Water in reservoir tank boiling!

[LegacyLS90]

I noticed my car was making a weird noise, so I added some more water to the reservoir. The noise was gone, but after taking it on the highway for about 20 minutes, I came home and opened the hood to find that the water was boiling! Has anyone ever had this experience? Also, radiator fluid was spewing back into the water reservoir, and it was leeking from somewhere under the tank. I need help, i hope it's nothing major .

[entirelyturbo]

What does your temp gauge say? I took my first car home with the coolant boiling in the reservoir, and it turned out that the fuse for the cooling fan was blown. So I'd look there first.

If it's not boiling (percolating, sounding like a coffee machine), and it's bubbling slowly (foaming) then uh-oh, you probably have a blown head gasket ...

[LegacyLS90]

Actually, it was foaming and perculating! My temp. gauge is normal, no adnormalities there. But, the foaming and perculating definately describes what was going on in there. I hope it's not too serious!

[ciper]

Exhaust gas in the coolant, which 99.9% of the time is the first sympton of a leaking head gasket.

Id almost put money on it

[joe002]

I'm with ciper. Same exact thing happened to me. Another clue - smell the overflowing radiator fluid/bottle. Does it smell like exhaust gas?

[JasonGrahn]

tee hee hee.. Yep, that sounds like head gaskets to me. Do compression and/or leakdown tests before it gets too bad.

[ciper]

Best way to tell is get a tester that can detect the presence of these gasses in the coolant. Though your nose should be able to smell exhaust when the coolant bubbles.

I wont tell you how much money I spent on my Supra regarding Head Gaskets

[LegacyLS90]

Yeah, i can smeel exhaust sometimes inside the car, and can usually smell the radiator fluid. I'm taking it to the dealer saturday to get everything checked out, so I can find everything wrong with it.

[joe002]

When my head gasket went I checked with the dealer and I think they wanted around $900 to fix em.

[JasonGrahn]

you can get all the parts you need to do it for less then that. Give yourself a couple weeks to do the job and you'll get it done. I gave myself a couple months (no need so much for a car at the time) and took the time to pull the engine and everything. Tons of fun.

[joe002]

I did the same thing - got some pics if you want to see them - assuming I can find them I think the parts were around $100 - I got the gaskets from the Subaru dealership. It really isn't that bad if you take your time - you don't even have to pull the engine if you don't want to.

Also I would recommend having the heads planned at machine shop (a friend of mine that worked at a Subaru dealership recommend it). Mine only cost $30 a head.

You do want to make sure the heads didn't warp and/or crack. Again my friend knew where to look for the normal places where the heads crack - the machine shop would take care of any minor warping.

[vrg3]

So a blown head gasket allows exhaust gases into the coolant, which you can test for easily? Does this apply to closed deck engine blocks as well, as on the BC turbos?

[JasonGrahn]

yes. That's pretty much universal with a blown head gasket.

[ciper]

Usually you have a connection between:

Combustion and Coolant (which can be tested) (causing damage to cylinder wall)
Combustion and Oil (which causes oil starvation and screws the engine)
Water and Oil (very rear, unless cracked)

Id check the cylinder wall in the leaking cylinder. Water washes the oil away and causes damage. You may have to get a new head worse case.