Cosworth water system pressurised :-(
#1
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Hi guys, im currently running in my newly rebuilt 4x4 engine. only done 150 miles was running sweet starts and drives fine, still starts fine now, BUT the other day I just jump in the car to pick someone up and driving through the village at roughly 20 mph, the cars engine tone changed like a deep bass line going off, the car juddered miss fired, i took it 200 yards down to my garage popped the bonnet and the whole water system pressurised the water pipes were solid nearly. Undone the header tank cap slowly and there was massive pressure build up. and the smell from the exhaust was immense. now the engine is a stage 3 and has been built to that spec and more. No expense spared and uprated everything, new water pump new oversized pistons, 4 layer wrc gasket new rad new turbo new uprated oil pump head overhaul you name it. it seems to me the head gasket has gone but how?????HELPPPPPPP
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Last edited by OrionRST200bhp; 06-09-2014 at 06:34 PM.
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Hi there. Sounds like it may have had a massive airlock. Or the head gasket went and the exhaust gas pressurised the cooling system. Have u got access to a head test kit? The one with the blue fluid to test if there's any exhaust gasses in the coolant tank
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Or can u smell exhaust gas from the expansion tank? I'd top the cooling system up again and run it on tick over to see how it behaves. May have just been a massive airlock if your lucky or bad luck the head gasket
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Take the spark plugs out as they can tell a story on there own if they've been contaminated with coolant. I'd run it up again after to check what it's like now it's had a chance to cool down and run it with the expansion cap off to let any air out
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#8
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Removed the spark plugs they all seemed fine exactly the same colour on all plugs, like a biscuit colour. Also done a compression test on all chambers, all reading around 130psi on the gauge. ran the car for a few mins, when revving the car the water seemed to move about a lot in the tank and also the water looked like the head of a pint of larger:-(
Last edited by OrionRST200bhp; 07-09-2014 at 08:41 AM.
#9
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Removed the spark plugs they all seemed fine exactly the same colour on all plugs, like a biscuit colour. Also done a compression test on all chambers, all reading around 130psi on the gauge. ran the car for a few mins, when revving the car the water seemed to move about a lot in the tank and also the water looked like the head of a pint of larger:-(
What head bolts did you use?
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is your rad cap working and letting pressure release at 15 psi ?
have you removed spark plugs yet ? if water ingress caused misfire you need to isolate which cylinder it is. could be leaking headgasket, cracked head or block.
ive seen cracked wet liners do it a few times on big diesels, with the misfire and loads of pressure its likely water in a pot but needs to be diagnosed and isolated 100% before stripping it ime.
have you removed spark plugs yet ? if water ingress caused misfire you need to isolate which cylinder it is. could be leaking headgasket, cracked head or block.
ive seen cracked wet liners do it a few times on big diesels, with the misfire and loads of pressure its likely water in a pot but needs to be diagnosed and isolated 100% before stripping it ime.
#12
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is your rad cap working and letting pressure release at 15 psi ?
have you removed spark plugs yet ? if water ingress caused misfire you need to isolate which cylinder it is. could be leaking headgasket, cracked head or block.
ive seen cracked wet liners do it a few times on big diesels, with the misfire and loads of pressure its likely water in a pot but needs to be diagnosed and isolated 100% before stripping it ime.
have you removed spark plugs yet ? if water ingress caused misfire you need to isolate which cylinder it is. could be leaking headgasket, cracked head or block.
ive seen cracked wet liners do it a few times on big diesels, with the misfire and loads of pressure its likely water in a pot but needs to be diagnosed and isolated 100% before stripping it ime.
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ive recently had a dozer presureising water system and blowing water out of the cap, it was a low liner on number 5.
if your system pressure got that high it should of vented some pressure and blew it out of the rad/header cap.
I have struggled myself with bleeding the water circuit on a yb so also make 100% sure you have a 100% bled system, my last rb26 was the worst ive ever had to bleed it was a complete twat
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Is there a catalytic converter in the exhaust still?? Or back boxes?
Take the exhaust off at the turbo / downpipe an run it with no cats/back boxes to test it
I had this exact problem before on an escort gti !
The honeycomb stuff in the cat had broken up into chunks and 1 big piece had pretty much blocked the exhaust pipe completely, the gas had nowhere to go and pressurised the coolant system and all my water hoses and the rad blew up like balloons and rock hard to feel,
Took a lot of working out but ended up taking exhaust off, smashing all the bits of cat out the pipe put it back on and car was fine,
Marc
Take the exhaust off at the turbo / downpipe an run it with no cats/back boxes to test it
I had this exact problem before on an escort gti !
The honeycomb stuff in the cat had broken up into chunks and 1 big piece had pretty much blocked the exhaust pipe completely, the gas had nowhere to go and pressurised the coolant system and all my water hoses and the rad blew up like balloons and rock hard to feel,
Took a lot of working out but ended up taking exhaust off, smashing all the bits of cat out the pipe put it back on and car was fine,
Marc
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Last edited by M K; 09-09-2014 at 11:50 AM.
#19
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Hi pal. It hasn't got the cats on. I've just been checking the water there's no oil in there but there is a lot of what looks like orange juice. Very rusty water but not sure why? Unless there was a massive blockage in the block where the water sits???? Baffled.
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Sounds like loadsa silt in the system. Drain it out, add a coolant flush (all motor stores sell them) and run it up hot with plain water and coolant flush in. Then drain it all out and re fill with coolant. May have to do it a couple of times. U can also back flush the cooling system putting a hose pipe up various coolant pipes. Cheers, Gary
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Good news! As said earlier I would fully flush, fill up and bleed the cooling system and check correct operation of header tank cap
#28
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How will I know that the cap is working correctly? The cap isn't very old but it was on the car when I cooked it 3 years ago:-(
How quick should it take for the water to get hot in a cossie engine?
How quick should it take for the water to get hot in a cossie engine?
Last edited by OrionRST200bhp; 09-09-2014 at 05:17 PM.
#33
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Flushing system this morning. I will say that when running the radiator stays cool nearly Ice cold. And all the pipes around the engine get hot as hell. The header tank gets hot really quick. I'm going to check all pipes later for debris etc. thermostat is brand new but will check that as well.
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Flushing system this morning. I will say that when running the radiator stays cool nearly Ice cold. And all the pipes around the engine get hot as hell. The header tank gets hot really quick. I'm going to check all pipes later for debris etc. thermostat is brand new but will check that as well.
#35
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Flushing system this morning. I will say that when running the radiator stays cool nearly Ice cold. And all the pipes around the engine get hot as hell. The header tank gets hot really quick. I'm going to check all pipes later for debris etc. thermostat is brand new but will check that as well.
#37
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Think the car is now sorted. Done a complete flush removed all pipe work and stuffed a hose in each to flush out any possible debris, ran the car for 10 mins on the spot and all seemed fine, the rad got hot this time whereas before it was stone cold, one thing I did notice when sorting the pipe work out was the thermostat housing on the inside was corroded to hell, so might try and get a fresh housing from somewhere.
#39
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Got a similar problem on mine.
Rebuilt it 1300 miles ago and left sitting for 30 seconds / a minute the temperature gauge rises quite quickly and the fans kick in. Removed the plugs which look normal, done a block test which has no traces of exhaust gasses in the tank, to me it just doesn't seem right. Boosts fine with no problems.
Some say that's normal cossie behavior, other says their temp gauge never moves. Unsure what to believe.
Rebuilt it 1300 miles ago and left sitting for 30 seconds / a minute the temperature gauge rises quite quickly and the fans kick in. Removed the plugs which look normal, done a block test which has no traces of exhaust gasses in the tank, to me it just doesn't seem right. Boosts fine with no problems.
Some say that's normal cossie behavior, other says their temp gauge never moves. Unsure what to believe.