Rb20Det Burning Coolant ?

[cabramatta]

Hey guys

I had drained my coolant today and when I put new coolant in and started my car, I had noticed that there was a lot of white smoke coming from the muffler.

The smoke didn't stop even after idling it up to normal temperature. The weird thing is, it wasn't smoking the coolant drain + refill of coolant. It's only after I had filled up with fresh coolant did it start doing this.

TO ADD; my coolant always goes poo brown, even after just driving for 30 minutes, it will go poo brown again from fresh green coolant.

I did a compression test and got 137 137 137 128 126 137

I have read that a 10psi difference isn't something to be worried about.

I don't have any specific tools or a leakdown tester on me but that will be the next option.

After idling the car for about 10 minutes, I let the car cool down and opened the radiator cap and put in about 1 liter of coolant (assuming this is what I burnt as the coolant was up to the radiator cap when I flushed and filled it up today).

Could this be a blown headgasket ? There are no visual leaks anywhere although there is a burning coolant smell coming from the engine bay, but from what I have seen, there are no leaks and it could possibly be from coolant that I might have dripped on the motor earlier today.

Thoughts ?

I have read somewhere that it could also be the turbo ?

It's stock standard apart from:

RB25 Turbo

Walbro 255L fuel pump

3" exhaust

Front mount

[cabramatta]

To add to the above, took of the intake arm off the turbo and it smelt like coolant inside..

And it also looked like there was dry coolant on the turbo fins.

It's a standard RB25 turbo

Edited April 11, 2012 by cabramatta

[StealthX]

you've got oil mixing with coolant and burning both

head gasket.

[cabramatta]

Did you read what I wrote ?

There's no oil in coolant and there's no coolant in oil.

[TTT]

If this is the first time you change the coolant in your motor, then what was in there might have been what was keeping your gasket together so to speak.

Question for you and a few things you can try to..

1.) did you just drop the coolant and then close the drain then put new coolant in or did you do the process properly?

Things you can try - and it depends on how much cash you have and how much you care for the boat anchor motor that is in there.

I'll separate them in to catagories for you..

OPTION 1

I have $50 and need to use the car and don't care too much about this motor

go to super cheap and buy 2 bottles of "car go - Seal-up" - about $15 each - smaller bottles

also buy 2 to 4 5L bottles of deminerilized water (about $5 each)

Go home.

remove radiator cap

Undo the that pissy drain hole in the bottom passenger side of the radiator and let all the coolant drain out in to a tub (don't flush in to the drain)

close the drain hole.

move the car to a place where you don't mind getting water and coolant (lawn).

pull the bottom radiator hose off the radiator side and engine side

stick garden hose in to the radiator.

turn on the tap.

watch the water come out the bottom of the radiator.

keep watching till it comes out clear (or close to)

NOTE: If your coolant overflow tank (next to the battery) is all brown, remove the battery, remove the plastic tank and jam the hose in that and flush it all out as clean as you can too.

turn the tap off and let it all drip out.

put the overflow tank back.

put the radiator hose back on - connect at both radiator and engine ends and tighten.

fill the radiator with the bottles of water you bought (it will only take 1 bottle)

Start the car

get back to the front and keep filling the radiator (it will take a little more)

remove bolt from the bleed hole on the manifold - FAR left of this picture where the little gold sticker is - that bolt there

Keep topping up the radiator till water comes out of there in a steady flow rather than just spit and bubbles.

once water flows from there, put the bolt back in and tighten it.

Drive your car around your block a few times till it gets to operating temp - KEEP AN EYE ON THE TEMP GAUGE if it gets up to 3/4 mark, shut it down.

Once home, let it cool.

Repeat all of the steps above.

Once you get to the stage where you are about to drive again.

Get your bottle of CAR GO SEAL-UP and shake it, shake shake it like a polaroid picture.

when it is all mixed up, slowly add it to your radiator.

add the whole bottle.

close radiator cap.

Go for a drive - 40 minutes.

NOW. at this stage the instructions on the bottle says "dump the water and fill with long life coolant"

But I can tell you from experience, this will just open up the hole in your head gasket again.

I left that shit in my engine for over 1000kms without a problem.

so I suggest (in this tight arse section) that you leave it at that.

you carry a towel, socket set, 5L bottle of the demineralised water and the other bottle of seal up in the car with you just in case.

OPTION 2

I have a sick obsession for THIS RB20 and want to keep it

Either do it yourself or take it to a mechanic but if it were me, these are the things I would change

1 x headgasket

1 x 100K service kit

1 x radiator

1 x radiator hose kit

reason for the 100K service kit is that the water pump and it's bearings would be turning to shit with the rusty water that has been in there for god knows how long. if replacing the water pump, you'll be removing the timing belt so replace it, if replacing timing belt, replace the idler pulley etc etc.

new radiator - water is rusty because the 20 year old radiator has gunk up to it's eyeballs - having it cleaned by a radiator shop costs over $150.

new direct replacement ebay ones cost $139.

rediator hoses - again, your ones will be lined with poo.

OPTION 3

I have a sick obsession for RB20s but don't trust this one

buy RB20det and install/have it installed

PLUS do all the things in OPTION 2

OPTION 4

RB20det is teh Gay - I need an RB25

Buy RB25det and install/have it installed (need RB25 ecu and some wiring work)

PLUS do all the things in OPTION 2

what I did was - Option 1, followed by option 1 again, then Option 4 minus the 100K kit.

and here endeth the novel.

[cabramatta]

Wow..

Thanks a lot for that response! I really appreciate the time put into it.

I will give them a try today and let you know how I go.

Thanks again mate.

[cabramatta]

Okay, so I did the above (Option 1) but I didn't use that seal up stuff.

I also loosened the alternator belt a bit (connects to water pump) as it seemed a bit tight.

When I start the car up on cold start, the belt screeches for about 15 seconds then goes away once warm.

I opened that 10mm bolt on the intake manfiold and a stream of coolant was coming out and sucking water from the reservoir at the same time.

I also connected the piped from the valve cover to the turbo intake which wasn't connected before, so the PCV valve was venting to air and the hole on the turbo intake arm was blocked off.

I also removed the plugs and regapped them to 0.8 (they were 1.1 before standard). The car idles a bit high (about 1100RPM) But it has stopped misfiring on idle (used to do that before I'm guessing from the plugs).

The weird thing is, the car is no longer blowing smoke ? I didn't even drain the coolant again, I just kept topping it up with the motor running and made sure there was a smooth stream coming out of that hole from the intake manifold and it was sucking water from the reservoir at the same time so I'm guessing there is no blockages between them.

The car isn't over heating and it's staying at abit above 1/4 temp (even at idle for 20 minutes~).

I revved it up to 5-6k a few times and there is no smoke coming out at all ???

What's the go :S

[TTT]

at idle, the car won't get to operating temps.

even after 20 minutes.

and if you have an old thermostat which probably doesn't seal properly it takes AAAAAAAGES to warm up at idle.

Another thing..

when the water temp is 63 degrees, the temp gauge gets to halfway.

Thermostat is supposed to open at 77.5 degrees if I remember correctly..

regular operating temps while driving or stopped in traffic will be about 80-85 degrees.

That stock temp gauge does not move off halfway until water temp gets to 103 degrees.

then, once it gets from 103 to 107 the guage starts to move towards teh 3/4 mark.

at 117 degrees it touches the HOT line.

the time it takes to go from 103 to 117 is about 20 seconds if your car is f**ked, and then you blow that gasket good and proper and possibly warp your head and other awesome stuff.

I can almost assure you that if you go for a drive till it gets to proper operating temps, it will start to misfire again as that gaskets opens and water gets in to the combustion chamber and gets burnt up (white smoke out the exhaust and that awesome hot coolant smell).

You are going to have to do one of the options I listed no matter what.

just a matter of when.

There is another way to confirm blown head gasket if you want.

there is a CO2 sniffer kit you can buy from auto stores or just take it to a mechanic to do it for you.

it gets attached to the radiator opening and after about 1 minute of running the car with it on there, it changes colour if it detects CO2 (exhaust gas).

go for a drive (stay close to home and an eye on the temp gauge)

see if it changes once at temp.

[cabramatta]

Thanks for that mate.

Will take it for a drive tonight and keep an eye on the temps and report back.

I've checked supercheap auto for that co2 tester but can't find anything on their website ?

Thanks agian.

[cabramatta]

Okay took it out for a spin, went around the block for about half an hour.. Hitting boost in nearly every gear, giving it a belting.. Temp went up to nominal, idle was nice and low and smooth.. No smoke from exhaust, no loss of coolant, no loss of power, no overheating, no smoke.

What the f**k just happened ? :S

Edited April 12, 2012 by cabramatta

[TTT]

Maybe some more of that rusty shit in your system has blocked up where ever it was leaking from.

Perhaps your system already had some of that seal up stuff in it from a previous owner.

After driving it around with new coolant mixing up with old coolant it has finally all mixed up and sealed up again.

Consider yourself lucky or unlucky depending on how you look at it.

If you want to be certain, get a mechanic to do a co2 sniffer test.