ATTN CDNSUPRA-why is it overheating?? - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

farrk007 · 05-19-2003, 09:15 PM

I was driving my 89t supra tonight and i started smelling antifreeze/coolant through the cabin when i finally got to my destination i noticed it was the antifreeze/coolant in the reserve tank that was spilling over onto my I.C.
WHY IS THAT?, the temp guage in the car was reading fine wasn't overflowing infact it was a little cooler than usual.
pleease help me.

suprabadboy · 05-20-2003, 02:03 AM

you have a bhg ( blown head gasket ) welcoem to the club ... every supras does it not to worry my frined just grab a 1.2 mm bead metla headgasket and change it yourself take the head to get machined and you are set . save yourself a lot of money .

Tosh · 05-20-2003, 08:48 PM

it's not nessecarily a bhg, you could just have a faulty radiator cap man. try using a different one.

suprabadboy · 05-21-2003, 01:00 AM

its not the rad cap .. he said resevoir tank whats causeing that is the steam of the burnign coolant going thru the hose and in to the tank and building up pressure and popping off the cap then the coolant overflows and makes a huge mess... BHG trust me.

farrk007 · 05-21-2003, 07:48 AM

i changed the rad cap and all seemed well but i'm still trouble-shooting to see if its a BHG.
but so far it seems the pressure went down,i'll do alot of driving today to see what happens.if its the head gasket the problem will be consitent no??

cdnsupra · 05-21-2003, 03:21 PM

bad head gaskets are funny things. there are many signs and symptoms that can lead to a bhg. changing the rad cap is a good start. they are under 20bones, and sometimes that is the problem.

try standing at the back of the car while it is idling and see if you can smell coolant?

if it is ok for now, just keep an eye on that reserviour level. fill it to where it says full, not above. the coolant gets hot and bubbles into the reservious anyway, so if you fill it all the way up, it will overfloow and leak onto the ground.

just fill it normally and drive. if it contiunually gets emptied and the rad light comes on in the cabin, then the coolant is going somewhere, and it could be bhg.

you could also have a small leak somewhere.

Tosh · 05-21-2003, 08:49 PM

cool your jets badboy. farrk said himself it seems to be fixed. like cdnsupra said coolant goes in and out. a busted rad cap only lets it go out, hence overflowing and air in the system. so no i won't trust you.

suprabadboy · 05-23-2003, 02:24 AM

okay dont listen to me . but once your head is all warped and cracked dont say i ddint warn you .
stock headgaskgets jsut wont hold up on our cars man . even when they are torques down to about 82lbs they jsut wont .
but whatever i put in my .02

farrk007 · 05-23-2003, 04:12 PM

i took the car back to my mech.'cos the motors under warranty and he's saying nothing's wrong 'cos i'm under the assumption that he doesn't want to do jack, but on my way home the i smelt coolant again and when i popped the hood ' voila' the coolant in the reservoir tank's spilled again.
folks what the heck do i do now?
the temp guage never spikes (as it should in a BHG)
no weird noises while driving.

what could be the problem??

suprabadboy · 05-23-2003, 09:25 PM

there are 2 things that ahve the same symptoms bad heater core and bhg ... im putting my money on the bhg .... maybe it hasnt gone jsut yet but its on its way .

speedracer · 05-24-2003, 04:48 AM

Best thing for you to do when suspecting overheating issues and wanting to know for sure if it is a headgasket issue or not is to have the mechanic run a block tester kit and it will tell you if you are getting exhaust gas in your coolant.If you have a bad headgasket, it will cause this. which will also cause your radiator system not to keep it's designed pressure. Keeping pressure up at it's designed pressure keeps the boiling range of the coolant up so it won't boil over. Same thing will happen if your radiator cap begins to deteriorate. Secondly would be to check the thermostat if radiator gets hot and percolates in the overflow container. I had a bad headgasket which allowed coolant to trickle into the last cylinder #6 until the level in the radiator got low enough during a 2 hour drive home on a hot day. Then the engine got hot and warped the head. I had no clue that I even had a coolant loss because it leaked internally. Anyway good luck and hope this helps.

cdnsupra · 05-28-2003, 08:31 AM

A local rad shop has the block testor, and they do the test for free, hoping they will get a rad deal out of it. i have given them business both before and after they did the test. there are several types of block(BHG) testors on the market. try to find one and have this test done. maybe even your mechanic has one.

in reality, i have only seen 3 things that push coolant into the reservior, and eventually overflow.

1. the reservior is filled too high, so it overflows until the nominal level gets back to the fill line.

2. the rad cap is faulty, and is letting more coolant past when it shouldn't.

3. BHG is introiducing combustion gasses into the coolant passages, which raises the coolant pressure, and forces the rest out to the reservior.

Do you see the rad light come on? it is the far left gauge, and looks something like a bird cage?

can you smell coolant when standing around the car, either front or back after driving her on the hiway?

do you see oil scum deposits in the reservior bottle?