1982 GTV-6: cooling system/cylinder heads

[Richard Welty <rwelty@domain.elided>]

i'm currently attempting to figure out what is going on with my wife's
GTV-6. a few years ago, i commenced a general rehab project, which included
having the heads redone, and ran out of time and energy before finishing
the work. the car sat in storage for quite some time, and this spring,
went down to Alfas Unlimited so that the work could be finished.

it's in my garage now, runs, but there are still some mysteries to be
resolved. at the Nashville convention, at the autocross, while it was
warming up, at one point it burped up a lot of coolant through the overflow
(the car currently has straight water in it; i will need to drain it and
put in antifreeze before it gets much colder -- known issue.)

it didn't do at again while i drove it at the autocross, but subsequently,
i was running the engine up to temperature in our garage and it burped up a
lot of coolant again. the reserve tank is basically empty, and as the
engine warms up, it fills and then starts belching coolant.

this afternoon, i retorqued the heads, suspecting that a gap might be
developing which was pressurizing the cooling system, but when i started
the motor and let it warm up, as it approached normal operating temperature
of 175 degrees, the coolant reserve tank filled again and started
approaching the point of overflow. the instant i shut the motor down, all
the coolant was pretty much sucked back out of the reserve tank almost
instantly.

any hints as to what is going on here?

thanks,
  richard

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