ok, it's taken me long enough (3 weeks) but I finally ported my wastegate, removed emissions (acv and airpump) and got everything put back together.. but I've got problems..

first off, this is a 88 TII, It's had a recent compression test which came out good and when I took my turbo off, it looked like it was in great shape.. also when I took the turbo off my coolant went everywhere.
anyway, I put everything back together, filled up the coolant and tried starting it.. it kicked over but was rough.. I definately think I have an exhaust leak but I don't think it could be causing problems.. it wouldn't hold idle and died. It did this a second time. Then after jumping it and getting it running for a 3rd time i held down the gas to keep it around 2k rpm's.. after about 10 seconds the coolant light/buzzer came on and i let off the gas. It now held an idle around 1100 and i went to look in the engine bay.. there was smoke coming from somewhere around the turbo area (wasn't sure where exactly, it was dark), smelled sort of like coolant.. then I looked around back and there was some white smoke (i think) coming from the exhaust (i think normal). I got back in the car, coolant light/buzzer still going and I shut it down.. it prolly ran for around a minute..

i have no idea what's wrong.. is there something i forgot to do? please help..

 

Well if you coolant is full. Then you may have a bad coolant jacket internally.

It happend to me on my 91 na!

 

you might have just spilled coolant on the turbo. I did the same thing and it put on quite a smoke show. scared the **** out of me

 

I think you just spilled coolant and didnt clean it all up. My friend did that with OIL on his moms car. He was like "**** cleaning it, itll burn off" and so he did that... lol

 

Well I agree he probably did spill coolant but that still dosent explain the buzzer. I hope that it isnt an internal seal.

 

It's possible that you just have an air pocket in the coolant system, happened to me and scared me shitless, or have you checked for an air pocket? If you just put new coolant in, the sensor may be bad. Even if it's good, it takes a while to realize everything's ok, so assuming you know you have coolant at safe levels, drive it a while, and see if the buzzer/light goes off. If it doesn't then scream "Oh ****!".

 

thanks for all of the responses guys, I think you all might be right about the spilled coolant burning off (i hope), but the engine was cold, how would it start burning like that immediately? and the main thing is the rough idle and coolant buzzer? is there some way I can check for a bad seal?

I put 35-40 oz. of coolant/water mix back in but it seems like a lot more spilled out when i took the turbo out.. how and how long does it take the coolant to get back through the whole system?

 

oh and how do I check for air pockets?

 

i've been doing some reading and it sounds like I may have just refilled the coolant incorrectly..

I took the coolant line to the turbo off and it drained itself. To refill it all I did was fill up that tank in front of the radiator.. is this right? or should I actually pour coolant into the radiator?

also still wondering about air pockets.. how do you bleed out air from the radiator, with the cap?

 

here's what happened today, please someone tell me what's going on..

I do have a vacuum leak somewhere which is why i can't hold an idle but I'll deal with that later.. my main problem is something's not right with my cooling system, here's what happened:

The reservoir was full, I took off the cap near the engine and poured half coolant/half tap water in it until it was topped off. I started the car and held it around 2k. The buzzer came on and the needle on the temp gauge started rising. I was able to let off the gas and it held idle around 1k. I got out to look at the engine bay and noticed bubbles where the cap should be. No smoke from the engine bay or exhaust. I put the cap back on and got back into the car. The temp gauge was almost at the H and the buzzer WASN'T sounding. The temp needle began to lower. All was well..? No.. The buzzer came back on and the temp started rising again. Still holding idle I got out again to look in the engine bay. About ten minutes had past and in another minute the engine shut off. I pulled the cap (I know, I know) and hot coolant spewed everywhere, so there's pressure..

A few hours later I went back and virtually the same thing happened.. after topping off the coolant where the cap is, I put the cap on, started the car, revved it, buzzer came on, temp gauge went to H, buzzer went off, temp lowered a bit, buzzer came on, temp rose... this time though, I stayed in the car and kept it revved so it wouldn't die. The buzzer continued and the temp rose even higher until I saw smoke from the bay and shut off the car. All this took around 15 minutes, I even drove the car around in first gear a bit. After I shut it down I looked in the engine bay and the smoke was coming from the coolant reservoir where the coolant was literally boiling and spilling out the overflow tube..

Anyway, what's happening here?

 

IMO that was the worst thing you could of possibly done

 

o ****.. why?

 

Well the Temp gauge going to H isnt a good sign in the first place, but letting it sit at H and only stoping after you see smoke was just ignorent, if you havent already, you could of wapred a housing or two, really fucked up some seals, and put Tones of premature wear on just bout every moving part in your engine

do your self a favor, get some money and have someone block test (i think thats what its called) your coolent system, or have one of the carbon sniffer test's, all in all they check the integratiy of your coolent system,

if your going to continue to work on your car like that your not going to have a car for long

-Jacob

 

stern.. I should prolly add that it wasn't on the H but still on the arc right at the end.. also I read an article on flushing the coolant system which required letting the temp gauge go that far so I figured it was okay.. engines seem like they overheat sometimes..

also, I don't have the black plastic piece that fits around the radiator and the radiator has some bent fins.. could this cause anything?

 

You do need the plastic housing for proper cooling. Some bent fins are ok, alot is bad.

 

hey sounds like you have some air pockets in your engine. you need to get them out. with my brothers sr20 we just put it on flat ground and bounced the car around and squeesed hoses and stuff eventually it all filled up.

this also happened on my dads truck. it turned out to be that his thermostat was bad and was stuck shut.

so try getting the airbubbles out and check your thermostat.