rad cap being removed. There definitely could be more leaks, so I will do some more testing. The big ticket for me was that I could not hear anything in/around the head area or where it was been gurgling. I will flush it all out and get a TK tester on to it, I can deal with it getting some air in or leaking a tiny bit somewhere but I don;t want to put it on the dyno if the head gasket is not sealing.

"Looks" good, but was on the car when I bought it.

Forgot to add, it didn't make any noises in or around that area while I was pressure testing it. Maybe I should pull the spark plug on 3 and 4 (where the HG was blown last time) and see if I can see/hear anything at the same time. I'll try and line up a TK tester, but I have to fully flush the cooling system first as this older coolant would still have some oil in it from when the HG went.

I did some more work on it last night with a radiator tester a mate had. Fouund 3 leaks at 100psi test pressure. - Top radiator hose which required 2 hoses clamps before I could not hear the air escaping any more. - Water temp sender adapter which I was able to seal up with a new/better hose clamp. - 2 lines under the intake manifold next to each other that I'd not tightened up properly. I made sure they didn't leak up to 140psi on the gauge then let it idle jacked right up for 10 mins before taking it for a belt. When I got back, the car still gurgled at me, but I got it on video this time. There's a noise halfway through the clip, that's the missus banging around outside the garage water plants.