Hello all, I have an 03 cavy 5speed with 38XXX miles. About 4 months ago i noticed that i was loosing coolant. No external leaks visible. I had to add a full bottle of coolant every month or so. My low collant light would come on. Since this started i also noticed that everytime i started the car it would sputter for about 3 seconds. now, the sputtering has gotten worse. it sputters for about 5-7 seconds. i also notice quite a bit of smoke coming out while sputtering. it is hard to say if it is white or blue since it only lasts a couple of seconds.

I opened the radiator cap the other day after driving the car for about 30 min. There was a lot of pressure built inside the reservoir. About a have of a quart of coolant leaked out. Since then I have been keeping an eye on the leak and it seems to be leaking from the overflow hose (too much pressure??). Anyways, has anyone had any experience like this? Im afraid it might be the head gasket. Im yet to run a couple of tests to verify the issue which will include spark plug verification, coolant system pressure test, cylinder pressure test and checking the oil for signs of coolant. Let me know if you guys have any other ideas or suggestions. they will be greatly appreciated.

By the way, once it stops sputtering, the car will run normal without overheating. The problem (sputtering) only seems to happen after it sits for a couple of hours or overnight.




Stock '00
2200 cavy
sedan!!!!

Check your resovore while the car is running and see if it bubbles..
And also check your waterpump. Mine leaks from there since the day i got it.



]:-> 287 TimeSlips In Hand. Car Still Runs Strong... 3 Differentials Later ]:->

Today I checked the spark plugs and they seemed normal. nothing our of the ordinary to suggest coolant leaking into any of the cylinders. I do see bubles come out the top of the reservoir when the cap is off. Any other suggestions? there is not any other visible external leak.




Stock '00
2200 cavy
sedan!!!!

I just drove the car and noticed that the temp gauge will not reach the normal temperature spot. It stays half way. It did not do this yesterday. Could it be a sign of possible trouble? I got home and let the car run for a while. it reached nprm temp after about 10 minutes of idling then it went back down to halfway. wtf? its gone nuts!




Stock '00
2200 cavy
sedan!!!!

air pocket in your cooling system..


01' Z24 5 speed
422whp/400wtq
T4 Turbocharged
Built LD9
HP Tuners

I noticed today that it reached normal temperature. I grabbed the radiator hoses and they were swollen as if there was pressure in the system.




Stock '00
2200 cavy
sedan!!!!

there is supposed to be pressure in your system. Our coolant systems run at about 15 psi ( or 16 i think) but if your coolant hose were swollen then it seems that there is obviously too much pressure. I would say start with replacing the reservoir cap because it is not allowing excess pressure to bleed out. As far as your head gasket, the only way to check it is to do a compression check but if you really believe that is the culprit then you will need to take you vehicle to a shop and have it done. I would start with the cap and then see if that resolves your problem. if not then we can go on from there.

After debating what the problem could be, I have come to the conclusion that it isthe head gasket. I was praying it wa not. This is how I came to the conclusion. Let me know if you think it could be something else or if there are other tests i should run before jumnping into it.

Symptoms: car was loosing coolant. It would weep out the overflow hose on the reservoir tank due to excesive pressure in the system. When the cap was off, the coolant level would gradually raise as the rpms were raised. Reservoir cap was replaced but the problem persisted. I notice some black gunk (almost like a rubbery compund) floating inside the reservoir. I disconected the radiator hose and notice the same gunk around the hose. not sure if oil and coolant can do this when mixed. The car would also sputter at start up but would run without any problems after a couple of seconds.

Three ays ago the car overheated. I decided to not drive anymore. My friend and I decided to run some tests in hopes of defining the problem. Here is what we did. We took the spark plugs off. #2,3,and 4 seemed ok. #1 was a little darker than the rest. We tried running a compression test on the cylinders. Not sure if this is how its done but here's how we did it. We took off the fuel pump relay and hooked a compression gauge cylinder by cylinder. Next we cranked while noticing the gauge. We wrote down how far the needle would move after one crank and also cranking for a couple of seconds. The results revealed something possibly wrong with cylinder #1. We noticed that on this cylinder, the needle moved to around 60 psi when cranked while the rest of the cylinders moved to above 90 psi. After analizing the data, we came to the conclusion that cylinder #1 has lost some pressure due to something. This might explain the sputtering at start up. Could it be that the lost pressure from cylinder #1 is leaking into the cooling system thus making it leak from the overflow hose? If so, why is it that the car sputters only for about 5-7 seconds after start up and then runs fine after that?

Im not really sure it is the head gasket but so far Im leaning towards it. the only way to find out is to dig into it. I will start this saturday. i know it would take me a while toget to it but there's no rush. This leads me into my next question. How hard is it to replace the head gasket? I have a pretty big picture of how to do it but to be honest with you Im afraid to touch the timing system in the car. I have bought a haynes manual and will go from there. I know for a fact I will need the "org" help.

I will be ordering a felpro head gasket from autozone within the next days. Not sure where toget the head bolts and the timing sprockets bolts. Any suggestions? Also, what else should I replace while doing this? the car has 38,xxx miles.

PS, the oil is not milky.
The dipstick does not have condensation.
Car runs fine except when started for 5 secs.
No visible external leaks except from the overflow hose.
Car goes through the cooling cycle normal discarding the water pump or the Tstat.
03 cavalier 5 speed with 38,xxx miles.

Thanks for any info or suggestions and sorry for the long post. Did not want to leave anything out!




Stock '00
2200 cavy
sedan!!!!