Overheating again... Blah

[Rising]

Well all seems well. Got it back together and she's running solidly! Starts solidly with the new duraterms and the correct size non blown head gasket! ARP studs are in and helping me to feel extra confident about this car! I only got to go for a short drive today, but it didn't heat up past normal temps and when I stopped to check a few times there was no sign of coolant bubbling overflowing or looking rusty. Thanks again to this forum and everyone who makes it what it is!

[RabbitJockey]

good to hear!  i've been there too, headgasket denial haha, you try replacing the coolant cap and stuff even though you know what the problem is the whole time haha.

[Rising]

Haha that's a great name for it!!

Well it looks like I'm gonna be joining the league of denying again. I absolutely cannot believe this. Chock this up to rookie mistakes: I just lost all my coolant upper radiator hose came loose (guess that wasn't as tight as I thought) and pumped my coolant out...

I saw wet tire tracks and started questioning but then thought maybe I hit a puddle. And about a half a mile later I realized my temp gauge was in the upper hemisphere. Pulled over and saw steam coming out of the hood popped it to find steam wafting from my open radiator pipe.

I can only hope I didn't just warp the head/blow the gasket again. I'm on the side of the road praying and letting it cool down before adding coolant again...

Its a windy 45-50 degrees here today. Maybe I won the head gasket lottery... But if not at least I used headstuds :/

[RabbitJockey]

i had the top hose explode on me once and it was ok, hopefully since it was the top one you'll be alright.

[Rising]

How quick did you notice it?

Its running again. I guess time will tell if it is blown. Started fine. I'll check the water and oil over the next few trips I guess. How hard is it to install an mk2 coolant level gauge? Or some other kind?

[TylerDurden]

As I recall, Mark in the UK uses a pressure gauge or switch to alert if the coolant pressure is lost... providing an instant alert, rather than after-the-fact heat gauge or alert.

[southernman]

Rising,

just a heads up on the ARP head studs: I think someone posted that there is NO re-torque sequence required for the ARP's. That is NOT correct.

I've got an '84 1.6 NA and went with ARP's. I'd gotten so much conflicting information on them, I decided to check the torques after it was fired up from a fresh rebuild for comfort's sake. A local shop here in Raleigh, with a reputation for being experts for 30 yrs, would only say, "...the studs lose torque and will not work on my engine." Well, here's what I found:

The studs lost nearly 50% of their torque values within the first hour of operation. Run it up to temp, and let it cool completely down.

So I re-torqued them a second time.

I ran the car for about 100 miles, pulled the valve cover to check torques, and they were again down by about 30%.

Re-torqued them a third time and drove the car for about 1000 miles.

The torque values were spot on.

I recommend you pull and check them, at least, 2 times after initial start up. The clamping force for studs is different than for bolts. When ARP studs are combined with an aluminum cylinder head, the gasket will compress from thermal expansion, and studs (which are not designed to yield and then recover) will stretch until they have taken "set".

On the race engines I've built over the years, I've found this to be true on every ARP studded engine I've ever built. The studs will stretch and even ARP recommends 3 full torque sequences BEFORE the engine is even started. so don't think for a minute that you can torque them one time and forget 'em. If you do - YOUR ENGINE WILL LOSE SEAL...

Once the ARP's have set (elasticity limits have been met), they are outstanding at maintaining torque values.

Re-torque them studs or I can assure you, the head gasket will fail - and it will not be the head gaskets fault...

Just an FYI.

Southernman

[Rising]

Rising,

just a heads up on the ARP head studs: I think someone posted that there is NO re-torque sequence required for the ARP's. That is NOT correct.

I've got an '84 1.6 NA and went with ARP's. I'd gotten so much conflicting information on them, I decided to check the torques after it was fired up from a fresh rebuild for comfort's sake. A local shop here in Raleigh, with a reputation for being experts for 30 yrs, would only say, "...the studs lose torque and will not work on my engine." Well, here's what I found:

The studs lost nearly 50% of their torque values within the first hour of operation. Run it up to temp, and let it cool completely down.

So I re-torqued them a second time.

I ran the car for about 100 miles, pulled the valve cover to check torques, and they were again down by about 30%.

Re-torqued them a third time and drove the car for about 1000 miles.

The torque values were spot on.

I recommend you pull and check them, at least, 2 times after initial start up. The clamping force for studs is different than for bolts. When ARP studs are combined with an aluminum cylinder head, the gasket will compress from thermal expansion, and studs (which are not designed to yield and then recover) will stretch until they have taken "set".

On the race engines I've built over the years, I've found this to be true on every ARP studded engine I've ever built. The studs will stretch and even ARP recommends 3 full torque sequences BEFORE the engine is even started. so don't think for a minute that you can torque them one time and forget 'em. If you do - YOUR ENGINE WILL LOSE SEAL...

Once the ARP's have set (elasticity limits have been met), they are outstanding at maintaining torque values.

Re-torque them studs or I can assure you, the head gasket will fail - and it will not be the head gaskets fault...

Just an FYI.

Southernman

Interesting! Thanks for the heads up. I just actually looked up and ARPs website says to retorque if the headgaskets manufacturer recommends it. Which is interesting considering I think all of our head gaskets originally have instructions concerning retorquing stretch bolts.

Either way it is no big problem to pull the valve cover for peace of mind I'll take your advice and make sure they are all nipped up now that they've had a couple heat cycles.

[RabbitJockey]

that was probably me, i did a head gasket job on my rabbit and used arp head studs for it because it was an 11mm headbolt engine, and i was trying to avoid cracking the block, well i did a successful headgasket job with the studs, and when i did my retorque one of the bolt holes in the block cracked and filled with antifreeze.  I think with an 11mm engine i wouldnt recommend doing a retorque, or any torque, if the headgasket goes bad just get another engine, its not worth the time and parts trying to fix it when it may just crack.  Working on an aaz swap currently :^P