I appriciate all the help guys, this is great stuff. I'm gonna go home tonight and do a quick cylinder pressure test and examine more closely for bubbles. If that turns up nothing, I'll see about finding a leakdown guage.





there is no decernable smell. the fluid itself appears (and smells) normal.



Well, the problem is, what is puked out into the overflow never gets sucked back in. leaving the radiator significantly empty.



dumped the entire contents of the overflow back into the radiator plus about a liter of additional water.


-Rob

Good plan! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Just throwing out oddball ideas, since most of the good ones are taken <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />, but are you sure there isn't some sort of blockage in the overflow tubing that isn't allowing the coolant to be drawn back into the radiator? if there's a bit of junk in the line that's blocking the return it might just be the normal action of your coolant's expansion over several runs isn't able to reverse. The draw back into the radiator isn't that strong, a little bit of junk between the cap and the tank may be enough to gum up the works.

James

That's why the unnamed person above had the problem he did - there is a check valve in one side.

well, just finished a round of diagnostics tonight and here's what more I can add....

a simple pressure test didn't reveal much beyond normal. cylinders 2,3,4 are all very close to each other at ~155psi. cylinder 1 is a little behind at only ~142psi. but all is considered within range by my Haynes manual.

One thing I did notice was the plugs on #3 and #4 contained a fair amount of ash for only being a few months old. could this be a possible indication of coolant entering the combustion chamber and getting burned off?

Furthurmore, I uncapped the radiator and attempted to watch for bubbles as the engine was turned over. I think I did witness a few blurps, but unsure if this was trapped air or not. A significant amount of coolant was pushed out the top during this process. Also noticed, after i recapped the radiator and proceeded with the pressure testing, the system build up a large amount of pressure just from being turned over again and again (not running). not sure if this sort of pressure buildup while not running is normal.

I guess i need to do a percent leakdown test to definitively determine if the head gasket is intact or not.

-Rob

Sadly, no, it is not normal. Compression seems to be leaking past the head gasket or thru a crack in the head itself. One thing I'd like you to please try before pulling the head. Would you pull torque first? Particularly notice loosness on left front and left rear (driver's side) bolts where the locating sleeves are for the gasket/head. Seems there is not much relief in the recesses sometimes.

Rob,

I am not sure how you got it to build pressure into the coolant by just turning it over for the test. You did have all the plugs pulled, right?

I would more suspect the radiator. I would guess that the WP is pushing coolant into the radiator but it is not flowing through it. So, it either comes out of the neck (if the cap is off) or into the overflow tank. If the rest of the system is functional, it may be flowing enough to cool the engine but the flow through the radiator is clogged enough to push coolant out, too.

Good Luck,
Michael

I'm not really a gambling person by nature, but I'd BET that if you put air pressure in those cyliners, you'll find that you'll push air out into the radiator. Our Amigo had the same problem, and ran for quite awhile. It finally went bad a couple months ago though and is now undrivable running on 3 cylinders.

No, I pulled and tested one by one. is that a mistake, should I have had all the plugs removed at the same time?

-Rob

Yes, you don't want the engine working against itself on those other 3 cylinders while you are cranking. You should have the throttle wide open too. (Pull the fuel pump relay and fuse).

Michael