4EFE blown headgasket?

[Leon]

Right ... I'm hacking around in a 4EFE Starlet for a week to see if it has a previous overheating issue solved. If resolved, then I will buy it.

Apparently the car has had water pump etc replaced. Used to overheat after five minutes driving on highway, radiator was flushed out (not by professionals), and car hasn't had a problem since (also hasn't had much use since).

I've driven it to work and back daily and it hasn't given me any cause for concern, but today I took it for a couple of about a 15 minute highway drives and the temp gauge moved up a fraction over half.

Pop bonnet, thermo fan working normally. Radiator is pushing air bubbles (glug glug glug) into overflow bottle, and overflow is fuller than it is when cold.

Blown headgasket?

[vvega]

ethier that or airlocks

tri purginh the system well and see if it gets rid of it

[fangsport]

ethier that or airlocks

tri purginh the system well and see if it gets rid of it

my thoughts as well.
fwd toyotas seem to have parts of the heater system as the highest points of the cooling system.
get the front of car really high and expel any airlocks. if it still bubbles, then head gasket is more than likely naffed.

[Leon]

Ok, might try that.

Car is *really* sensitive to load.

Drive 100kmh, car gets to normal operating temp, and gets a fraction over half (which is where it normally sits).

Uphill 80kmh, car shoots to 3/4 hot almost immediately.

50kmh flat, temp immediately normalises.

Climb hill 50kmh, temp starts rising again.

[sergei]

Check if the radiator is not blocked by rust.

[Leon]

I think that was what started the overheating issues for the guy in the first place... lack of anti corrosion stuff. The question really does become "has it fuxxored the headgasket".

How do I purge the cooling system on this wee beastie?

[andyztouring]

I would avoid buying someone elses problems,It sounds like a bhg,save your money and walk away,there are plenty of other better cars out there.

[QikStarlie]

still defintly a problem with the cooling system, blowen head gasket or not. radiator conditon or thremostat. 4e's allways go between cylinder and water gallery, but that alone wont cause it to overheat.

[vvega]

Check if the radiator is not blocked by rust.

definatly give this another thought

[Leon]

I would avoid buying someone elses problems,It sounds like a bhg,save your money and walk away,there are plenty of other better cars out there.

Welllllll, if I can get a good 1992 Starlet with mostly known service history, that goes like a sonafabitch for $250 ... gotta figure it's worth a buy and a fix. The 4EFE Starlets go so much harder than the 2E Kiwi versions.

[Leon]

Check if the radiator is not blocked by rust.

definatly give this another thought

Remove radiator, flush it out myself, or take it to radiator place?

Although, I can *probably* get a Starlet turbo radiator for a good price of DexGT here.

[fangsport]

Check if the radiator is not blocked by rust.

definatly give this another thought

Remove radiator, flush it out myself, or take it to radiator place?

that may work, but removing one of the tanks and rodding it will have far better results.

[Leon]

Ok, I'll see if I can find a radiator place. I used to work near a really good place, but now I'm out in the 'burbs during the day.

[flygt4]

theres a good radiator place near maccas at the basin leon. up one of the sidestreets there. they even made good ones up for me from a combination of old top tanks and cores
they seemed to have a clue anyway, a lot better than some of other places i spoke to. think it cost about 75$ to make a good one out of 2 bad ones, and recon it, test it etc. was a while ago now tho.

[Leon]

I know the place.

I might have to pull the radiator, and just deliver the radiator. That said, I might put a chemical flush through, as the heater core is probably full of rubbish too.

[Rob]

Get yourself a funnel that can push into the neck of the radiator with a bit of insulation tape rapped around the bottom so the water lavel can be higher than the heater. Fill the funnel to about half capacity.Block of the over flow hose so the water can't go anywhere, then flash up the car turn the heater to hot and on full when the demister is blowing hot air....check that the hoses to the throttle body are hot. Turn off the heater and wait till the fan comes on. If it doesn't come on within 10 minutes then turn the car off, wait 10 then take out the funnel put the cap on(making sure its good which means not stretched or cracked) then start up and give some herbs till the fan turns on. once you've done that you can be sure theres no air in the system. Then if bubbles out of the overflow you've got a very good indication of a headgasket problem

[Flannelman]

bubbles out radiator? blown head gasket.
radiator blockage? no way, it would heat slowly and wouldnt fall.
you say it heats up fast with load and cools when under no load. radiator fine.

Head gasket gone. if you leave it for a week or so it may hydrulic as the water will enter cylinder. thats if its real bad, also if anti freeze in cooling system will be able to "smell" it. will be sweetish aroma and have no place coming out the exhaust.

[Leon]

Yah, heats up really fast under load. Off the top of the gauge within a minute under load now, way worse than it was only a couple of days back.

John is working his way through it methodically. Because we know the car hasn't had the anti corrosive it needs thanks to the previous owner, first step is precautionary radiator surgery, along with radiator cap, and probably thermostat.

Then test for h/g blown.

Not much point in launching into the h/g and then cooking it again with a naff radiator, though with the bubbles I saw coming out of the radiator today, it's looking a lot like the h/g is shot. After running a flush through it, then dumping the contents, and refilling with water ... there was constant tiny bubbles coming out the radiator cap, which I've seen before in my old MR2 when it enjoyed a blown headgasket.

[slammed_integral]

get a new thermostat man if it heats up very fast.

if it has new waterpump and a flushed radiator this is all thats left isnt it?

then get a dual core 4efte radiator if the problem does not go away

[Leon]

Thermostat has apparently already been done, along with rad cap. However they will probably be done again as a precaution.

Verdict from radiator place "radiator is completely fuxxing blocked"

So another radiator is going in. Just a standard one, as the standard one is already totally overkill for a standard car (when it isn't blocked that is).