Ran car without coolant

[fleshfeast]

Long story short my car was started and idled WITHOUT ANY COOLANT Ran like this for about 5 minutes till i noticed it was hot and shut it down. At the time I assumed it ran hot due to Bars Stop leak clogging the rad. Now it seems to have no power and without coolant I'm worried it was a lot hotter than I originally thought.


I finished an engine swap this past winter and have not had this car on the road since. Swapped the clutch out this past weekend after the overheat and wasn't till I went to change the rad till I noticed it had no coolant.


starts up fine idles great and no smoking or anything weird but just seems to lack power.

It feels like no spark advance to be honest, just a lack of power but not broken engine kind of lack of power. Any ideas what this could be? just missed something when swapping all these parts out or did I kill it?


Thanks in advance

[gtrjon]

what motor? 26? do a compression test to know more. first thing to normally go when a car is overheated would be the headgasket but since you say that it doesnt smoke at all you might be alright and the lack of power could be in your head. do a compression test to know more

[GodziRRa]

For clarification you ran the car w/o coolant nor water for 5 mins.? GT-R or GTS? You noticed it was hot how? Smoking on the engine bay or thru the gauge? How high did thee gauge go?

[fleshfeast]

R32 RB26
Ran the engine without water or any coolant fluid just drained and dry. lets just say not one of my better moments lol.

This was during the first start up this year. It started revving a little high about 1000rpm looked at the gauge and saw it was getting a bit hot, went to look at it again and it was as high as they go.

I shut it off and kept turning IGN to check temps and it started falling almost immediately. Physically inside the engine bay seemed normal, no tell tails that it was overheating smoke or noises.

compression test will definitely tell the true story.

[Skym]

starts up fine idles great and no smoking or anything weird but just seems to lack power.

It feels like no spark advance to be honest, just a lack of power but not broken engine kind of lack of power. Any ideas what this could be? just missed something when swapping all these parts out or did I kill it?

If reaches 110 degrees C ECU pulls ignition timing. Check coolant temp sensor if ECU is still pulling ignition timing.

Worst case is you could have warped the head if exceded 110 degrees C (max on stock coolant temp gauge). As long as you didn't run cold water through a hot block, don't think it would have cracked the block. Pressure test on cooling system and compression test should be done to make sure there's no headgasket leaks. Also check for coolant going brown, dipstick with milky look on end. That should tell you if there's oil in coolant or coolant in oil.

Another thing is your oil could have cooked, so replace oil and oilfilter. Engine has 2x cooling systems, coolant and oil.

[newalliance123]

If you have no coolant your gauge wont work....

[MattRose]

And we have a winner!

Seriously man, my rb25 has idle on without coolant on and off through the year because of different work we've been doing to it. As long as you didn't sit there and just rev the **** out of it it's going to be fine. Obviously do everything that was mentioned above, but honestly, the engine should be fine.

[fleshfeast]

it was a bit more than just staring it up and idling it. i just let it run for a while like that. but engine checks out fine.

after a better test drive:

car works great at low rpm and driving around without boost as soon as i step on it though it starts to build boost and hits about 5k then surges badly. feels like it could be a really bad miss, injector cut off or bov dumping boost when it shouldn't.

checked vac lines to wastgates, bov and anywhere else i could see but looks good. if someone has an idea or link to past thread would be great my search hasn't given great results.

[Voodoo_ChildR32]

The only other thing that comes to mind including all the things mentioned above would be the water pump. It needs coolant for lubrication. Running dry may prematurely wear the bearing. The only other thing I usually see is warped heads, your engine will let ya know fairly quickly if it is.


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[fleshfeast]

ends up at some point Id robbed one of the clamps off the coupler on the intake manifold for my rx7. one of those slap the forehead and say doh moments, remember doing it clear as day after I found it.

engine is working great now compression check came out quite well and it even got a new rad out of this ordeal.

thanks a lot for the input guys it did keep me motivated to keep on looking to solve this mess.

[fleshfeast]

eeeeerrrrr whooooosh eeeeerrrrr whooooosh

how i missed that mechanical orchestra

[GodziRRa]

Yep. I also think 5 mins of running w/o coolant or water is STILL on the safe side since you didn't rev the hell out of it, and while the car is moving air also goes to the engine making the temps not so high. I think your fine. Lets all just be careful next time.

If you have no coolant your gauge wont work....

I think it will, I remember my SR20 already had no water because of a huge leak and the temp gauge did rise. Can anyone confirm this?

[caliber676]

i ran a bmw e21 beater that i had for a week daily driving with about half a liter of water. Still ran the same after lol

[MattiasJacobs]

Change your spark plugs to ngk bkr7e gapped to .8 mm. That should fix your stuttering issue after 5k.

[99_SI]

Yep. I also think 5 mins of running w/o coolant or water is STILL on the safe side since you didn't rev the hell out of it, and while the car is moving air also goes to the engine making the temps not so high. I think your fine. Lets all just be careful next time.



I think it will, I remember my SR20 already had no water because of a huge leak and the temp gauge did rise. Can anyone confirm this?

Confirmed. It's a thermistor. Change in temperature changes resistance. Pressure test cooling system to make sure u didn't fry water pump shaft seals. Compression test will reveal warped head or fryed head gasket.


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