Overheating and a bad noise!

[Rhino]

Ok, I bought a e30 318. I knew it had a bad head gasket. The car over heated and had bubbles coming through the expansion tank. So i had the head resurfaced and put on a new headgasket. I did the job on a budget.

After getting the job completely done i started it and the motor has a very loud knocking or Clattering sound. Above 3000rpm it goes away and the motor sounds really smooth. I have 20-50 castrol motor oil in it. I check timing and it seemed ok. i cant figure out the sound. it wasnt there before i did the work.




I drove the car for the first time a good distance in 100 degree weather about 5-8 miles. It stayed just a tick over the 1/4 mark on the temp gauge. Today its the same weather maybe a bit cooler and it started to over heat when sitting at a light. When moving the temp goes down. I let it almost get to the 3/4 mark. Then i shut it down and then i let it cool down. I am just running water. I opened the system to bleed it and the screw broke off. so this is what i used in place of it. I opened the cap and it was bubble but i am pretty sure it was just boiling because i just shut it off.

Any help would be great. I am so frstrated with this car. I am used to working on m30/m20 motors and really need this car to work. I am with out a car for work or school. Feel free to call me if you would like to talk ideas on fixing this. My name is ryan. MY phone number is 408-476-4780.

THANK YOU ALL.

[nomad]

did you check the head for cracks when you took it off? When overheated these heads like to crack from water jacket to combustion chamber and this could have been the source of the air bubbles too. If it was just resurfaced but not pressure tested then it could have been cracked.

As for the overheating, maybe there was air in the system before, or maybe it is getting air in from the cracked head. Not sure. did you use distilled water? Flush the system out really well with distilled water? Did you use redline waterwetter with water? Is your radiator fan shroud and fan in place? Don't see it in the pic.
 
As for the noise, not sure, could be the sound of the valve train affected by a bad head?  Just guessing.

Is there oil in water or water in oil? Any smoking out the tailpipe? Leaks?

[Rhino]

If it was a cracked head, it wouldnt of made that drive in a 100 degree weather without over heating.

[nomad]

no fan shroud will decrease cooling capacity at idle by a bit.

[Rhino]

I know, but it was running all the way up to the 3/4 mark before i shut it down
it was getting to hot.

[quinn11m20]

id you check the timing chain tensioner piston? Re seat it? Do you know how to do that? take it out, compress it in a vise, then re install. start motor, run above 2500RPM then let idle. Should be good, also if your car is over heating, is you auxillary fan coming on. You might want to check if that is working.

[quinn11m20]

Hey Just another little bit of info. You live in California right? San Jose. I used to live in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, just south of you on the coast. You said your running water, straight. Is it because all those bleeding heart liberals, Hippies and stupid democrat activists gay right wierdos not letting you run ethelyn glycol(anti-freeze). Thats sad. I grew up in Cali. Thank God I left.

[peerless]

To the original poster, Your noise maybe a lifter, or a bad tensioner. The overheating is most likely a bad fan clutch in conjunction with a missing fan shroud, you mentioned it was only overheating in traffic. Also you may not have the system bleed correctly.

Nice fix by the way on the broken bleeder

[Rhino]

I am going to try and reseat it today. and i do like the fix on the bleeder but to be safe i will replace the radator tomarrow and bleed the system, then i will let you all know how it went

[colin86325]

Wow, I never thought a post about a radiator would be used to score political points....