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For less than $10 replace that radiator cap and go from there.

Its the cause of many symptoms like this for skyline owners and is such an easy and cheap 1st option for troubleshooting.

Especially as you ahve the symptom of the top hose not getting super hard at normal operating temp...

That and follow this description on fully and confidently bleeding a skyline's infamous cooling system of air

(10th post down)

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/406363-coolant-reservoir-problem-or-not/page__p__6476678__hl__cut%20bottle__fromsearch__1#entry6476678

Yeah I've read through that before when I had my 33s, This is a CA S13, so no bleed screw but I've pretty much done all the other steps.

I might look into a radiator cap for cheap insurance.

I'll know more this weekend when I've had some time to fiddle.

When the pressure test shows it's holding good pressure the next link in the chain is the cap not holding up.

For less than $10 replace that radiator cap and go from there.

Its the cause of many symptoms like this for skyline owners and is such an easy and cheap 1st option for troubleshooting.

Especially as you ahve the symptom of the top hose not getting super hard at normal operating temp...

That and follow this description on fully and confidently bleeding a skyline's infamous cooling system of air

(10th post down)

http://www.skylinesa..._1#entry6476678

I'm not having a go but you can improve your bleeding method a lot with a couple of small changes. First is you don't need to jack the front of the car up, the system is designed so the bubbles move towards the radiator and bleed screw easily on level ground.

Second is you should undo the bleed screw when first filling the system to let the displaced air escape. You keep filling the system until it comes out of the bleeder, only then you start the car and top up as necessary.

No offense taken mate, all advice is always welcome.

This is a CA18 so there is no bleed screw as was mentioned earlier which is what makes this system one of the trickier ones.

I'll keep at it and report back how I go. My main concern is that the head is sealing properly.

No that was for jjman.

All you have to do if keep the radiator topped up. Another thing is to take it for a drive once you've finished. Once it has cooled down check the overflow level because it would've sucked some coolant in. Top it up to max level and keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't keep on droppiing. If it does then you have a leak.

Ahh, OK.

Yeah I've got a rough idea on what needs to be done so I'll test out all the theories when I dump the coolant this weekend to remove the stuff that was oil contaminated from the HG failure.

When the pressure test shows it's holding good pressure the next link in the chain is the cap not holding up.

I'm not having a go but you can improve your bleeding method a lot with a couple of small changes. First is you don't need to jack the front of the car up, the system is designed so the bubbles move towards the radiator and bleed screw easily on level ground.

Second is you should undo the bleed screw when first filling the system to let the displaced air escape. You keep filling the system until it comes out of the bleeder, only then you start the car and top up as necessary.

hey, yeah while ill agree that thats an adequate way to do it iv found it not to be consistent as well as quick (if u have 2 jacks/hydraulic jacks) and foolproof, as iv found this method.

The RB25 is notoriously hard to get all the air out of,even with the bleed screw. Twice iv had my car come back from the mechanics (import specialists) with air still in the cooling system (and coolant mess around the bleed screw)

Iv found this way the only sure way to do it first time every time.

Which is the reason i always recommend it to people who are troubleshooting their cooling system because ruling out an air lock in the cooling system as a symptom of a problem (one of the easier things to do alongside radiator cap) is the best place to start. And the amount of people iv seen bleed an RB the standard way and still have air in the system and still left scratching their heads and going back to the drawing board when this was thier only problem or at the least it still prevented them from being able to see the true problem.

Edited by jjman

No luck today, tightened a few more things but there still seems to be a very slow leak.

I can no longer see any coolant leaking (exception being a very tiny weep from one turbo line when the car is warmed up), just the gauge dropping slowly.

I also still got the gurgle after driving it.

Working on the car at the moment, just stopping for lunch and waiting for it to cool down.

Emptied out the radiator and ran the engine with clean water flowing in while watching the water flowing out.

Plugged it up and put a bottle of radiator flush in it, filled it up and let it idle for a good 25mins.

Towards the end it started frothing up as shown. I'm assuming this occurs as the radiator flush does its work.

Once it's cooled I'll flush it again then put new coolant in it, no doubt it'll take a while to bleed out the air but at least once I'm done the coolant should be clean enough for me to TK test it if needed.

post-23873-0-87877500-1359337434_thumb.jpg

OK done for the day as I'm a bit over it now.

Flushed out all the radiator flush stuff, ran the car for a solid 25 mins, jacked up and levelled out with the top radiator hose disconnected and waited for the water to run clear. I had the heater on the whole time on full.

I let the car idle for a few minutes without anything in the radiator just to pump out the last of the fluid then reconnected the top hose and filled the radiator with coolant. After filling the radiator and the overflow tank it only took 4L of fluid, though the FSM says the system takes 7L.

I let it idle way up on the jack for quite a while to free up any air bubbles then took it for a drive. Temperatures were stable and the heater worked fine.

After coming back it still gurgled from the same spot, not for long though, and I got under it and still can't find any obvious coolant leaks with the exception of a very tiny weep at one turbo line.

After letting the car cool down, it looks to have drawn a little coolant from the overflow and there appears to be a little bit of sediment sitting on top of the coolant in the radiator, nothing serious though.

I'll drive it a few more times and get it hot/cool it down and see if the overflow levels out after a while. I still have the pressure tester also.

Spent some more time on it tonight and thought I'd test the tester.

I inflated the bladder in the neck of the radiator and just let that sit, low and behold the gauge started dropping so I'd say the tester has a leak of its own.

I pressurised the system fully and looked for leaks again, only one I can find is that tiny weep from the braided turbo line so I'm not super worried about that.

I'll drive it some more and see what the coolant level does and go from there.

id say if it is leaking then fix it. Gotta rule out the obvious to be sure of narrowing down a problem...

sorry to be the bearer of bad news but its likely that its the rubber hose that attaches to that braided line. prick of a job (unless you have some decent tools).

It's weeping at the fitting, where the line joins the banjo fitting on the turbo. It's the outside line also and very easy to access on my setup, I can remove it, but of course it will piss coolant out everywhere during the process.

I'd ay I'd have to get a hydraulics place to remove the end and re-crimp/attach whatever it is they do.

Drove it last night, no gurgle that I could hear when I got back, but the coolant level had dropped a small amount in the overflow over night.

I'll have to fix that braided line to rule that out too.

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