WRX Possible Blown HG help please

[legacy_wife_no.2]

Hi guys, having trouble with my WRX, First off my radiator had a crack in the side, so i replaced it, went for a 5 minute drive, allgood so far. Turned car off then about 20 seconds later water started gushing out the overflow bottle, lost about 90% of the water in it. So i thought i burped it wrong, so i reburped it, was going allgood then water level rose alot and quite fast inside the funnel and then started boiling everywhere again (out the turbo resovior tank as cap was off) I was thinking it had blown a Head Gasket, so i checked all the common symptoms, no milky oil, no oily water, no white smoke out the exhaust, there was a tiny bit of water but i assume that its condensation as i tested it in the morning, no bubbles coming out of radiator when cold. so i thought id do a compression test, i couldnt do it while engine was hot as one of my coil packs broke on removal to check for coolant on plugs, so it can only run on 3 cylingers till new coil pack arrives, so i did a compression test, 3 times on each cylinder and readings came back at 157, 153, 160, 151. this is a cold reading as i cant get a warm one at the moment

Any help or ideas would be much appreciated, thanks in advance

[gazzy2000]

i would make sure you bleed (burp) the system properly.

that hot water blowing out everywhere is sometimes caused by an air lock, where-by when cold/cool actually does start to flow through where the airlock is, the water hits the hot metal components and instantly boils and will shoot out.

this boiling and blowing normally happens when you take the cap off as this makes the cooler water flow through the airlock area Makng you think its a head gasket.

Put it this way, if it was a H/G and was that bad, i think your Oil and/or water would show the tell tail signs.

use a 2L coke bottle full of water to fill so the weight of the water helps fill the system better + jack car up as high as u can at the front, massage the hoses, leave cap off till water gets warm.

Have heater on hot and blowing too.

also on the drivers side hose, there is the smaller hose that goes from the radiator to the filler tank, take this off and let air bleed out, as much as you can until the water gets too host, yes u will lose antifreeze doing it this way too..

[tebbyj]

Also make sure that you havent got the pipes from the top tank to the radiator and overflow mixed up, very easy to do as they go right next to each other. Seems so simple but it got me once ;D

One from the cap neck goes to the tube that runs along the rad to the overflow and one strait from the top tank goes into the radiator next to the top hose.

If they are around the wrong way all the coolant will be blown out the overflow every time the cooling system tries to pressurize.

[titian]

 tebbyj said:

Also make sure that you havent got the pipes from the top tank to the radiator and overflow mixed up, very easy to do as they go right next to each other. Seems so simple but it got me once ;D

One from the cap neck goes to the tube that runs along the rad to the overflow and one strait from the top tank goes into the radiator next to the top hose.

If they are around the wrong way all the coolant will be blown out the overflow every time the cooling system tries to pressurize.

Sounds like this is it. ;D ;D ;D Been there > ;D ;D

[tebbyj]

Glad it wasn\'t just me ;D

[Bugle]

Is it down on power?

[legacy_wife_no.2]

 gazzy2000 said:

i would make sure you bleed (burp) the system properly.

that hot water blowing out everywhere is sometimes caused by an air lock, where-by when cold/cool actually does start to flow through where the airlock is, the water hits the hot metal components and instantly boils and will shoot out.

this boiling and blowing normally happens when you take the cap off as this makes the cooler water flow through the airlock area Makng you think its a head gasket.

Put it this way, if it was a H/G and was that bad, i think your Oil and/or water would show the tell tail signs.

use a 2L coke bottle full of water to fill so the weight of the water helps fill the system better + jack car up as high as u can at the front, massage the hoses, leave cap off till water gets warm.

Have heater on hot and blowing too.

also on the drivers side hose, there is the smaller hose that goes from the radiator to the filler tank, take this off and let air bleed out, as much as you can until the water gets too host, yes u will lose antifreeze doing it this way too..

Thanks for your help, I researched alot on how to burp it and i filled it that way originally, i squeezed top hose often too, with heater on full, i got to the stage where no more bubbles were coming out so i quickly put radiator cap on then let id idle, seemed allgood for 5 or so minutes then it happened again. i noticed that when i revved the engine it wanted more water but as soon as it went back to idle it pushed it all back up. Do you think maybe i need to burp it while its dead cold then turn the car off just before it starts to warm up then wait a few hours and repeat? just to make sure air is 100% gone. or is that pointless?

[legacy_wife_no.2]

 tebbyj said:

Also make sure that you havent got the pipes from the top tank to the radiator and overflow mixed up, very easy to do as they go right next to each other. Seems so simple but it got me once ;D

One from the cap neck goes to the tube that runs along the rad to the overflow and one strait from the top tank goes into the radiator next to the top hose.

If they are around the wrong way all the coolant will be blown out the overflow every time the cooling system tries to pressurize.

thanks but that was the first thing i checked, ive seen and heard of a few people doing that including workshops

[legacy_wife_no.2]

 Bugle said:

Is it down on power?

Na, power is the same, although 1st gear has always been weird, can hardly notice that the car is turbo in 1st, all other gears seem to pull sweet, i havnt really cared as i rarely boost in 1st gear, there seems to be a slight miss when idling but hardly noticeable unless you listen really carefully and also idle fluctuation is terrible (over 1000 rpm difference sometimes) its not a consistent fluctuation just random, mainly when cold. Also car almost stalls every time i take my foot off the accelerator but correct themselves after a second. i just assumed that its the cheap bov that the last owner put on. Also car has frontmount, not sure if that changes anything

[gazzy2000]

 legacy_wife_no.2']

[quote name='gazzy2000 said:

i would make sure you bleed (burp) the system properly.

that hot water blowing out everywhere is sometimes caused by an air lock, where-by when cold/cool actually does start to flow through where the airlock is, the water hits the hot metal components and instantly boils and will shoot out.

this boiling and blowing normally happens when you take the cap off as this makes the cooler water flow through the airlock area Makng you think its a head gasket.

Put it this way, if it was a H/G and was that bad, i think your Oil and/or water would show the tell tail signs.

use a 2L coke bottle full of water to fill so the weight of the water helps fill the system better + jack car up as high as u can at the front, massage the hoses, leave cap off till water gets warm.

Have heater on hot and blowing too.

also on the drivers side hose, there is the smaller hose that goes from the radiator to the filler tank, take this off and let air bleed out, as much as you can until the water gets too host, yes u will lose antifreeze doing it this way too..

/quote]

Thanks for your help, I researched alot on how to burp it and i filled it that way originally, i squeezed top hose often too, with heater on full, i got to the stage where no more bubbles were coming out so i quickly put radiator cap on then let id idle, seemed allgood for 5 or so minutes then it happened again. i noticed that when i revved the engine it wanted more water but as soon as it went back to idle it pushed it all back up. Do you think maybe i need to burp it while its dead cold then turn the car off just before it starts to warm up then wait a few hours and repeat? just to make sure air is 100% gone. or is that pointless?

u cud try n remove the top heater hose n let the system fill upo with water well az doing all the other stuff u been doing... start it with that hose off.. let the water run through...

U will find if there is a air lock when car comes up to temp the bottom hose will be luke warm. Massage that b1tch.

When u get it right both top and bottom hoses will the same temp when car is warmed up.

[titian]

Given that you have burped the system fairly well going by your description.It really is starting to point towards head gasket. :( esp if it is at full pressure after only five min. Another way to tell (sometimes) is to start engine cold with water system full. Then rev hard and quickly (wot) two or three times up to 6000+ and allow to resume idle between rev. this will bring on boost. If water pipes are then under pressure but still relatively cold, sorry to say but it will be head gasket. :(