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Still haven’t run the compression or leak down tests yet.
I put the coolant pressure tester back on the radiator today, pumped it up to 16 PSI and let it sit. 3+ hours later it’s down to 14 PSI. So it’s losing pressure but verrrrry slowly.
My theory is there is a breach in the HG but only very small, such that residual pressure in the cooling system after driving the car and cooling down, forces small amounts of coolant into one of the cylinders, which then gets burned off when the car is first started the next day. But then for some reason it doesn’t seem to burn any after the car is up to temperature.
lol ninja post edit? 😛
I did not get a whiff of the smoke, just saw it coming out behind the car as I was driving, and also saw it blowing to the side while at a stop sign. It was not blue or black, though, so I would not suspect oil or fuel burning. Have not checked coolant level yet, need to wait until the engine is cold.
I’ll do a compression test this weekend and probably also rent a leakdown test kit.
Something else I have noticed recently is that when removing the radiator cap (engine and coolant cold, or cooled down anyway) I hear what sounds like pressure being released into the overflow tank, making bubbles in the overflow tank. Is that normal? I don’t ever recall hearing anything like that before the past couple of months or so.
My car will be sitting at the office tonight as I commute by bicycle a couple times a week, so I won’t really be able to look at it further until the weekend.
lol ninja post edit? 😛
I did not get a whiff of the smoke, just saw it coming out behind the car as I was driving, and also saw it blowing to the side while at a stop sign. It was not blue or black, though, so I would not suspect oil or fuel burning. Have not checked coolant level yet, need to wait until the engine is cold.
I’ll do a compression test this weekend and probably also rent a leakdown test kit.
Something else I have noticed recently is that when removing the radiator cap (engine and coolant cold, or cooled down anyway) I hear what sounds like pressure being released into the overflow tank, making bubbles in the overflow tank. Is that normal? I don’t ever recall hearing anything like that before the past couple of months or so.
My car will be sitting at the office tonight as I commute by bicycle a couple times a week, so I won’t really be able to look at it further until the weekend.
Well, started the car this morning and it had quite a hard time getting up to cold idle speed. Then as I was heading out I saw quite a lot of white smoke billowing out the back of the car.
So the HG must be blown. Not sure why the cooling system would have held pressure with the pressure tester, but the HG has got to be blown with all that white smoke coming out.
I did notice that after the car got up to operating temperature, I never saw any more white smoke. Could there be a HG breach that sort of “seals up” when everything gets hot?
I also plan on replacing the lost motion assemblies (LMA’s) for the VTEC rocker arms as those have needed replacement for several years now. Honda updated the design of those to a spring style, and my engine still has the old hydraulic ones which are prone to failure.
Well, started the car this morning and it had quite a hard time getting up to cold idle speed. Then as I was heading out I saw quite a lot of white smoke billowing out the back of the car.
So the HG must be blown. Not sure why the cooling system would have held pressure with the pressure tester, but the HG has got to be blown with all that white smoke coming out.
I did notice that after the car got up to operating temperature, I never saw any more white smoke. Could there be a HG breach that sort of “seals up” when everything gets hot?
I also plan on replacing the lost motion assemblies (LMA’s) for the VTEC rocker arms as those have needed replacement for several years now. Honda updated the design of those to a spring style, and my engine still has the old hydraulic ones which are prone to failure.
Yeah I ran a compression test back in January when my car was sitting dead with a bad distributor – was actually the first time I ever performed a compression test on this engine with well over 300,000 miles. All numbers were within spec at that time. I guess I could do it again.
I always do my best to purge air from the system whenever refilling or flushing the cooling system, including opening the bleed screw where the upper hose attaches to the engine head. But this last time I topped off the radiator, it took quite a bit to fill it up. I squeezed the upper hose to get bubbles out, and opened the bleed screw, but I guess I did not completely rid the system of air pockets.
Yeah I ran a compression test back in January when my car was sitting dead with a bad distributor – was actually the first time I ever performed a compression test on this engine with well over 300,000 miles. All numbers were within spec at that time. I guess I could do it again.
I always do my best to purge air from the system whenever refilling or flushing the cooling system, including opening the bleed screw where the upper hose attaches to the engine head. But this last time I topped off the radiator, it took quite a bit to fill it up. I squeezed the upper hose to get bubbles out, and opened the bleed screw, but I guess I did not completely rid the system of air pockets.
Okay the pressure tester I had, specifically the adapter piece, was definitely faulty and leaking. I swapped out the kit for an identical kit today, tried it on my wife’s car first, and it held pressure perfectly. So I put it on my car, and it’s been holding 16+ PSI perfectly the last 20 minutes or so.
Today I didn’t notice any coolant smell inside the car or in the engine bay, and the coolant level in the radiator this evening appeared to be the same as yesterday. Reservoir coolant also appeared to be the same as yesterday.
I’m thinking maybe there was some air in the system when I topped it off last week and put the new radiator cap on. The air must have worked its way to the top of the radiator and made it look like the coolant level dropped. Not sure why I thought I saw a puff of white smoke in my rear view mirror the other day. Maybe it was my imagination. 😛
*edit* pressure has still been holding above 15 PSI for nearly an hour now. Removed spark plugs, no change in pressure. Sprayed soapy liquid on all coolant hose connections, saw no bubbles anywhere.
*edit 2* also just ran the engine with the radiator cap off, did not see any bubbles coming up in the coolant.
Okay the pressure tester I had, specifically the adapter piece, was definitely faulty and leaking. I swapped out the kit for an identical kit today, tried it on my wife’s car first, and it held pressure perfectly. So I put it on my car, and it’s been holding 16+ PSI perfectly the last 20 minutes or so.
Today I didn’t notice any coolant smell inside the car or in the engine bay, and the coolant level in the radiator this evening appeared to be the same as yesterday. Reservoir coolant also appeared to be the same as yesterday.
I’m thinking maybe there was some air in the system when I topped it off last week and put the new radiator cap on. The air must have worked its way to the top of the radiator and made it look like the coolant level dropped. Not sure why I thought I saw a puff of white smoke in my rear view mirror the other day. Maybe it was my imagination. 😛
*edit* pressure has still been holding above 15 PSI for nearly an hour now. Removed spark plugs, no change in pressure. Sprayed soapy liquid on all coolant hose connections, saw no bubbles anywhere.
*edit 2* also just ran the engine with the radiator cap off, did not see any bubbles coming up in the coolant.
The radiators on these cars have plastic end tanks, upper and lower hose fittings, and filler necks.
So I drove the car to work this morning. After getting going, I did not smell any coolant inside the car. In fact I never smell it inside the car while driving, only after it’s been sitting several hours. I even drove with the heat on full hot, but did not smell any coolant smell through the vents. Car drives normally, accelerates normally, and also still gets the usual 28-30 MPG fuel economy. The engine burns 1 quart of oil AT MOST in 6,000 mile oil-drain intervals.
After I got to work I popped the hood and looked around. No evidence of coolant leaks anywhere. No smell of coolant whatsoever. With the engine running I also did not see any white smoke or any other smoke at all coming out of the tail pipe, but of course that was just with the engine idling.
I’ll run some more of these checks with the system under pressure tonight. Might also go back to the auto parts store and see if they have another kit just to rule out this one being faulty.
A user on another board mentioned that a rough idle on cold start that settles down could indicate coolant making it into the cylinders. The engine does stumble a bit sometimes on cold start, but after a few seconds settles at the usual cold RPM of 1500-1800 depending on ambient temps. I had assumed this was my FITV as it’s never been serviced or cleaned, but could that also be the HG leaking into the cylinders?
Here are some pics of my spark plugs and also looking down the plug tubes. Plug 1 is on the right, 4 on the left. Not sure about the residue on the threads of #3 and #4, but the plug tips themselves look pretty normal to me.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/PatrickGSR94/MyIntegra/null_zpsf1210e11.jpg[/IMG]
Cyl 4
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/PatrickGSR94/MyIntegra/IMG_9171_zpsfbac1ec6.jpg[/IMG]Cyl 3
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/PatrickGSR94/MyIntegra/IMG_9172_zps210c488c.jpg[/IMG]Cyl 2
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/PatrickGSR94/MyIntegra/IMG_9173_zpsfe6ef468.jpg[/IMG]Cyl 1
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/PatrickGSR94/MyIntegra/IMG_9174_zpsc2afe623.jpg[/IMG]The radiators on these cars have plastic end tanks, upper and lower hose fittings, and filler necks.
So I drove the car to work this morning. After getting going, I did not smell any coolant inside the car. In fact I never smell it inside the car while driving, only after it’s been sitting several hours. I even drove with the heat on full hot, but did not smell any coolant smell through the vents. Car drives normally, accelerates normally, and also still gets the usual 28-30 MPG fuel economy. The engine burns 1 quart of oil AT MOST in 6,000 mile oil-drain intervals.
After I got to work I popped the hood and looked around. No evidence of coolant leaks anywhere. No smell of coolant whatsoever. With the engine running I also did not see any white smoke or any other smoke at all coming out of the tail pipe, but of course that was just with the engine idling.
I’ll run some more of these checks with the system under pressure tonight. Might also go back to the auto parts store and see if they have another kit just to rule out this one being faulty.
A user on another board mentioned that a rough idle on cold start that settles down could indicate coolant making it into the cylinders. The engine does stumble a bit sometimes on cold start, but after a few seconds settles at the usual cold RPM of 1500-1800 depending on ambient temps. I had assumed this was my FITV as it’s never been serviced or cleaned, but could that also be the HG leaking into the cylinders?
Here are some pics of my spark plugs and also looking down the plug tubes. Plug 1 is on the right, 4 on the left. Not sure about the residue on the threads of #3 and #4, but the plug tips themselves look pretty normal to me.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/PatrickGSR94/MyIntegra/null_zpsf1210e11.jpg[/IMG]
Cyl 4
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/PatrickGSR94/MyIntegra/IMG_9171_zpsfbac1ec6.jpg[/IMG]Cyl 3
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/PatrickGSR94/MyIntegra/IMG_9172_zps210c488c.jpg[/IMG]Cyl 2
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/PatrickGSR94/MyIntegra/IMG_9173_zpsfe6ef468.jpg[/IMG]Cyl 1
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/PatrickGSR94/MyIntegra/IMG_9174_zpsc2afe623.jpg[/IMG]But if it’s losing pressure at the filler neck, and the rad cap is brand new OEM, wouldn’t it have to be the radiator itself that’s the problem?
But if it’s losing pressure at the filler neck, and the rad cap is brand new OEM, wouldn’t it have to be the radiator itself that’s the problem?
Non VTEC engines take the ZFR5F-11 while the VTEC engine takes PFR6G-13. The two are not compatible as the non VTEC plugs are longer. But I still like and will continue to use copper-core BKR6E-11 plugs. 🙂
I’ve ways heard 60K for platinum plugs and 100K for iridium plugs. The GSR platinum plugs cost $12-$15 locally, EACH! The copper plugs are $2 and I change them 4 times in 60K. Still cheaper than the platinums along with the piece of mind of better spark conductivity.
Non VTEC engines take the ZFR5F-11 while the VTEC engine takes PFR6G-13. The two are not compatible as the non VTEC plugs are longer. But I still like and will continue to use copper-core BKR6E-11 plugs. 🙂
I’ve ways heard 60K for platinum plugs and 100K for iridium plugs. The GSR platinum plugs cost $12-$15 locally, EACH! The copper plugs are $2 and I change them 4 times in 60K. Still cheaper than the platinums along with the piece of mind of better spark conductivity.
