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The 'H' word...

buchos

New member
Hi,
I've been blasting around a track all day in my 944 Turbo SE.... great day out and few problems except at the end of the day I noticed water blowing out of the header tank cap :( ...could it be a head gasket? (fingers crossed here that its not)

..it still drives well, not overheating on the temp gauge, no water in the oil or oil in the water, so i'm thinking pressure from somewhere is definately getting into the water jacket...

any advice or experience greatly appreciated. (is it hard to change the HG?)

Alex

jun 09
 
ISTR common problem when tracking the turbo, one of the boosty boys will be along in a minute to comment but I recall this happens on all 944 turbos if you drive it hard enough on track.
 
Don't panic - there are far worse things you can break on a 944 [:D]

It could be headgasket - get an MOT station to test for hydrocarbons in the expansion tank. They can fail without any mixing of oil & water. HG change needs the belt soff, so you need the tools to do that job. Belts + HG is IRO £500 at an indie - plus extras like waterpump / rollers etc.. If the belts are almost due, then it doesn't add too much to the cost.

on the other hand, it's fairly common for the water in the block to get very hot when you've come in & switched off - which then pushes the water out of the expansion hose. I'm sure Andrew S posted this up a couple of years back either here or on Titanic.

Was it coming from the hose attached to the header tank - or from the cap itself? maybe you just need a new cap?

 
Weak rad caps are quite a common phenomena I believe... I have certainly had one which suffered this problem - this can also be an occasional problem that leads to an otherwise inexplicable loss of water over time (which reminds me, I must change it on my latest car).

It is a lot cheaper than a head gasket!!!!
 
Another possibility is a previous unseen air-lock - that can blow water out quite dramatically (usually when the engine is switched off from what I have seen of it)

If it is a turbo - is your "after switch off water pump" running as it should?
 
Another possibility is a previous unseen air-lock - that can blow water out quite dramatically (usually when the engine is switched off from what I have seen of it)

Exactly what mine did. Having it bled properly cured it fine, no idea why it happened. Was dramatic though. [:eek:]
 
To answer the question, it was coming from the hose, not the cap so it seemed like the cap was oerating normally, though i may a have couple of new ones hiding somewhere in the garage.

I tried a run later in the car when it had cooled a little and it did the same thing after a short drive around the block. Its a shame as when it happened I was pushing a 968 club sport up the track... briefly that is, before he wasted me on the twisty bits :-D

I'll try the easy stuff first, bleed the system, change the cap and let you know... :) cooling down
 
Sorry if it is telling you what you already know, but are you familiar with the "park it pointing uphill" bleeding arrangements? It is as simple as that, but it sure does make a difference!
 
Nope, thats completely new to me.... spent a bloody fortune last year getting my driveway levelled too, and now I find out that was useful :) !

 

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