Coolant Issues

[tabaccord19]

I have looked online and well there are many possibilities on what is happening in the engine bay of my car. My coolant reservoir is constantly at the bottom. Has a thick sludge look too it with a bit of brown tint to it.

When looking for a leak I can't find any leaks in the coolant system and there are no spots from a leak when parked. I know it could have that brown look from rust in the radiator and needs to be flushed but I don't see where all the coolant is going and why it would be thick.

Also I believe the thermostat is broken because the temperature gauge fluctuates. I don't know if the thermostat is actually broken or if it is another symptom of what is going on.

['93CB7Ex]

what color oil is on the dipstick? if its milky = blown headgasket.

[Wickit]

This happened to mine also, I replaced radiator and by pass hose and it's good.

[tabaccord19]

The oil is just dirty like always. No water on the dipstick though whenever I check. The engine just has a lot of build up and needs to be cleaned thoroughly. Only been around 1000 miles since I changed it.

[dftc777]

how about the oil cap?.milky under that?

[tabaccord19]

how about the oil cap?.milky under that?

Not at all. I am guessing though that none of the oil components though that this is good news?

['93CB7Ex]

does your car smoke white? if its not leaking, its burning it. a leak down test will tell you for sure though.

[tabaccord19]

I know it has the white smoke in the morning but I never see it when driving down the road in daylight. And well it is hard to tell because with the way the sun is I am mainly doing my driving at night. Can I do the leak down test myself? If so how does that work?

[dftc777]

http://youtu.be/hUzOTnsWImI

[redlined302]

i would get on this asap because i had this same problem and one fix led to another fix which eventually led to head gasket replacement and now im doing a whole swap. Be very carefule as far as temperature goes as the f22 is mostly aluminum and this will lead to a warped head or bad head gasket. From the sounds of it, your head gasket seems to be in good shape seeing as theres no smoke or milky oil or oil cap. What i would recomend is replacing the radiator for starters and if the car is still having the temp trouble i would replace the water pump because the frequent changes could be a water pump as well. Also, make sure theres not any air pockets in your cooling system.

[JDMDriver]

I had the very same issue and symptoms.

However as I was too busy and more important issues to attend (oil leak, registration etc) I didnt bother fixing it. I also couldnt easily see where the water was disappear to.

In short I kept adding water until the source finally revealed itself.

What it was, was a leak in a hose that was at the back of the engine (between the engine and fire wall). The Cb7 engine has many small cooling hoses located at the back of the engine (some near the fuel injectors and behind the block.

You may need a small mirror to assist if viewing and geting under to see the ones behind the engine.

You can also do what I did which is wait till it gets worse so you can then see the drops which would assist in locating the source.

[tabaccord19]

I played around with it last night and I was able to narrow down where it was coming from. I finally found a leak on the driver side. It looks like it is coming out around the water pump area. So I am just going to replace the water pump along with all the seals around it. And while I am down there put new timing belts on seeing as I haven't done it since I bought the car 1.5 years ago.

Also got the temp. gauge fixed there was an air pocket in the system. I guess that will keep happening until I get this leak stopped.

Oh and yea my engine leaks oil but it isn't a lot. I am not too worried about it because I am looking at putting a H22 in it. Only problem is I don't have the mechanical skills with the wiring and all also. I don't know where to get one. There are so many places online and well no where around where I am on the east coast.