Tammy Childs

1995 transam. car leaks oil from front or rear oil seal but I keep a regular check on the oil leval and keep it full. driving home temp started rising quickly, went far as needle could into red, stayed there, drove 10 min. to home, turned off engine, opened hood, smoke and steam everywhere, liquid on some parts, after cool off husband found that all water had pushed out thru overflow resavour tank and water pump connection where hose fits on was no longer a part of the water pump. it was just being held on by the the hose and the coolant had been squirted out all over top of motor,he thought that was the cause of the overheating, so he replaced it with a new water pump and also put in a new thermostat, refilled fluids and then I drove it, the car got hot and redlined again. this time he thought he needed to bleed the air from the raidiator system so he did this several different times and each time he would have me to drive it around our neighborhood and it would still run hot and redline. the fan seams to be functioning properly, we can not see or hear any leaks or drips from anywhere, hoses all seam to be fine, he says radiator is not blocked, heating core seams to be fine, he does not know where to go from here. I think something else was making the car run hot and it ran so hot that it blew that pipe loose from the water pump, what would be the next direction to investigate? oh, the oil still looks like oil do not see any water mixture and the radiator fluid does not have any oil mixed in it.

bleepster

iTrader: (2)

have you tried replacing the radiator cap with a new one? that might remedy the problem.

Tammy Childs

thank you for your interest. my husband inspected the cap and thinks it is fine. any other avenues?

bleepster

iTrader: (2)

i still suspect its the cap. its a cheap fix. if the spring is weak and cant hold the required pressure, it will allow fluid to go into the over flow tank uncontrolled.

Tammy Childs

again, thank you 4 your reply. I will have him pick 1 up this afternoon on his way in from work and we will give it a try. I will post back to you in the morning and let u know if it works.

bleepster

iTrader: (2)

look forward to hearing back. hopefully with positive results.

Tammy Childs

ok I just had another question real quick, do you think if this radiator cap is the problem, that it would have created a strong enough pressure to blow the pipe out of the water pump?

bleepster

iTrader: (2)

not sure. I don't have an answer for that. Maybe the clamp and hose are old, and they too are weak.

so, how do you know it all came out the overflow tank? especially if the hose blew off?
after replacing the water pump, etc. it still gets hot and no overflow issues?

maybe by-pass the heater core, and see what happens as well.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

This could be due to the overheating. If pressure is going to be released, this is where you want it to happen.


This takes abnormal pressure which would mean blockage. The thermostat and radiator cap are the normal soldiers in the system. You might try running the car without a thermostat in place to see how things go and to be sure there are no other blocks involved.

If you are sure there is no blockage, the cap is fine, and the thermostat is fine, then the next things to check would be obstructions on the air-facing surface of the radiator, radiator fan problems, or the coolant system hooked up in the wrong way.

great421

iTrader: (1)

T/C -

The major components in cooling system consist of: the water pump, thermostat, and radiator.

If pressure in your cooling system caused the coolant to flow from the system, thru the overflow tank, and out of the tank, AND blow a coolant line, then you have something pushing coolant out.

I'll be the bad guy and tell you that you have (at least) one blow head gasket, maybe two.

Ask me know I know. : (

Diagnosis:

With both valves closed and the piston at TDC, have your husband check each cylinder for a leak by introducing compressed air to the cylinder via a fitting that screws into the spark plug hole and attaches to a compressor's air line.

No air flow after the combustion chamber reaches the same pressure at the compressor = no leak at that cylinder; air flow = Blown head gasket (or maybe even a cracked head; as you did say you drove it for 10 minutes with the needle pegged!)

Ultimately, if you are lucky, you may only need to pull one head, and replace one gasket.

Good luck!

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

If this was the case, wouldn't you expect problems right away at start up vs. the car running fine and slowly coming up to temp? If the head was blown, I'd expect to hear bubbling in the cold condition or see evidence of gasses escaping through the system.

bleepster

iTrader: (2)

^^my thoughts too. also no oil in water or vice versa.
we cant totally eliminate a blown head gasket, but to me, the evidence isn't there just yet

is your exhaust fine? no white smoke??

Tammy Childs

hello and thank you so much for all your info. we did put on a new radiator cap. it seamed to help at first but when I drove the car around the block it redlined again. now I also found that my 2 fans are not operating everytime the temp runs hot. by this I mean 1 time it will come on and then the next it might not. we also discovered there is a temp control sensor attatched in the water pump. today we will replace this sensor and see if that is the problem with the fans then we will try to run it again.

Tammy Childs

thanks for hanging in there with me. ok.first, it did not blow a hose off, it is actually the metal pipe that is fabricated as PART OF THE WATER PUMP that your hose fits over and then you clamp it down. it was just left hanging into the hose because the hose was clamped over it. For some reason it is like the pump blew apart. The coolant was blown out at this point all over the motor in the area where the waterpump is located. I could see the coolant.i could also see coolant on the outside of the side reservoir tank and on things in that area. I left the car till my husband got home and we looked at it together. there was no coolant in the side tank and no coolant in the radiator. this is when my husband found the destruction of the waterpump. after we put the new water pump on we also put the new thermostate just in case. we then refilled all the coolant and bleed air several times the started up and drove around block . it redlined. I parked it. opened hood. I could see the coolant boiling out of the side reservoir.

Tammy Childs

thanks so much for your info. as soon as my husband gets in from work I will have him read this.

Tammy Childs

[QUOTE=bleepster;18327961]^^my thoughts too. also no oil in water or vice versa.
we cant totally eliminate a blown head gasket, but to me, the evidence isn't there just yet

is your exhaust fine? no white smoke?


actually,since all of this happened I have noticed small amounts and I ran my hand around the exhaust pipe and had a few drops of water . I inspected the ground and there was a wet spot about the size of a nickel. the car had been running on and off about 30 minutes. my husband had been bleeding the air after refilling coolant . when I showed this to him he said it was all normal and that since I am normally the one driving I never noticed it.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

This is normal, most of what you see from the exhaust is steam. When you burn gas and air in an engine, it puts out water, carbon dioxide, and (lesser amounts) of barely visible pollution out of the exhaust.

Daniel Richards

iTrader: (1)

Many years ago I had a similar situation to what you describe, although from a different cause, on my 95 civic (back around my senior year in high school) I had constant overheating problems and I would pull over every time it got hot right away (not driving pegged in the red for ANY amount of time) and for me it was a blown head gasket caused by a corroded radiator.

there is honestly no telling what kind of damage you did internally to that motor after driving it pegged in the red for 10 MINUTES.

when you drive it around what kind of speeds are you getting up? once your above about 40-50 MPH the air flow across the radiator is good enough to cool a properly working system on it's own (at least that has been my experience, this may vary with different motors) so if your over heating at speeds above that, that would eliminate the fans as the cause of overheating, although there may still be a problem with them, definitely check the front of the radiator for leaves and other crap blocking the air flow, make sure the air dam is in place (black plastic that hangs just below the radiator, which helps direct air up into the radiator), hell go to the extreme and drain the coolant, disconnect both hoses from the radiator and remove the thermostat, then run a garden hose into one of the 2 hoses and turn it on, and see if water comes out the other hose then go the opposite direction (by putting the garden hose into the other hose) if water doesn't flow both ways then you have a blockage somewhere in the block, then do the same for the radiator to confirm no blockages in it.

bleepster

iTrader: (2)

so, whats the latest on this?