Hi Guys,

I had the head gasket done on my Hawkeye STI about 6 months ago by the stealer (under warranty), and since then the temperature gauge has been good as gold, but just a couple of times lately i've had the chance to have a good solid play with the car, i'm talking at night with about 10 miles of twisties. When I get close to home I have about 2 miles of easy driving and then park up in the garage. I let the car cool down like normal, but instead of the gauge going down it starts to rise.

I can hear the fans going, but the gauge slowly rises over the half way mark and heads toward the 2 thirds mark, at this point I panic and turn it off.

The next day I check under the hood, and you can see some coolant has leaked out of the top of the reservoir.

I'd love some one like API or Zen to do a forge build to toughen the engine up, but i've just bought a flat, so that's off the cards for at least 6 months.

So my question is, do you guys reckon its the gasket again, or am I just driving the thing too hard. Just curious if you guys get your cars overheat after VERY hard driving (like track days) or are they pretty stable.

I should say mine is stock standard, not a mod in sight (except brakes)

Also I get the sound of running water from behind the dash a lot, I'm guessing its just the heater matrix, but could it be an airlock in the cooling system.

Thanks

Dave

 

Either an air lock or the HG has gone again.
The running water sound is due to air in the coolant loop. The temp gauge rising suggests that quite a bit of coolant is missing.
Overflows from the expansion tank can happen if there's a problem with the syphon return.
The coolant doesn't return back to the system when the car cools down and air gets drawn in somewhere. Next day you have an expansion tank full of coolant that'll overflow eventually, plus air pockets making the trickling sound.

I'd take it back to the dealership - surely its still warranted after a 6 month repair?

Nick

 

Thanks for the response Butty,

Yep its going back to the stealer, they are actually pretty helpful, and I don't have a problem taking it to them, its just when they did the gasket originally, they had the car for a month, and I was kind of hoping I wouldn't have to loose it again. It always hard to show them as well, because it only does it after a good drive, and you can only do that sort of thing late at night, in nice safe areas.

I guess I just wanted to make sure it wasn't normal for it to overheat after heavy driving, but I guess I knew it was broken really.

Thanks again

Dave