Right had a bit of coolant loss for a while now and narrowed it down.

Replaced the thermostat
Replaced all coolant hoses with Samco (red ) Hoses
Drained the system and refilled it properly as TweenieRob suggested.

And still after a long hard boost I am losing coolant. Normal journeys are fine, it is only on long journeys or hard boost ones.

All coolant out of the header tank disappears.

Any suggestions?

Is this pointing to the head gasket not being torqued down enough?

 

Try the turbo water feed. My spring clip had lost its tension, so didint clamp the pipe hard enough. It was fine on normal running and short journeys, minute i gave it a serious blast or long journeys, and i had problems.

Only noticed it, as i had just blasted it, and had to come to a stop quickly, saw steam rising and we traced it to the water feed to the turbo.

The water was peeing out under pressure, onto the up pipe and then evaporating!

Replace spring clip with jubilee clip, problem solved.

Try that.

Steven

 

Nice one Steven thanks will check, but just swapped turbos recently and it did it before.

But using the same jubilee clip.....

Did a compression test and got 145 on the right hand bank and 135 on the left hand bank. Still quite high though!

Noticed you are just down the road from me too!

 

Compressions look fine, wouldnt surprise me if its the water feed to turbo. Check both the feed and the return to the header tank.

 

Right will check that shortly.

Do you not think under boost the head gasket could be lifting slightly?

Or something much more simple than that like that.

Got some jubilee clips so will fiddle tonight.

 

You would notice it if heads were lifting, check the oil.

I lost the whole volume of my header tank whilst car was stationery, turned off, but still under pressure, with the above problem.

Its worth a try.

 

Okay dokey

Never seem to lose it whilst stationary.

Check oil tonight. Checked couple of days ago and it was fine

 

Have you thought of pressure testing your system Custom? It is dead easy to make yourself a pressure tester (did it two weekends ago and found a 4" crack in radiator header, only leaked above 4-4500rpm, saving me a fortune in juice!!!!! Haven't sourced a new rad yet!)

Mike

 

Jon, if you're around at all call, in we have a rad pressure tester and can do it while you wait. In fact you can have coffee whilst waiting... [private joke - sorry scoobynetters]

David API

 

LOL @ David cheers guys

Never though on that.

Not 100% sure but 'think' could be losing some oil. Change oil a month ago, fine last week, but now it is under the low mark. It was a full flush though so 'could' just be a top up. Will find out.

Not down Warwickshire for another 3 weeks yet David but will pop in anyway for a 'coffee'!!

So you will have to pressurise the system, then rev it once pressurised and hold it there I take it?

Im learning

 

Top?

I checked the turbo and very tight with Samco hoses on.

 

try an mot gas sniffer at the neck of top up tank/header or testing kit for coolant
will confirm head gasket troubles
richie

 

Jon, I take it this is the type R?

I noticed a slight loss in the short time I had the car. Thought it might be the rad cap, It did'nt seem to sit quite right. never got round to replacing it. Is the expansion reservoir in the N/S wing filling up at all?
Mind you, It never 'emptied' the header tank though.

Hope it all works out o.k. mate, still regret selling it!

 

Pressure test then

 

The expansion tank in the near side wing is filling up fine.

Pressure test coming up shortly, needed I think. It isnt overheating at all, just losing coolant.

 

Like Ian said, is the water coming out of he expansion bottle next to the battery?

Tbh it sounds like Classic Head gasket symptoms.
Also is there any orange residue around the expansion bottle?

I have known two cars have head gasket probs that did not show up with a pressure test.

Both cars only leaked when the cars were hot and on boost.

Rob

 

Rob, fancy doing my head gasket

 

I had / am having the same problem.

I have changed the header tank, fitted Samco's.

I then did a pressure test and found a crack in the rad near top hose lug.

Bought a replacement rad from main dealers, it still lost water, did another pressure test and that had a crack around lug for bottom hose!!!

Bought a GpN alloy rad, the system was still loosing water, I thought it must definately be head gasket.

Removed the thermostat as a final test and now it does not loose any water at all, even after sessions at high boost.

I have bought a new thermostat, but have yet to fit it to see if the problem was the thermostat or not.

I am not loosing any oil, no loss of power and no visable contanimation in oil or water.

 

Ive already replaced my thermostat already.

No loss of power either. Pulling like a train all the way.

Got to try a pressure test, see what happens. Did have it checked when it first started doing it, but was fine.

BUT only tested at idle. And I dont get the issues then....

 

Custom,
Don't know if you read my post elsewhere but for what it's worth:
I was losing coolant, couldn't identify source. Therefore went Halfords got new rad cap, ripped the valve out, drill ed a bigger hole in it and then pushed a bicycle valve through the remaining hole. Pressurised the system initially to 1 bar(ish) no leak. Raised it to 20 Psi (sorry for mixing units!) and noticed header bulging on LHS of rad. Still not leaking. Dropped pressure back to 1 bar and ran engine, on reving engine water pissed out above 4500 rpm (ish) been driving around gently for the last couple of weeks (saved the cost of new rad in fuel!) and lost NO water at all.

If you need a brutalised rad cap and valve I can send it upto you.

Regards


Mike

 

My car is suffering from this as well UK97T, on a hard run or, long run it necks a header tank of coolant.

Going to get the system pressure tested on Friday by a friend, hopefully its not head gaskets rays:



Iain