Coolant/water boiling in reserve tank help diagnoste problem!!!
 

Alright everyone I have a 93 civic with a B18B1 swap, the car has been running fine for the last couple years. Well today I drove about 20 miles and when I got out of the car I heard a steaming sound coming from the engine bay. Well when I popped the hood the reserve tank was boiling and steaming. The temp. guage in the car never went above 1/2 temp. I let the car cool down for a little bit and opened the radiator cap and filled it up with about 2 water bottles. Next, I topped the reserve tank off. It seems like it is leaking a little bit by the reserve tank, but I can't tell if the radiator or lines are. From what I can see they are not. If anyone has any input into this please feel free to leave your comments. I'll be checking back soon incase anyone needs more info. Thanks a million!

Re: Coolant/water boiling in reserve tank help diagnoste problem!!!
 

you might need to replace the radiator cap.

check the spring which could be worn out cuz the cap is the thing that holds the radiator pressure,

which is around 16 psi. hope that helps :8 :8

Re: Coolant/water boiling in reserve tank help diagnoste problem!!!
 

if the overflow bubbles when running, your hg is blown/cracked sleeve and pumping compression into the water jacket

oh, and forgot to say, thats if the rad is low and the overflow is high.. :8

Re: Coolant/water boiling in reserve tank help diagnoste problem!!!
 

If it was my radiator cap, I would think that there would be some leakage coming from the cap area. But since you said the cap holds the pressure i'm guessing there would'nt be any pressure to push fluid out of the radiator cap area. hmm. maybe ill try a radiator cap first.

Re: Coolant/water boiling in reserve tank help diagnoste problem!!!
 

Alright I think my fan is not kicking on! Could my fan not kicking on cause the fluid in the reserve tank to boil?

Re: Coolant/water boiling in reserve tank help diagnoste problem!!!
 

possibly, fix the fan then see what happens

Re: Coolant/water boiling in reserve tank help diagnoste problem!!!
 

well I pulled the fan relay out and jumped it with a paperclip and the fan worked. I'm not sure if the relay is busted but my guess is it's not. I'm going to try a dif. radiator cap and see if that changes anything.??? Not sure though.

Re: Coolant/water boiling in reserve tank help diagnoste problem!!!
 

try putting a new relay in there or switching it with another relay and see if what ever you switched it with works

Re: Coolant/water boiling in reserve tank help diagnoste problem!!!
 

overflow doesn't boil unless its puking from excess pressure in the system, be it a bad cap letting it bypass early, or compression finding its way into the water jacket or coolant passage somewhere.

under pressure water boils much higher than atmosphere. another possible reason it's ''boiling'' in your overflow

Re: Coolant/water boiling in reserve tank help diagnoste problem!!!
 

If it was boiling while you were driving then you either got a bubble in your coolant system or hg/motor is fucked. If your car stood there for a minute or two and started to boil then it's the fan issue. Radiators need airflow to cool the motor down, if there is nothing cooling the water/coolant, how the ---- is it going to cool down your motor?