New guy with new car, with problems

[suprasforlife]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum and I just bought a 1989 mk3 turbo. I also have a 1983 mk2. My Mk2 is a car that a couple of older people owned and they took really good care of it, it has 278,400 miles on it and still runs and drives like a dream. Everything is in almost new condition. When I found it I sold my vacation time back to work to get it because in the shape it is in I would have been a fool to pass it up.

4 days ago I bought a 1989 mk3 turbo and it too is in very good shape appearance wise. To bad looks don't help it go down the road. I have a couple minor problems like the dash light going on and off randomly, loose wire or a short I'm guessing.

I have a question or two for you all: This is my major concern, The car runs good, it just seems a little hot, I checked the head gasket and it seems fine, no oil in the antifreeze and no external leaks. The temp gauge has never gone above half, but even with it at the 4 o clock mark after the car has been on a while I still have no heat from my heater. I read on another site that this is a sign of a failing head gasket. Is this true? Sounds more like a bad heater core or a bad thermostat to me. The engine does get a lot hotter than my mk2, which has the 5m-ge in it, the turbo gets very hot along with the radiator and just about everything else. Is this normal for everything to be this hot? Or do I have a much bigger problem? The car has 102,300 miles, should I re-tourqe the head or leave it alone?

This is my first turbo supra, and my 3rd one overall. Any tips or advise, or been there done that story would greatly help me.

I do not want to hurt the motor because I know how much they cost to replace, I learned that with the 1986.5 I had.

[SupraSaver87]

Alright...your heating problem:

First of all, turbo's HEAT GREAT. I mean, you can JUST turn your car on, and there is heat. So if it isn't heating correctly....I would almost GARUNTEE....it is the heater core. Maybe a worn out element. Thermostat.....well it COULD be that, but I would start with the least expensive thing to fix, and move onto the most expensive. It shouldn't be doing harm to your engine in the state that it is in, so you can take your time to find the problem, and also you get to be aquanted with your car.

The "Overheating" of your engine...the temp it reaches right away. I don't think that is anything, my car is in good running condition, and it gets hot...really hot. You have to think of it this way. Your turbo is pushing compressed air into your intake, that allows for a quicker, hotter, more powerful burn. That extra heat has to absorbe into SOME type of material...and the aluminum heads, and what not are easily able to accept the heat. Your turbo is also being spun by your exhaust gasses, and I don't know the EXACT temp your exhaust is leaving your engine at...but ITS HOT!! So it would be normal for the metal housing around the turbo, and also the turbo housing its self, to get warm, to hot.

My engine after normally driving it around town for 15 mins is WAY to hot for me to touch it. So don't worry...unless the freaking thing is radiating those heat waves all the way out of your engine bay, and around your car or something...lol.....then don't worry about it.

Your dash lights sound like a loose wire. Take off the guage cluster, and recheck the connections, look for fray'd wires, and that kinda stuff. Trial and error is the best way through anything...makes you understand your car all the more.

P.S. You will learn VERY quickly that these cars need work....not all the time, but they usually will let you take an afternoon everyone once in a while to work on them, they don't mind...lol.

[suprasforlife]

Thanks for the info, I was kinda worried but I feel better now. Did a little more research and I'm gonna check the VSV valve (the bypass trick) first then, if needed move on to the thermostat, and if that don't fix it on to the heater core. Again thank you.

[jfunez]

Im curious,how did you check you check your head gasket?

anyways,have your local shop do a o2 gas leak detector for the head gasket leak, it is inexpensive and will clearly let you know if it is or is not your head gasket/

[suprasforlife]

I pumped the system up with air, looked for leaks, and listened for air leaks and I did not see or hear anything. Afterwards I burped the system a couple of times until all the air was back out of the system.

I've ran the car a few days now and have not had any problems, except for the no heat part, but it's the vsv.(the vsv is located next to the wiper motor, has 1 set of wires to it and 2 vacuum lines) Rather than bypassing it, I had a friend sit in the car after driving around for about 30 minutes and I had my friend turn the heat on and the vsv did not move, you can see the rod that is connected to the internals of the valve and the rod did not move at all. So I pushed the valve open manually (it moves easily by just pushing up on it with your thumb) and there was heat, so it's the valve. If you really need heat and your valve is out just take a zip tie, open the valve manually and put the zip tie on it so it holds it open. This method is alot easier than the method I've seen on several other sites, that method is taking the hoses off, putting a piece of pipe in both ends and clamping the hose around the pipe. I'm guessing this takes 10 miutes if you have the right size of pipe, I know a zip tie takes 5 seconds.

[ddmcse]

the lack of heat is a valve that controls the flow of coolant into the heater core..

http://www.ddmcse.com/turbo/heatervs.htm


the dash light is probably caused by the lack of coolant in the coolant reserve bootle up near the left side headlight . aka the bird cage or museum looking gauge