TelosHedge

just got my new motor up and running. took the car out for its maiden voyage and i realized i didnt bleed my coolant system correctly. coolant temps got up to about 230 degrees F and then dropped down into the 220s, and fluxuated from there. i put maybe 6 or 7 miles on the car and babied the car the whole way. got the car home and saw no signs of trouble.

i know nominal levels range somewhere between 190-205, but are 230s dangerously high? the s2000 manual states to pull over when the temp bars reach 'red' status (obviously) but makes no correlation to actual real life numbers.

any thoughts?

Hero

yep...that's pretty high. not good to keep running the car like that. at 6 miles or so of easy driving, i think you're probably ok, but don't take it out again until you properly bleed the system.

you're fan should come on at around 210ish and bring the temps down to 190ish...it never came on for you?

TelosHedge

i think the fans came on as per normal, though i will check all connections today just to rule out any possibility of a problem.

what kept me from pulling over was the temp gauge. i am not on a stock ecu - i'm running kpro management. if it wasnt for my plx obd gauge i would have had no real way to monitor coolant temps. i was driving along and saw 4 bars on my stock temp gauge, and then i got a CEL for over heating, which quickly went away and would return every 30 seconds or so. i thought it very odd to only see 4 bars and still get an overheat code so i wasn't overly concerned. it wasn't until i got home and started to do my research that i figured i'd ask for some more help, because i still can't find a definitive answer for coolant temperatures.

Hero

yeah 4 bars on an ap1 is hot. ap2s have more bars on their temp gauge so you have to be careful not to confuse anything you read about the two. 4 bars on an ap2 isn't a problem....but it's really hot on an ap1.

definetly fix the problem before going out again.

what coolant are you running? honda coolant is highly recommended for the s2000.

TelosHedge

i'm about to bleed the system now. do you think its possible i've caused any damage?

i just did a whole motor swap - i suppose a new headgasket wouldnt be too awful at this point!

jeffbrig

I can think of a couple of ways to tell if the gasket is leaking. Drain your coolant, look for oil in it. Drain your oil, and look for coolant in it. You might be able to check your oil dipstick, if the oil on it is frothy / mixed with coolant that would signify a bad leak.

TelosHedge

yea i know the tell tale signs, but i dont know if its too early for them to start showing up.

in any case, i just bled the system - took a VERY long time to warm up at idle (25 minutes or so?). i didn't see a tremendous amount of bubbles coming out but i watched over it like a hawk and kept refilling whenever the fluid got below the neck.

the fans came on at 205 degrees or so, stayed on for about 15 seconds, and shut off. my obd gauge reported temp drops to about 190 after the fans were done doing their thing. are these are all normal conditions? coolant looks clean and lovely. oil does too. no signs of awful smoke or smelly syrup gunk anyway. maybe i'll take it out for a drive...