Coolant boiling noise when car is shut off!

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Daily Driven 240
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Coolant boiling noise when car is shut off!

Post by Daily Driven 240 »

I took my car out today for a small ride around the streets of my house to continue breaking her in and when i got home and let it idle for a few seconds i shut her off and i can hear irregular spurts of coolant boiling in the motor / turbo. I have no coolant leaks, i am not burning any coolant, i have a nismo thermostat and a koyo rad with water temps never going over 195 on a hot day. I have bled the cooling system about 5 times and have removed just about all the little air bubbles there can be. The turbo is watercooled using the throttle body hoses. No coolant over flows out of the overflow tank either.

Is it normal? Do i have to let the car idle for a longer period of time in the driveway before shutting her off?

This is my first KA-T and turbo car ever so excuse the newbness lol.
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Post by project-c2 »

Happened to me. Blew the head gasket. Pressure gets in the cooling system, but no mixing with oil. After I shut off, I can hear bubbling in my reservoir. I would suggest a block test of the cooling system.
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Post by cleantune »

Do you have fans on your rad? A while ago I forgot to turn my fans on and I let the car sit idling in the driveway for maybe 5 minutes on a hot day and the coolant in the reservoir was boiling.
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Post by Walperstyle »

1) open up hood, look at overflow can
2) compression check
3) try replacing thermostat, or removing it completely and see what happens.
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Post by supakat »

Way retarded timing in boost will also add to this.
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Post by Daily Driven 240 »

Thanks for all the replies!

The coolant is not boiling into the overflow tank at all, the amount of coolant rises nor,ally in the overflow tank as the motor warms up and then goes back down to were it was when the motor cools off.

I do have Altima dual fans installed on the back of my Koyo rad that are controlled by my Vi-PEC ECU to turn one on a low setting and the other on a high setting.

I tested the Nismo thermostat before installing it and it worked normaly. The motor does not overheat at all and I confirm this with an aftermarket water temperature gauge with the sensor mounted in the top rad hose.

I really don't think timing is the issue, I had the motor tuned on a dyno with a Vi-PEC V44 universal standalone from the ground up.

Are the water passages from the thorttle body just not big enough for a 50 trim?

Should i let her idle for a longer period of time before shutting her off?
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Post by cleantune »

I guess an idle cool down couldn't hurt to try, but I don't think it shouldn't matter too much as long as the car isn't overheating before it is shut off. If there is no air in the system, the thermostat works, the fans are working, and the coolant temps from the rad seem normal; then maybe it is just a normal sound like the cracking sound of a hot exhaust during cooldown; I mean "normally" the KA engine doesn't have a turbo with coolant lines running to it..... speaking of which, where did you tap-in for coolant feed/return? maybe this has something to do with it?
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Post by Daily Driven 240 »

Exactly, im starting to think it might be normal or it might be that my feed and return lines are just to small or have too little flow to cool down the 50 trim on a log manifold.

I took the feed and return lines from the throttle body and used those since the car does not see the winter anymore.

In case it changes things, my log manifold, downpipe adapter and downpipe are all wrapped in exhaust wrap and my turbine has a turbo blanket on it.
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Post by cleantune »

The heat wrap and blanket won't affect anything other than lower the temp under the hood a little and maybe increase exhaust temp due to a retention of some heat.

You said you took the feed and return lines from the throttle body, so you used the feed and return lines that go to the throttle body and left the throttle body coolant inlet and out let open or blocked off or linked with spare piece of tubing? I'm almost positive the coolant inlet and outlet on the throttle body do not have to have coolant running through them and should not affect anything other than a possible slight increase in intake temp.

Also, the log manifold should not be affecting the coolant system. The lines being too small may be a concern. As far as I know, the feed coolant feed and return lines that go to the throttle body should be under the same pressure, leaving just the turbo and any fittings used as variables (i.e. a smaller opening in an adapter increasing pressure, or a larger opening decreasing pressure).

Maybe the sound is just residual coolant in the lines being heated by the turbo/exhaust heat?
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Post by Walperstyle »

burp your system, and also let us know how you feed your turbo
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Post by Daily Driven 240 »

The system has been bled with the nose up in the air and with a Leslie Funnel about 5 times. The throtle body no longer has coolant going to it, I took the hose that was feeding the throtle body and used that as the turbo coolant feed and connected the turbo coolant return to the hose that was previously used for the throtle body return.
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Post by 2FAS240 »

This same thing happened to me just the other day to. i have pretty much the same setup as you (#6 turbo coolant lines routed the same way) My boiling seemed to be coming from my upper radiator hose only though
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Post by adamky »

^^ Are you two guys running 50/50 water/coolant?
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Post by Daily Driven 240 »

Yes sir, brand new 50/50 in the whole system.
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Post by corner worker »

If you can put a pressure gauge on your cooling system, it will tell you if you are over pressurizing your system. I had the same problem with my rx-7/ 302 swap drift car. never over heated, but at high rpm, i would see 30lbs of pressure in the cooling system. I had a popped head gasket. I tapped a 1/8" pipe hole in the side of my radiator. I just ran some #3 line up to the gauge and duct taped it to the windshield and drove the car around.
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Post by k12ispl »

corner worker wrote:If you can put a pressure gauge on your cooling system, it will tell you if you are over pressurizing your system. I had the same problem with my rx-7/ 302 swap drift car. never over heated, but at high rpm, i would see 30lbs of pressure in the cooling system. I had a popped head gasket. I tapped a 1/8" pipe hole in the side of my radiator. I just ran some #3 line up to the gauge and duct taped it to the windshield and drove the car around.
+1 check your coolant pressure, also when you bleed your system do you hold your rpms around 1500 to 2000 rpms with heater defrost on? till you have good heat coming out?
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Post by Daily Driven 240 »

Yes the heater was at the hottest setting but the fans were not on since i didn't see the point. If the temp control is at the hottest then coolant will flow through the heater core regardless of the cabin fan being on or off right?
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Post by sdaigle240 »

i dont believe so. u can make it hot, but its not ON untill u put the fan to atleast 1


i took a charcol lighter fluid bottle, wrapped a wad of e-tape around the neck, cut the bottom off, stuffed it into the rad and started fillin. works great, heard it from some locals. it just creates a high point for the air to go, cuz with the car jacked up the manifold bleeder is a lil low. it can def take 30-45 min of fighting with it sometimes.
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Post by vrmilionzx »

Can you squeeze your rad hose, or is it hard with pressure (man that sounds dirty).
Might still need more burping.
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Post by corner worker »

Man, I thought LT1's were difficult to burp. I havent had any issues with my cooling system yet, but I see a bumpy road ahead.
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Post by Daily Driven 240 »

I took the car out yesterday for a lengthy drive and got into some boost to see if maybe the headgasket was only leaking under boost but everything is running normally. The water temps are very stable between 185 and 193 consistently even after seeing some boost. Oil temps never went over 220. When i got home i let popped the hood while it was idling to see if i was boiling any coolant out of the overflow tank and it was not what so ever. I let the car idle for 2.5 minutes as a cool down and then shut her off. Everything was normal and after a minute or so i could start hearing the coolant starting to boil a little bit in the center section of the turbo housing since the coolant was not flowing anymore leading me to beleive this is normal and i should not worry about it.

Oh and before taking the car out, i took the rad cap off to see if there had been any air pockets in it but it was full to the neck.

Plus just as a side note i really had to have the hood opened, my ear to the coolant lines over the center section with no outside noise to be able to hear the boiling.
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Post by sdaigle240 »

good to hear man.
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Post by Daily Driven 240 »

Thanks Daigle, im going to be taking the car out for some more break in runs over the 2 days i have off this week and report back. So far my idle vaccum is slowly increasing with the more engine breaking i do wich is a good sign and im always moving the RPM's and not letting it sit at the same speed for too long.

No leaks and no abnormalies so far!
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Post by mello88 »

How old is your radiator cap? Sometimes the rubber seal gets old and no longer works properly. As you know the seal is important because it allows the cooling system to pressurize, and water under pressure has a higher boiling temperature than at atmospheric pressure.
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Post by Daily Driven 240 »

Rad cap is new along with the rad. Thanks for your input!
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