El Andrew

Thanks gents. I'll try that. I bit surprised that a week of driving wouldnt have ironed out any air pockets but I guess they can be stubborn. Hopefully I'm safe on the head gasket as the issue started with the new rad and hoses. CHT has been perfect throughout all this. Have been monitoring with an OBD2 gauge I have permanently installed

Got back from travel last night and new radiator cap had arrived so threw that on. What I have noticed is the coolant level surges after the car is turned off. So if I fill to the minimum cold level, the tank is completely full after I switch off. I was thinking maybe if the cap was leaking the boiling point of the coolant is not increased through pressure, so it was boiling and expanding when the car was off and coolant temp increasing. But still getting the level surges with the new cap. This is all since the new rad and hoses went in. So I might just drain everything and refill and see if that sorts out any trapped air pockets

Haha I had to google that one!

Yep often hard to look around a place when you are working! Did a run along the Yarra early this morning which was nice.

Just work - doing the rounds this week. Up to Sydney tomorrow arvo then home Thursday night. Caught up with a mate last night at Meat & Wine Co which was top notch as usual!

Working from Keithtown today

I'll check that out. Compressor probably hasn't kicked in for about 9 months here so maybe I'm mistaken.

Good tip. Also makes it less socially unacceptable when the car pisses itself all over a car park. I find my fans almost never turn on unless it's 35 degrees and heavy traffic. Neither of those happen often, especially concurrently, in Canberra. Edit: really tempted on the Aepro fascia. Means you can throw in any old double DIN as the mood takes you, which to me.seema a better bet than the Kayhan

You definitely point the finger at yourself though when a few days beforehand you replaced the radiator and all the hoses!

I did wonder that too and ordered that as well. I can't blow through the cap though. Seemed to be too much escaping out the bottom for the size of the escape hole. But the cost of a tank is about the same as an uber to work and back for one day if it holds me up so went for both. Edit: for science I'll try changing the cap on its own but keep the new bottle and tools in the car just in case. Travelling for work next week so have a bit of time for everything to arrive in the post. Pulling up in the carpark in a cloud of steam (as it all drops onto the turbo heat shield) and leaving coolant on the floor is getting old

Car keeps dumping coolant a couple of minutes after being turned off. There were drops on the heater hoses, so I've been constantly checking and replacing clamps trying to solve it. Is tricky because hot coolant evaporates so quickly it can be hard to trace the leak. Finally caught it yesterday - coolant was flooding out the base of the header tank until the tank was almost empty. Some of it was spraying at the heater hoses [emoji23] Once the tank empties itself and cools, you can fill it again and doesn't leak at all. So I'm guessing it has a hairline crack in the tank which was an eBay cheapie. Order a genuine replacement so hopefully that does the job. Coolant isn't boiling and temps are perfect so I don't think it is anything else in the cooling system.

I know - there is a 100% guaranteed fix and I'm not taking it

So new crank seal and balancer is in. Plus swapped out the rad and hoses as the rad was looking pretty average. Still leaks oil from the front [emoji23] So I reckon you are right Puff - timing cover seal. Still, it was worth attempting a fix without pulling the cover off. I cleaned everything down on the cover behind the balancer so once it is off again I should be able to confirm the source. The good news is that since sorting the rocker cover seal and cleaning everything down a few weeks back, the area around the head gasket has remained bone dry.

I could add the factory clamp, but it is nice and snug and will just be annoying when I remove the coil cover. Next time the rocker cover is off I might buzz it back and install the fittings.

Went to fit that Raceworks push in breather adaptor but wouldn't fit - presumably due to my double powder coating. So I just pushed the hose into the port on the cover and wondered why I didn't just do that the first time...