EJ22 1993 - coughing coolant

Obonobo · Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:46 am Post subject: EJ22 1993 - coughing coolant

Hello all!

As you may have seen the video in my 'Kool rides'-topic, I drove the first kilometer with my converted 1975 Bay with an EJ22 from 1993!

When I got back from a very sedate, short trip, I noticed it was spewing coolant from the expansion tank. No steam, just kind of letting it out. Of course, when it hit the engine, things started smelling and steaming a bit, but no steam from the tank it self.

I am wondering: is this normal? Does it get rid of any excess coolant? My tank is one from a passat:

and the schematic I use is the following:

I filled it to the high mark on the tank: then the bottom two inlets are submerged, and the top is not. The system seems to be self bleeding well.

Would it make sense it is coughing, according to you?

Or do I miss a rubber ring under the expansion cap? I looked up pictures of the cap from online stores and couldn't find a rubber on any of them, so I assume it shouldn't be there.

I would like your advice, please!

Thanks
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Greetings from Sietze
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Driving a '75 Bay with a EJ22 '93 and 091 6-rib box.

And it's a long time since it looked anything like this!

Bigbadbugga · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:30 pm Post subject:

Classic blown head gasket symptom I'm afraid.

engine pumps exhaust into water jacket and pressurises the system, pushing the coolant out into the expansion bottle.

get it checked using a sniffer test to be sure, the liquid changes colour in the presence of exhaust gasses in the coolant. Most garages can do the test, or you can buy the kits from frost automotive and off ebay.
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Located near Liverpool.

Building a full custom 1972 Beetle with an EJ25 (n/a sohc),Porsche 944 IRS conversion and Rjes bellhousing.

Obonobo · Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 4:49 pm Post subject:

Hi!

Thanks for the reply. Just before you posted, I checked the header tank again, to see if I could find what was wrong.

It turned out that the inlet to which I connected the hot water line coming from the heater cores was dod not connect to the main tank: it opened directly to the 'vent off' under neath the header cap.

I fixed this by melting a hole form the inlet to the main tank: coughing is over!

Thanks in any case for your reply!
_________________
Greetings from Sietze
-------
Driving a '75 Bay with a EJ22 '93 and 091 6-rib box.

And it's a long time since it looked anything like this!