Ok here we go. I read aaron cakes page about coolant troubleshooting and some pages on here, but I have not found a definite answer yet. I just finished a 6 port turbo and the engine constantly tries to overheat. When I am driving on the freeway the temps stay down but in traffic the temp hand starts moving. "Also my car surges from 1k to 1.5k on idle" I don't know if a vacuum leak will make a difference, but I haven't solved that issue yet. I have tried a different water pump, three new thermostats, 5 different caps "not new and one 23psi or 26psi cap. As of today, I removed the thermostat and the car runs normal on the highway and idling but after I drive the coolant reservoir is practically boiling. I don't have any leaks anywhere and it seems all the coolant in the radiator is boiling out from the reservoir.
The car doesn't have any smoke coming out at any rpm range or idle. I am going to top off the fluid in the morning and test the cold start. With the surging idle i think fluid will gush out anyway, but I may be wrong. If anyone has any ideas. I am all ears "i guess all eyes in this case"

Thanks,

 

Take the coolant cap off, have someone crank the car over while you watch for bubbles. If you see bubbles coming up, most likely a bad coolant seal.

Also did you check for any external leaks?

 

no external leaks, and we tried that and coolant started gushing out, but the car was surging from 1000 to 1500 so I didn't know if that was the cause.

 

Did you try cranking it over? Don't start it, just crank it with the starter while watching for bubbles. Make sure you pull the EGI fuse also.

 

ok i will def do that in the morning. Thanks,

 

Crank it over and pull the plugs, if there's coolant there then yeah blown coolant seal.
It could have something to do with the fan if it only happens when you're moving. Also, when mine blew it took a bit to start leaking, as in the car had to be warmed up for the pressure to be present, since mine was a small leak.
Another excellent test it coolant pressure tester. Or try testing the coolant for exhaust with one of those kits.
If you do all of that you should know if it's the seal. If it's not start that test the fan and the expect the radiator with a thermometer.

 

ok , so I topped the coolant off, pulled the egi fuse and cranked it for about 15 seconds. Coolant immediately started gushing out. I pulled the leading and trailing plugs on the front rotor and they were a little wet. Im guessing the only thing it could be is coolant "using water at the moment". I know it may be a bad idea, but do you think I should try the stop leak fix? I just spent pretty much all of my funds piecing the motor together and can't afford a rebuild right now.

"SO HEART BROKEN NOW"

 

When the starter is cranked, I'm pretty sure it's only spinning the motor at less than 1k rpm. If that's correct, then that's not nearly fast enough for the water pump impeller to send coolant "gushing" out of the filler port. A healthy 13B, cold, at idle will have its coolant sitting virtually still at the port until it begins to warm and slowly overflow. What will put that kind of pressure 'behind' the coolant is gases/pressure from the combustion chambers.

It sounds like whoever put the engine back together wasn't careful enough with the coolant o-rings. If all of this speculating is correct, Stop-Leak will not fix your problem. The engine has to be torn down.

Sorry for the bad news.

 

You can verify the coolant seal theory by taking a sample of your coolant to a radiator shop. They can chemically test it on the spot and tell you if you have combustion gases dissolved in the coolant. If so, one or more coolant seals have failed, and the only solution is an engine teardown.

 

how old is the viscous drive? i had the same problem with my discovery. changing the viscous drive solved the problem.

 

It sounds like a coolant seal to me. I tried the alumaseal thing, that didn't work for me. I wouldn't bother, just makes a rebuild harder. And if you use one of those cement ones you leave sit it may clog your rad and other stuff...