jewbacca

iTrader: (5)

i was wondering if i might have a blowen head gasket? i took my car over to big-o tires to see if they coulld tell my i deffinetly have a water pump going out and they said that the coolent in my radiator is really dark and dirty. they said it could possibly be oil. does dexcool turn into "peanutbutter" when oil gets into it? my friend had a jetta that used the old green anti-freeze, and when the coolant got into the oil it looked like peanuutbutter. i tried looking on the dip stick and it looks fine. also, could it be from the water pump if it is gooing out, like metal shavings? also, if i change the water pump, i am gonna change the opti. i was wondering, i have read that people say never get a remanufactured one cause the just go out agian. has anyone tired one of these, cause i was wondering how long they last. i was thinking of just getting one anyway, cause i was going to change over to a dynaspark within a year anyway.

jewbacca

iTrader: (5)

also, about using a remanufactured opti, would i be able to do the same thing with a remanufactured water pump? because i want to switch to an electric water pump about the same time i put the dynaspark on.

NWDragRacer

No way for a bad water pump to put oil in the cooling system since there is no pressurized oil in the WP. The only way for oil to get into the cooling system is though a crack in the block. Generally oil in the cooling system does not foam up like water in the crankcase. It usually just pools oil around the cap. It sounds like you just need to do a little maintence and replace the coolant. It does wear out.

I'm not sure that an electric WP would be right for a street driven vehicle. They're fine for drag racing, but may not have enough flow for extended street use.

Don

jewbacca

iTrader: (5)

oh, i was just wondering what oil in the coolant does. i had the coolant system flushed about 3 months ago. so i know it should be good. i have driven maybe 1500 miles since then. what i wanted to know is if the water pump is going out, would metal shavings get into the water? also someone said that when a water pump goes out you can hear it, is it the same for an lt1 water pump?

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

Ok lets start from the very beggining

What are the reasons or problems that have lead you to beleive the WP is bad or going out?

I can give much better advise from there

NVME88GT

It depends on the water pump. "I know a guy" that daily drives his car with an electric WP and has no problems out of it ever. It is some bad dude $600 deal though that flows 55 GPM. I'm sure the cheaper/lower flowing ones would give up the ghost with a quickness if driven daily on the street.

NWDragRacer

Okay, that doesn't add up then. Have you looked under the cap? Maybe you could post a picture. MAKE SURE that the engine is dead cold - like sitting overnight.

jewbacca

iTrader: (5)

https://ls1tech.com/forums/northwest-members/388514-looks-like-all-well-but-i-may-need-help.html

here is where i posted about my wp possibly going out.

tonight i checked if there was water under my car, there is not a drop of water on the ground , not even on the engine under the wp for that matter. when i drove it home today it got really hot, so if anything was going to come out it should have already. then i checked the weep hole on the wp and nothing was coming out, with the car on and off. and the last thing i did was put a screw driver on the wp to check for grinding sounds, again everything normal. they guys that checked it out said that my fans aren't coming on at all, even when the ac comes on. i tried putting in a manual fan switch, so i guess i screwed it up, and that is why they wouldn't come on. when i started heating up i tried the heater, but it didn't blow hot air till i started driving. could my overheating problems have been from the fans not working? and i remebered that a couple of weeks ago, right after i had my new cat put on i noticed that the remote resivor tanks cap wasn't screwed on. could this be why my coolant is so dark, dirt? and one more thing, i have the infamous intake manafold oil leak, could that be why (if it is oil) there is oil in my coolant? cause i really can't tell if it is oil.

jewbacca

iTrader: (5)

NWDragRacer, what does it look like when is pools in the radiator? i looked in there and i can't tell.

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

OK.

yes the fans not coming on will make your car over heat when it is not moving or stop and go traffic. if it is fine at freeway speeds but over heats in town I would say this is the only problem...and it is a BIG problem. do not drive the car till you get it fixed

One thing I have seen happen on the LT1 is the WP drive shaft strip out. This keeps the water pump from turning as it should and hende the car over heats

NVME88GT

Almost forgot....check your oil cooler. I have seen more than a few of them go out and oil ends up getting pushed into the coolant system as it's pressure is much higher than the coolant systems. Good luck.

TwoFast4Lv

iTrader: (8)

Good advise for stick cars!

jewbacca

iTrader: (5)

where is the oil cooler?

93TAWicked1

iTrader: (28)

Jack the car up and look where the oil filter is there will be a mounting for an oil cooler lines above it follow it and you'll see the Oil cooler condenser. I don't remember this have anything to do with your cooling though in the f-body it is just one line from that bracket to the condenser and one back. I removed mine and never looked back not all cars have them though mine had the GT package transam so it had it. So someone with an oil cooler on there F-body maybe maybe more help to see where it goes into the coolant line. I do remember it was pretty easy to set it up to run without it and alot of the track guys said it caused more problems that it solved. I took it out cause I had the car apart all the time and it got in the way

On a side note I'm FAR from a expert, but the very first thing I would check is the fans coming on and the thermostat. The crap you see in your radiator could just be grime over the years its hard to tell, Radiator gunk could be mistaken for oil I suppose.... If it was really bad it could show up right after replacing the fluid.

How hot is hot? Once it gets to like 200 stop the car and check and see if the fans are running like Ellis said, or even turn on the AC to help it along I think they come on earlier then (someone correct me if I'm wrong my LT1 stuff is a little rusty ) If your fans aren't then read post above and get that fixed first. If they are maybe throw a new Thermostat in there, you can check it easy but if your in there they are pretty cheap change out.

When I've had a blown head gasket the car has smoked out the rear and is WAY down on power, I've never had one where the only symptom was over heating. Whenever that was the case it was fans, WP, Thermostat. To check the WP I'd just take it a raditor shop and they have tests to see if its flowing or use dye to see if its leaking. Most will run it for like 30 bucks then you can fix it. If you need it just fixed I'd take it to Speed Secrets.

I had great luck on the street with the Meizere Electric pump, Car always stayed cool way cooler than stock. The car is still a DD on the east coast and that WP is probably 4 years old now. If I have the pleasure of owning another LT1 car I would run it again if the WP ever went out. JMHO

jewbacca

iTrader: (5)

now i am really wondering what is going on. i just drove my car because i wanted to see if it was the fans not working that caused it to over heat. i clipped off the manual fan switch, and the fans do come on. i drove it to the local corner store and back. as i was driving it was doing fine. there are only two stop signs between here and there. once i got there i noticed the temp increase, then when it got to where the high speed fan comes on it started to drop. it dropped to about 1/3 then it rose agian to about 3/4. i turned around to come back home, and turned on the ac to see if that cooled it down, which it did, but then i came back up. then i tried turning on the heater. as i sat at the stop sign it did bring down the temp, and it was blowing cold air, but when i started driving again it dropped again, and started blowing hot air. when i got back home i idled it for a few minutes seeing what it would do. it sat at 1/4 for about a minute the went up to where the high speed fan kicks in and dropped agian. when that shut off it went back up, but didn't come down. i turned on the ac, and that did almost the same thing. same with the heater. i backed the car up to check for coolant on the ground and there was nothing. the only thing i can think of is either the tstat isn't bad, so i am going to do the "boiling it in water" test tomorrow. or it is the shaft on the wp. ellis, if it is that, what do i have to do to repair it?

Low N Slow

iTrader: (4)

Are you low on coolant? A heater blowing cold air when the car is warm is usually a sign of low coolant level. Running with low coolant also lets air get in the system and air mixed with Dexcool can turn it to a brown sticky mess.

NVME88GT

Only on sticks? Is that a F bod thing? Reason being is that I had a bud with a Imp SS that had his go out. Obviously it was autotragic. Come to think of it though...the other mullets that I have seen em go bad on were all M6, but I chalked it up to coincidence.

WAHUSKER

iTrader: (4)

Mullets? Boy you are asking for a whoopin now Eric!

My car had this issue once & it was my stupid low-performance SLP radiator. It sprung a leak between the radiator & tranny cooler sections. Fuggin POS! And it was only 6 months old too!

I disconnected my tranny cooler lines & hooked up my radiator pressure tester & as soon as it hit 10 psi fluid started pouring out of the cooler connections.

Your issue about the heater not blowing hot air tells me you are low on coolant. You need to fill it up before you hurt something. Running it with air pockets could over heat your rings.....BAD!