So drove home from work today, took car to nissan garage during the day final look over and Consult check and set up before we depart next weekend for Spain in the ZED. :dance:

 

Only, when I got home and just lifted the bonnet for a quick look I could hear bubbling and saw water all over the Nearside inner arch, it appeared to have sprayed from the expansion bottle. looked underneath and water all over nearside wheel and floor.No over heating though! :headvswal :headvswal :cry: :cry:

 

So waited a while, took cap off rad, no water. Topped it up then ran it up but can't reproduce it. Runs fine. took up the road and back still nothing. Can't go to Spain it if I can trust it, will have to go in other halfs MX5 go cart :shock:

 

What would cause pressure in the water jacket? When I bought it this was the reason I got it cheap, it didn't run and the guy I got it from said it kept blowing its water out. I thought head gasket, so engine out, 2 tested 2nd hand heads, newgaskets, rings etc. Bin fine for 3000 miles apart from external stuff. Could there be a crack in one of the Turbos??

Car got hot yesterday stuck in traffic, never overheated but fan came in and stayed in for a long time, checked water this am and put 1/2 litre of water in, gone down hill since then. :cry: :cry:

Could be anything from an air-lock to a cracked block!

Could be anything from an air-lock to a cracked block!

even a rad cap or thermostat

its worth doing the cheap options first

You could get it pressure tested

Did have that running water sound in the heater matrix and even though I jacked it up at the front and ran it up I've never got rid of it.

I thought it had cleared itself which is why I had put 1/2 a litre in this am.

But think its more terminal than that now.

Bloody thing!!!!

Had it pressure tested today, just in case. Mate said it held pressure for 30 mins without dropping.

Ordered a cap as well cause I've heard funny little noises from it, but then it is designed to release small amounts of water/pressure in to the expansion tank.

Had it pressure tested today, just in case. Mate said it held pressure for 30 mins without dropping.

Ordered a cap as well cause I've heard funny little noises from it, but then it is designed to release small amounts of water/pressure in to the expansion tank.

True,at a set pressure!-if it does it all the time,it's fecked! :)

You could try a gas test,will rule out(or not) any internal troubles!

Had it pressure tested today, just in case. Mate said it held pressure for 30 mins without dropping.

Ordered a cap as well cause I've heard funny little noises from it, but then it is designed to release small amounts of water/pressure in to the expansion tank.

Mines never used a drop of water and it gets hammered carnt drive it normal.

I had a golf gti and it kept boiling up i changed the head gasket and it was still the same it turned out to be the rad cap

Ive also had blocked radiators boil up every now and again :duffer:

Cheers guys, not looking on worst side for moment, will try gas test and run up with new cap and see what happens. The cap is 17 years old so can't rule that out.

 

thermostat is new with engine build.

 

Yes Chrisbond65 won't be the first time I've done work for the sake of it and found out it was something much simpler!!!

Don't rule something out just because its new, Is the electric fan working ? it may have got a little too and if the fan didn't cut in it may have boiled over ?.

hi jase m, u said at the start the engine did not work before you bought it because of this problem, and that you have re built it and the same prob has come back, i dont want to put a downer on it mate but it sounds like the system is back pressuring which when air gets in the system and the causes it to boil over, would def check out all your hose's for small splits or pin holes, this includes the one's under the plenium, and check rad cap and any other iteams related to your cooling system, if this does not sort it out then you may have a small leak in one of the gallerys, which i'm not sure if it can be sorted out, if the engine has been cooked and cracked in the past then thats what i would suspect.....

 

hope you can get this sorted it was overheating that killed mine

 

all the best

Fry - Yeah, elctric fan works fine,

Madmodder- no small leaks and no pressure drop under test and my mate put more pressure in the system than is normal. Engine doesn't get hot on the gauge, theres no overheating as such. The car never ran when I bought it so wasn't able to see what problm was then. But I've done +3000k miles in this and have tested it vigerously, if original problem existed after rebuild I would have expected it to have shown up before now, I've used every day!?!?

Gonna try and ahve a look today if I get time this eveing when I get home from work, if I find anything I'll let you know.

So checked it out tonight, ran car for ages. Pressurized system with pressure tester, held good as 1.5 bar. Never lost any water. Put new rad cap on.

Temperature just under half way.

Then took it for a road test, system pressurizes and blows water out of expansion bottle. :cry:

When you then switch it off you can hear the system bubbling inside. Its not boiling, its pressure.

The engine runs fine and there is no loss of power and it appears that the pressurisation is when the engine has been down the road IE when the Turbos blow.

I know it could be a crack in Turbo, Block or Head.

Anyone else had any of these and was it a case of striping it until you found it or did you discover them by other methods. :(

what about this for a positive optomistic theory......

 

the water level was fine but when you added the extra water this morning it went over the H mark in the expansion tank. This would of been ok until the coolant was upto pressure and coolant was pushed into the expansion tank causing it to overflow????

 

Always nice to have a simple and inexpensive explanation when people are saying HG failure!

LMAO - I like your optomisum but Its chucking out too much water to be a bit over full.

unfortunately im agreeing with the turbos upping the cylinder comp and blowing into the cooling jacket, have you gas tested the coolant

No, I've got a gas tester but the fluids gone off, IE it should be blue but is yellow before I start!!!??? so no good. But I'm resigned to the inevitable. My therory is, this apparently was doing the same thing before I bought it. Its got 2 ,2nd hand, tested heads, so its either a Turbo or more likely a cracked block.

But I love my Zed so will get on to it over the winter, hey I might even whack a couple of uprated Tubs on it and a few other bits!! Got to look on the bright side?

If you think its the turbos you could by pass the water feeds to them, they will be fine with oil cooling to try it but I think its more likely to be head or block I'm afraid