Coolant spillage during track day


cyek9

cyek9

Active Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
364
Hi everyone,

Every time I go to the track my radiator fluid always overflows into the reservoir then overflows from that too.
I suspected it was the radiator cap so I replaced it, but still the same. My engine is fine and all necessary checks were made too. Another 2 cars were experiencing the same issue to at the last track day as well. Has anyone else here got the same issue? Any advice would be very helpful.

Thank you

George
 
I've seen this before, but never experienced it myself.
Lower the level in the expansion tank on a trackday, obviously not good to be spilling coolant on track
 
The exact same symptoms happened to my old B16a2 but would only happen on the track

Basically when up at track temperatures the engine was pushing some compression into my cooling system (water and oil wasn't mixing) I could see this when the car was fully up to temp. (with the rad cap off before heating up) then when I rev'd the car I could see bubbles coming up at the radiator opening

I sent the head off for a pressure test and it was very slightly out of level spec, light skim and back on with a new Honda head gasket and it was good as new again
 
What radiator are you running? Some cheap alloy rads increase pressure in the coolant system
 
I'm running a koyo aluminum radiator, oem Honda coolant, with buddy club radiator cap and mugen thermostat. Compression is perfect on all cylinders. Changed the radiator cap, I'm going to change the thermostat as it's 6-7 years old, most probably that's what is at fault.
 
cyek9 said:
I'm running a koyo aluminum radiator, oem Honda coolant, with buddy club radiator cap and mugen thermostat. Compression is perfect on all cylinders. Changed the radiator cap, I'm going to change the thermostat as it's 6-7 years old, most probably that's what is at fault.
Click to expand...



My compression was good on all cylinders also as it was only pushing the smallest amount of compression into the cooling jacket when the car was right up at track temperatures

My symptoms were fine when on the road but when on track after a few laps the coolant reservoir filled up to the top then blew coolant from the reservoir over that area... your symptoms sound exactly the same and since you have a mugen stat, good radiator and Honda coolant I don't think a new stat is the answer


I even tried fiting a new Honda head gasket first without skimming and it still did the same thing, then as I mentioned after a light head skim it was 100%.. taking the head off for a skim isn't a big job
 
Try using a block tester to see if it detects any carbon monoxide gasses in the coolant, the kits are pretty cheap,

Or alternatively just pull the head off and skim it as said
 
b16 mini said:
Try using a block tester to see if it detects any carbon monoxide gasses in the coolant, the kits are pretty cheap,

Or alternatively just pull the head off and skim it as said
Click to expand...



We tried this with a brand new kit when my car was doing the same, it was an expensive kit too but the gasses must have been that small (at idle temperaure anyway) that it didn't detect the carbon monoxide and the colour of the solution didn't change


So to confirm what we thought was happening I sent the head to be pressure tested and tested for straightness and it was a tiny bit out of spec
 
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