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and Honda Type 2 antifreeze is what you need. Bleed the system with the front end higher than the back and heater on full blast. Borrow or share the funnel with other local S2000 guys. Coolant replacement is only required every 5 years even under severe conditions but having the tools makes this simple.
@blueosprey90 Thank you for the really detailed things to check!
I purchased the car in 2019 with 165k miles on it and the previous owner had all the recommended services done at the dealer as he wasn't a car guy. The car had never been tracked prior to my purchasing it. Since owning, I've done all the fluid changes, valve adjustments, etc. myself for the same reasons as you.
I haven't seen any indications of oil/water mixing, either from oil changes, fill cap, dipstick, exhaust, etc. and it's something I've been keeping a close eye on, though I haven't had any chemical testing done on the oil or any compression testing or coolant pressure testing, so those are things I could certainly check.
I run at MSR Houston which is a pretty short technical track at 2.38 miles with 17 turns. It's a highly technical track with short straights. The overflow occurred in the afternoon when temps were 94F and 99% humidity with 2mph winds. Looking at Watkins Glen it looks like you guys get similar temp/humidity in the May/June timeframe, but the track seems to have a lot more straights to cool off vs MSR? Might be a contributing factor? Though I would guess you guys are probably running your cars a lot harder than me, as I'm just running a full stock setup and alignment with 200TW tires.
I put an overlay of MSR in red vs WG in black to compare the tracks and I'm super jealous lol!
@Chuck S
Thanks for the link to the funnel kit! I’ve followed billman’s instructions for bleeding the coolant lines to ensure that I didn’t have any air bubbles, but whenever I swap radiators I’ll definitely pick up the funnel kit to make the process easier!
Thanks for the reference! That definitely helps explain the small overflow during sessions and makes sense that small bits of coolant might spray out during hard cornering and pressure in the system.
But having said all of that, on my MGA, I had a cracked cylinder head that I was never able to diagnose via the usual methods until there was just too much of the mayonnaise under the oil fill cap to ignore. I pulled the head and had it crack tested and I had a tiny crack in one of the combustion chambers. My car, however, had "passed" the compression test and the coolant system pressure test; and the car never gave off a white smoke indicative of coolant getting into the combustion chambers. And for a while I lied to myself about the traces of mayonnaise under the oil fill cap until lying to myself was no longer an option.
Good luck!
Did you try pressurizing the cooling system and bore scoping the cylinders to find the leak?
Today | 06:34 AM
