Honda Head gasket problem

[M.Sauce]

Ok so I have less than 220 miles on my new FIT conversion. The last time I ran was INDY Runoffs. The water temperature ran between 200 and 220 in the race. I took the car out and got a few laps and it blew a water line off. I killed the motor immediately. I put the line back on and filled with water but the gasket was blown. Anybody have any luck replacing head gaskets reusing the old head o are can they be resurfaced? How much work is it and do the bolts need to be replaced as well?

[stonebridge20]

Saucy, You should have stuck with a Kent. You could have swapped out that head gasket in 30 minutes but probably wouldn't have had to do it in the first place.

[M.Sauce]

Yeah I know Mike. The problem is there is no way to run against a Honda with a Kent anymore. I spent 10's of thousands and only got one engine that could win the Runoffs. I heard so much crap about every time I had a problem with my Kent power it was always my home built car designs fault. I put the Honda in and I was quicker at the end of the straight than the kid who won the runoffs in 2017 at Indy. I never got very good engines and I tried many builders. The Honda is a low maintenance engine It is what I need in my golden years racing. But you are right I could have changed the head gasket in 30 minutes and made the race.

[M.Sauce]

Turns out I do not have a head gasket problem. Ran two races last weekend and the motor ran cool and really well.

[DaveW]

Turns out I do not have a head gasket problem. Ran two races last weekend and the motor ran cool and really well.

So what caused the overheating/blown hose that made you think it was a head gasket issue? Trapped air in the cooling system?

[alangbaker]

Turns out I do not have a head gasket problem. Ran two races last weekend and the motor ran cool and really well.

So what caused the overheating/blown hose that made you think it was a head gasket issue? Trapped air in the cooling system?

I wanted to ask the same question.

When I bought my RF98 (FC-to-Kent-Honda conversion), the previous owner had overheated and warped an engine in his only race and I'd like to know if there's something I should be avoiding.

[M.Sauce]

I had many issues with the cooling system. The Honda guys at the 2017 Runoffs had me change some hoses and the direction going through my radiator.The car ran hot all week at Indy. After not running all of 2018 I decided to run this last January and I got a leak in the core of the radiator.I built a new radiator and changed the direction of the flow to the radiator and that appears to have fixed it.

[DaveW]

I had many issues with the cooling system. The Honda guys at the 2017 Runoffs had me change some hoses and the direction going through my radiator.The car ran hot all week at Indy. After not running all of 2018 I decided to run this last January and I got a leak in the core of the radiator.I built a new radiator and changed the direction of the flow to the radiator and that appears to have fixed it.

So, I'm guessing, the radiator you used that you had the issue with was clogged or had some other issue. Thanks for the follow-up.

[Jerry Kehoe]

A few years ago before I had correct radiators made by Saldana I ran into a cooling issue with some radiators I bought and modified. Worked ok at first then had heating issues. The radiators looked fine but when you held them up to look through them I noticed the tubes had expanded which basically blocked off air from coming through. Some of these aftermarket radiators are made of very soft materials and with a combination of heat and pressure deform quite a bit. It is important to make sure the cores are made of good material! The tip here is unless you actually have a view through the core the radiator looks normal when it is not. This can drive you nuts as head gaskets blow, you chase your tail with ducting and in general make you crazy when the cause like most things is elemental.

[Raceworks]

In general the Honda's like more air, not just to the rads but around the intake manifold. Fuel injected motors don't atomize the fuel till the intake port in the head so you don't get the cooling effect on the intake manifold like you do with a carburetor.

In general, you may need to run some extra ducting or cut some vents in the sidepods with the Honda motors. Adding some extra heat shielding helps, especially where the crossover pipes between the radiators pass near each other.

If you weren't running an oil cooler before, get one.

Oh, and of they're still sending those little XRP mesh fuel filters with the conversion kits get rid of them and put something with a good paper element in them. I've seen the XRP filters clog up and lean the engines out, causing a variety of issues including overheating.

[alangbaker]

In general the Honda's like more air, not just to the rads but around the intake manifold. Fuel injected motors don't atomize the fuel till the intake port in the head so you don't get the cooling effect on the intake manifold like you do with a carburetor.

In general, you may need to run some extra ducting or cut some vents in the sidepods with the Honda motors. Adding some extra heat shielding helps, especially where the crossover pipes between the radiators pass near each other.

If you weren't running an oil cooler before, get one.

Oh, and of they're still sending those little XRP mesh fuel filters with the conversion kits get rid of them and put something with a good paper element in them. I've seen the XRP filters clog up and lean the engines out, causing a variety of issues including overheating.

Interesting stuff, Sam. I believe my car was one of the earliest conversions done (I think it was Dan Layton's conversion of an RF98 Kent, itself a conversion from RF98 FC), and it has one of those little XRP mesh fuel filters. What makes a filter with a paper element a better choice; is it just size?

The previous owner definitely had a cooling issue—he warped an engine in just six laps of an SCCA race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2014, and if I had to guess on a cause, I'd say that it was because there was air trapped in the cooling system. Since I've had the car, it's never once run hot and I'm actually looking at what to do to get water and oil temperatures a little higher.

[cliff]

i am all ears on the fuel filter as well. I check mine, clean mine and replace mine most every event....are you suggesting there is a paper filter that works better..? Thanks for the info..

[KRISKAISER84]

We run the kinsler filter housing halfway down the fuel line. We switched to the Stainless Mesh filter offered by kinsler because the ethanol in the pump gas (93) will eat the paper element filter.

Trapped air in the cooling system has been a problem from day 1. Depends on the fittting on the back of the head, the -3 fitting dependant on how it is run and mounted can cause you alot of issues, also its worth buying an Air Lift System. It helps to check for leaks and also evacuates all air from the water system. When released it forces the water through the system.

[Raceworks]

We run the kinsler filter housing halfway down the fuel line. We switched to the Stainless Mesh filter offered by kinsler because the ethanol in the pump gas (93) will eat the paper element filter.

Trapped air in the cooling system has been a problem from day 1. Depends on the fittting on the back of the head, the -3 fitting dependant on how it is run and mounted can cause you alot of issues, also its worth buying an Air Lift System. It helps to check for leaks and also evacuates all air from the water system. When released it forces the water through the system.

Had the same problem on the Spectrum. They ran a bleed line from the right radiator to the swirl pot, and a separate bleed line from the pipe coming out of the head. We'd still get air pockets in the left rad and almost lost an engine during the shakedown run with the car. It's the same radiator left to right, so rather than trying to bleed it by cracking the cap on the radiator I added a bleed line to the left rad & ran it into a tee that screwed to the same spit the right rad bleed line attached to. The system self-bleeds as you fill it.

The Piper & the Van Diemens didn't have that issue (they had others).

[alangbaker]

Had the same problem on the Spectrum. They ran a bleed line from the right radiator to the swirl pot, and a separate bleed line from the pipe coming out of the head. We'd still get air pockets in the left rad and almost lost an engine during the shakedown run with the car. It's the same radiator left to right, so rather than trying to bleed it by cracking the cap on the radiator I added a bleed line to the left rad & ran it into a tee that screwed to the same spit the right rad bleed line attached to. The system self-bleeds as you fill it.

The Piper & the Van Diemens didn't have that issue (they had others).

I've got bleed lines in both radiators running to a header tank (RF98 FC converted to FF Honda by Quantum Racing for Dan Layton), but there's no real bleed line for the head itself. Fortunately, there's an additional water temp sensor for the Pi dash that sits in the first tube after the fitting at the rear of the head, and I just take that out and fill until water starts to come out. Combine that with filling the system with the rear end up on a jack and no worries.