The Doctor's travels through time - The End - of chapter 1

[DoctorRetro]

That'll do. 

[DoctorRetro]

It's not working. Once the engine starts to cool, it is pissing water out of one of the joins. 

I think I might have to pay out for the correct part... 

 

Anyone know how to bleed the system on these? 

[The Moog]

I would just get the proper bit. Normally i just run it with the Cap of and let the fan cycle a bit to get the air out.

[DoctorRetro]

Part ordered. 

[DoctorRetro]

Well, made it to Kent and back yesterday. 

Seems the bodge is holding up, although it likes to piddle some water out once it cools down. 

Ordered some HT leads too. 9 quid on ebay vs 25 quid from local motor factors. No wonder small businesses are failing. 

[DoctorRetro]

Got the correct part through and fitted. 

Next on the list are air filter and HT leads. 

In other news, this arrived... 

 

[DoctorRetro]

Entirely broken now. 

Suspected head gasket failure. Keeps over pressurising and there's rainbows in the water. Oil level has dropped too. 

I give up. I think it is down to lack of use for so long, then being pressed into daily service. 

 

 

?

 

Edit - Starting to question my pessimistic outlook. Oil may have already been low. Dirty water / rainbows may have been exaggerated. 

[Supernaut]

RELIABLE HONDA ENGINE

 

Sorry Ghosty, and sorry Doctor for being no help at all.

[twosmoke300]

I bet that engine would be reliable if anyone bothered to change the coolant at the correct intervals ! Jap stuff seems bad for this because they keep on running they don’t get any maintainance 

[Jim Bell]

32 minutes ago, TheDoctor said:

Entirely broken now. 

Suspected head gasket failure. Keeps over pressurising and there's rainbows in the water. Oil level has dropped too. 

I give up. I think it is down to lack of use for so long, then being pressed into daily service. 

?

Well it's been an exciting rollercoaster man. 

Bad news at the end though. That sucks balls. 

[DoctorRetro]

I actually wanted to keep this car too! 

 

[dozeydustman]

I've just seen this video on how to whip the head off.

OK it's out the car but it looks as though you don't have to remove all the valve gear just  to get the head off, which makes things a lot easier.

I know naff all about RELIABLE HONDA ENGINE as I've never worked on one, or owned a car with one. With some internetting I'm sure you could get the parts for £not much, and I'm sure a local to you shiter would lend a hand if you needed it. It looks good enough to save to be honest.

[DoctorRetro]

Compression tested it. 

180 across the 4 cylinders. Maybe 2 psi less on the last one, but not enough to warrant worrying. 

I'm confused. Should I replace the header tank cap, bodge up the hose and continue using it? Other than the pressurising, it hasn't really shown any signs of HGF. Temp doesn't go too high. Still no emulsification  in the oil. Difficult to tell really if the water is oily as I haven't managed to keep it all in long enough. Am I just imagining things and looking for faults that aren't there?

In other news, while I had the plugs / leads off, I popped on the new HT leads, and it makes a hell of a difference, the old ones were well knackered. 

 

 

 

 

[vulgalour]

Dump the coolant, run a crapload of plain water through to flush it out as much as possible, top up with plain water and drive about for a few miles.  Recheck state of coolant.  If it's clean, or cleanish, then there's probably nothing amiss.  If nothing is amiss, empty and refill with proper coolant, don't run about with plain water in obviously.  I wonder if it might be something like a knackered inlet manifold gasket, a problem the unreliable* K series suffers from, which can manifest with stuff in the coolant that shouldn't be.  Since you've good compression across all four with so little variance between them, it's likely the engine is actually fine and just needs a full deep service and regular use to get to the bottom of the niggles lack of use creates.

[meggersdog]

Is that a bleed screw by that top hose you have replaced. 

[DoctorRetro]

6 minutes ago, meggersdog said:

Is that a bleed screw by that top hose you have replaced. 

Yep

[meggersdog]

If you've got all the air out and its still pressurising then maybe a new cap. Are there other bleed screws you might have missed , heater maybe.

[Ghosty]

100% HGF from re-awakening.
It will have HGFd - the way these generally go isn't between cylinders, so there's no loss of compression, and the test won't show anything. They fail between the outside of the cylinders and the water jacket (coolant passages surrounding the bores), fairly often on cylinder 1 or 4. The coolant leaks into the bores, and gets sent out the exhaust, big clouds out the exhaust, car runs dry and overheats. They can run with it for quite a while but as time goes on they start using more and more water until eventually it gets to the point it's dumping the coolant as fast as you're putting it in, which can lead to overheating if you're unlucky.

That bleed valve is a red herring, the first time I dealt with this the AA man was convinced it was airlocked and wanted to take the thermostat out.

[DoctorRetro]

17 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

100% HGF from re-awakening.
It will have HGFd - the way these generally go isn't between cylinders, so there's no loss of compression, and the test won't show anything. They fail between the outside of the cylinders and the water jacket (coolant passages surrounding the bores), fairly often on cylinder 1 or 4. The coolant leaks into the bores, and gets sent out the exhaust, big clouds out the exhaust, car runs dry and overheats. They can run with it for quite a while but as time goes on they start using more and more water until eventually it gets to the point it's dumping the coolant as fast as you're putting it in, which can lead to overheating if you're unlucky.

That bleed valve is a red herring, the first time I dealt with this the AA man was convinced it was airlocked and wanted to take the thermostat out.

So you think it's very early stages HGF? As currently nothing more than usual from the exhaust, no overheating, and before the pipes burst, no loss of coolant... 

[sierraman]

For sake of £5 or so fit a new cap then you’ll know one way or the other. If it’s fucked then stick some K seal in and hope for the best. 

[EssDeeWon]

From re-awakening?? Hold your horses there, you cannot diagnose HGF with 100% certainty without seeing or testing it yourself.  The car was fine until the top hose blew recently and The Doctor had to bleed the system.  Stick with Vulgalours post for now.. The car hasn't overheated as far as I can tell or is blowing excess steam out the back.

[BeEP]

So...

possibility one: HGF pressurised the system and it failed at its weakest point (top hose)

possibility two: top hose failed due to old age, and something done during the repair (such as bleeding, or lack of) is causing the system to pressurise.

I'm not saying Ghosty's wrong, but I know which I'd investigate first!

[twosmoke300]

Silly point but I guess you do know that there is supposed to be 15psi in the system yeh ?

Sorry for the egg sucking lessons 

[Ghosty]

I've done three headgaskets on these, and only once was it a catastrophic failure, the other two ran and were fairly hard to notice. Early onset HGF is a distinct possibility. Expansion caps on these don't really fail. 

[DoctorRetro]

18 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

I've done three headgaskets on these, and only once was it a catastrophic failure, the other two ran and were fairly hard to notice. Early onset HGF is a distinct possibility. Expansion caps on these don't really fail. 

Fancy doing a fourth? ?

 

[EssDeeWon]

1 hour ago, TheDoctor said:

Other than the pressurising, it hasn't really shown any signs of HGF

HGF a distinct possibility yes, but so is an air lock.

I agree about the expansion caps, they don't tend to fail. Before buying a new one make doubly doubly sure the system is properly refilled and bled using the correct procedure.

[xtriple]

It would be worthwhile getting a 'Sniff test' done surely? Then doubt is removed, I believe even the AA can do that and they should be free!

[skattrd]

If you're going to run around it, try leaving the expansion cap a bit loose to stop pressure building in the system and blowing another pipe.
You'll probably lose coolant/water from the tank so carry a few litres, but it's better than blowing another hose or something worse.

[sierraman]

Drill a small hole in the top. Same effect but will identify if it’s working or not. 

[Ghosty]

Hold on - if it's HGFd and water is escaping through the bores, then air is getting in. You're not going to bleed that without doing the gasket....