oops

just put my new chips in for 24psi and more fuel and took it for a spin didnt think to even take my mobile . anyway marks tune was fantastic so much so that i went a little further than a normal testdrive , and and over enthusiastic pedal menat i had a coolant leak and as the sun was gleaming off the dashboard i didnt notice the temps rise until i got the temp coolant overheating light bleep at me . the temp was around 120 degrees not far off the red
so i backed right out of it and coasted it into the nearest layby . where i let the temps go down with the engine off for a while . ( i normall y keep a botle of water on board but this time no) so the temp went down to about 100 and i drove it like a nun to the nearest garage to fill up with warm/hot water . when i got back in the car the temps were back to 90 and drove fine all the way home , but i just would like to know how easy are these engines to cook im pretty sure got away with it but i suppose id like confirmation or not

obviously its not going anywhere now until its had a pressure test and got the hose fixed which looked like it was the little hoses at the left hand side of the engine beneath the reservoir. yes i know i was stupid but and im normally so much netter prepared but it just shows what a neglected coolant leak can do however small . too all the newbies never neglect maintenence make sure your car is 100% before modding or you can pay the price i was stupid and lucky .

back too the tune it felt great 24 psi with r520s and i was hard pushed to see any smoke . i saw some at about 3.5k in fifth but none before and none after damn good for r520s , but still great power even without any smoke

If you did not keep on pushing it you should be ok, butonly time will tell.

how does the car start up??

It was the low coolant light that went off then? Why were you low to begin with? I've never had my car that hot before. I'd fill 'er up, hammer down and see if you get any additional coolant loss.

fine , i mean i think it should be fine it wasnt in the red and i shot over and turne the engine off imediatly after hearing the bleep of the warining light . and there was still coolant pissing out of the bottom hose for a a short while afterwards telling me that there was still coolant left in there when i caught it . so hopefully that means that it never ran dry. as soon as i got it moving again actaully even before getting more water in coating down hill , when the temp got back to 90 it stayed there as it should and never moved obviously i nursed it home but it felt fine with no noises . . on the plus side if anything does go wrong its an excuse for a major overhaul or new rods ported head and cams . i always try to see the positive side of modding. just after all my experience i cant believ i was so unprepared when i took the test drive and letting the leak get that far

farfromovin i had a small previous leak from a hose which it was going in to get pressure tested as i couldnt find it . it used to loose coolant from day to day more and more but no usual headgasket sighns at all just a hose leak somewhere. its my only fault for being caught short just hope im lucky

check out the water can ,do you see any oil in it?If so cylinder head gasket could be broken

no that was the first thing i checked for no oily scum on the surface.
its just plaint water or coolant . after blowing 4 headgaskets in the past im quite an expert you know

cog said:

after blowing 4 headgaskets in the past im quite an expert you know

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Shouldn't that tell you anything?

That's quite warm. I don't think I have ever seen more than 105 to 110 degrees on mine, and that is on serious track work too. One bonus of me removing my aircon rad is that was blocking air transit to the normal rad, so now I get much better water cooling than before when I had AC.

TDIMeister said:

Shouldn't that tell you anything?

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point taken

but no ive always been hard on head gaskets but no trust me its not the head no traces of white smoke either im just worried about the engine it seems fine just dont know how warm they can take befor ethey get cooked . ive never had temps that high before . i cant say exactly wht temp it was it may have been just 110 not 120 . it was difficult to remember as i was so panicked by the red temp over heat heat sighn that i just concentrated on getting the engine stopped

You may not see any oil in the water reservoir/bottle though water may blow out of it before so......and its a dog!

My AHF pressurizes the coolant bottle more than usual if I give it some serious stick to the red line in the higher gears, which tells me the is a bit of a leak at high pressures, it on my list of things to do: head gasket + ARP (new type) bolts etc..

its in the garage now getting pressure tested if worst case it is a head gasket i would normally replace them with an uprated spesso kevlar gasket in years gone by as ive never had one go . but are there any cheaper alternatives to ugraded gaskets for these engines . or would a stock one be fine at around 180bhp/300ftlbs

For AHU/AFN/1Z Victor Reinz gasket is the way to go. Elring is just crap for those. For newer engines I'm not so sure if there is so big difference between them. I have used OEM from the stealers and Elring which to me looked identical. I have yet to try Reinz but have had no problems with the Elrings. I usually spray the gasket with VHT copper gasket spray before instal.

so you think oem is fine just im having trouble finding much choice of uprated gaskets for a an old golf tdi

Cog, use Victor Reinz or Elring(OEM) gasket and dont worry, your engine will be fine. I had a radiator "horseshoeclip" go on me v6 tdi while speeding on m25 and i barely limped home, the engine nearly overheated and when i checked it the folowing day, everything was ok. Still drive-it hard every once in a while and there is nothing wrong with it.

well its been pressure tested and they cant find the leak so far . so it cant be the head as that goes a certain colour on there tester , but obviously water is escaping somewhere and very quickly at hot temps. just need it doing quick so i can hopefully take more logs and tweak my tune befors dyno day.
why do these things always run so close

you stll have the egr cooler in?

no i didnt have one anyway with mine

well,i'd pull the head and have it planed,decked or what ever you guys call it over there.its warped and needs to be straightened.

A smell test is never conclusive on a diesel engine and in some cases it has to have had a catastrophic warping of the head to show but still be warped and show other signs of it being so such as the obvious water loss / boost problems / bad mileage / overheating etc.