Head gasket issue?

[SilverRocket]

I'm wondering if I'm the first one to have the head gasket issue on the forum.

It's not officially confirmed but the car has been idling a little rough and when I got back home the other day the car felt hotter than usual. I checked the coolant level and it's about 2 inches below minimum with no apparent visual leaks.

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[acurax]

By no apparent visual leaks, is it safe to presume you checked the commonly know items like overflow reservoir, pulled the coils to see if any coolant is visible, and around/under the engine, correct?

If so, I would suggest getting your oil tested to see if coolant shows up in the test results at a concerning level.

Of course, if your car is still under warranty then by all means get it in for warranty diagnosis and servicing.

 

[boosted_canoe]

is it your first time checking the coolant level? these cars come from the factory with the coolant below the minimum level line in the reservoir. Dealerships usually don't bother topping it off since it's fine as long as there is coolant in the reservoir.

 

[SilverRocket]

By no apparent visual leaks, is it safe to presume you checked the commonly know items like overflow reservoir, pulled the coils to see if any coolant is visible, and around/under the engine, correct?

If so, I would suggest getting your oil tested to see if coolant shows up in the test results at a concerning level.

Of course, if your car is still under warranty then by all means get it in for warranty diagnosis and servicing.

Just finished booking the appointment for Monday.

I just moved and don't have all my tools but I did a visual inspection around the reservoir and it was none dry

 

[SilverRocket]

is it your first time checking the coolant level? these cars come from the factory with the coolant below the minimum level line in the reservoir. Dealerships usually don't bother topping it off since it's fine as long as there is coolant in the reservoir.

If this is true I would be overjoyed.

It is the first time checking, never really had reason to before since it was factory fresh and never had an issue.

Basically the other day I passed by the front of my car after parking it and considering the outdoor temperature and casual drive that I did, it felt abnormally hot.

I'm going to have it checked out first thing Monday morning. A spark plug removal + bore scope should put this to rest.

 

[crepr12]

...OOOK

 

[bpebler]

My buddy had his head gasket and 5th gear replaced (big turbo and ethanol) a little over a year ago, but has moved on to an M2. Technically it's the same gasket as the FK8/FL5 and it's a known issue, but Honda only has the tech bulletin or recall for the 1.5's.

 

[madchiller]

It's not officially confirmed but the car has been idling a little rough and when I got back home the other day the car felt hotter than usual. I checked the coolant level and it's about 2 inches below minimum with no apparent visual leaks.

any misfires/hesitation at WOT or subaru-sounding start ups? those were the biggest clues on my 1.5T which im still waiting for reimbursement.

 

[SilverRocket]

any misfires/hesitation at WOT or subaru-sounding start ups? those were the biggest clues on my 1.5T which im still waiting for reimbursement.

No misfires or codes which gives me hope.

Haven't gone WOT in a little while and the hard part is that I have the Wunderladen RMM so there is a possibility that I have a factory underfill (didn't know was a thing until Boosted_canoe mentioned it)+ the RMM is giving me a bit more vibration at idle now that it broke in a little more.

Honestly this shit feel like the car equivalent of WebMD where you go check symptoms and everything is cancer, except it's head gasket.

Anyway I'm 24 hours away from my appointment with Acura and I'll hopefully have confirmation that it was a bunch of coincidental, unrelated things or I'd even be happy with a small leak on the underside of the reservoir.

 

[bpebler]

I've also been having issues and was thinking the head gasket, but now thinking it is something else. I'm on E 50 with the Kuro plus this time.

my symptoms started being noticed in fourth gear at high RPMs under WOT. Like boost cut, sputtering. Very seldom that it would happen but now it's happening more often.

I purchased a chasing J's reservoir cap which has worked fine for a long time on top of the Mishimoto tank. I believe the spring in the cap has gone bad and I put the Mishioto one back on burped and topped the coolant, which has stopped the overflow from leaking and the coolant is remaining at the level where it needs to be. Sputtering issue was recently very noticeable at E 50 and third and fourth year, but after doing this I can only tell that is there sometimes again and fourth gear, high RPM, WOT. But it is definitely running a lot better.

I performed an oil change last weekend and took a sample that I still need to send to Blackstone because I am curious if any coolant has found its way in there as well, although it did not appear so. The PCV valve on these fail quite often and I was told to consider it a maintenance part and to replace every 30 K, but I have had them go bad as early as 10 K. The crank case builds a ton of pressure and I have had a lot of oil blow by as well found in the inlet pipe, but I do not really want to use a catch can if I don't need to.

I need to check the coils just to make sure nothing worked their way in there and probably do another gap check. take the PCV valve out and shake it to make sure there is a rattle there. And one thing I have not done yet is perform a smoke test. I bought a tester and still have not used it. LOL I am hoping the test will reveal a small pinhole leak or something like that, as I was recently in a front end accident that had damage to my radiator hoses and plugs on the O2 sensors that I finally fixed after chasing that all down after getting it back from the body shop. And I believe they did not burp my coolant system properly which could have led to the cap failure. My only doubts with the smoke test is that if I'm only experiencing it in fourth gear hi RPMWOT, will it actually force enough pressure through for the smoke to reveal it? I can only hope that it will reveal something in neutral under WOT.

I have chased issues and codes like this for so long, just one thing after another really. But I have ran the car very hard and have been tuned since about 3000 K and am over 71K currently. I'm hoping whatever your dealer finds is simple and we share the same simple issue to fix! Lol

 

[madchiller]

if you're running more boost spark plug blow-out is an issue also. make sure you gap your spark plugs down to .022 at least.

 

[bpebler]

if you're running more boost spark plug blow-out is an issue also. make sure you gap your spark plugs down to .022 at least.

I recently did the spark plugs and gapped them to Derek's recommendation for his Tune, but I do want to take them out and check to make sure they haven't gotten out of hand. I filled up with Pure 93 today and so far the fourth gear pulls have been good. But I do wonder since there is a difference in those symptoms seemingly from E 50 down to E 30, if the extra boost is indeed causing something like that.

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