Cooling system WTF

[Silent Smith]

Hello, I'm lost on my car. I have a 89t and the gauge has always read at max hot, it can run for like 1-2 mins slowly climb then around halfway it just skyrockets. I was having huge problems with bleeding the cooling system and then hoses started blowing. #6 developed an audible miss and the drive ability went way down so I figured it was just time to do the HG and stop denying it. I pulled the head and the gasket looked good. #6 piston looks alot cleaner then the others (coolant steam cleaning the carbon?) I have no idea what to do now. I'm planning on getting a toyota oem headgasket and using arp bolts but the head shows no visible cracks, I have'nt checked to see if it's warped or not. Theres no real traces of a existin coolant leak anywhere on hte motor, the heater core return line started to leak as of late but I figured that was just the lines blowing from BHG

I replaced the tstat, no differnce
Fan is not a issue as it's f@##ing cold around here and theres no diff
Rad cap, not sure - going to replace it
water pump looks new,

What should I do guys, I'm running outta time and money trying to fix this. Can a bad water pump do this, something I'm overlooking? The car ran fine for 5k and there was no differnce so I assumed the gauge was FUBAR.

 

[Topher E]

Well mine did that, and all i got was a WAY bad BHG. Go get the head magna-flux tested and that will tell you. It also could have been improper sealing of the HG. Just food for thought.

 

[jetjock]

Well mine did that, and all i got was a WAY bad BHG. Go get the head magna-flux tested and that will tell you. It also could have been improper sealing of the HG. Just food for thought.

In the sincere spirit of educating (rather than coming across as a weenie) I'm forced to point out the MagnaFlux process is only applicable to ferrous materials

 

[me262]

they have a spray on stuff that "developes" in the cracks, even very minor ones. it is also a "magnuflux" product.

you head gasket on six was leaking, if the piston is clean, and the combustion chamber, it was leaking.

your hoses leaked, ect becasue it was press. your system, ect...

 

[jetjock]

Lots of firms make dye penetrant inspection products besides MagnaFlux. Dye pen and Zyglo are a far cry from magnetic particle inspection however. Dye pen won't show sub-surface problems for example, something MPI does. But Ok, fair nuff. And I agree, he had a BHG.

 

[me262]

actually the magnaflux stuff we got is a toyota special tool thing, supposed to use it to look for cracks in blocks ect....

its like a 6 step process, then you use a pretty powerfull lense to look the parts over.

 

[jetjock]

Yeah, we use the same kind of stuff all the time in aviation. Clean, spray the dye, wipe, develop, ect. Works very well, even better if you use the zyglo stuff and inspect under UV light. You don't want to get the dye on your hands though, it doesn't come off easy

 

[Topher E]

In the sincere spirit of educating (rather than coming across as a weenie) I'm forced to point out the MagnaFlux process is only applicable to ferrous materials

Good to know.:icon_surp

 

[xarewhyayen]

jetjock is right about the magnaflux, you cant use it on aluminum ( non ferrous aka not magnetic) but did anyone consider there could be a crack in the block? hmm.. id inspect and possibly magnaflux the block. Magnaflux may be a bit of overkill for the description you're giving though, I'd just try some dye penatrant first. for as much of a jump in temperature you must have a pretty large crack or a pretty bad bhg to cause this. Throw a straightedge across the diagonal of the head and block and use a feeler gauge to check for gaps ( warpage) No use wasting your money on torque to yield headstuds/bolts and the headgasket if it leaks again because of warpage. Good luck