Crimson

My gf drove her car home and after we towed the car home I found out the radiator was low on coolant. I filled it got the car to start and it had a rough idle. when I put the heater on the idle seemed to smooth out. I added half a gallon of water to the radiator and turned off the heater to see what happened and the Car died. Hours have past and it still wont start. I noticed the driver side radiator hose going to the thermostat is covered in coolant. It could be leaking but I dont see any coming out - I'll replace that when I find why it wont start

Anyone have an idea what else happened when the car overheated? Her AC was on at the time so that helped to the overheating with low radiator fluid.

I unplugged the Neg terminal for half an hour to see if that would reset anything.

Also what are the locations of the coolant temp sending units? I head that the one to the PCM tends to burn up and fail when overheating.

When I try starting the car it turns and seems to want to start. At one point it got to 400RPM and then died. It doesnt appear the head gasket is blown from looking at the oil.

Sweetv6camaroguy

iTrader: (1)

Make sure to check all the coolant elbows they love to crack and leak and can be a big issue. As for the coolant temp sending units i am unsure on that hopefully you can get warshrike to comment on here as i am sure he knows. Very well informed man when it comes to the 3800

Crimson

Thanks for replying, Yes I do believe I have a problem with a radiator hose. Once I figure out where the sensors are (espically the one to the PCM) I'll work on fixing the original issues on her car.

lt1pwr1

iTrader: (1)

What is common on these 3.8's is to have the intake gasket go bad and leaks coolant into the cylinders. I would take the plugs out and crank the engine over. Careful, you'll likely get lots of coolant coming out.

Dry or replace the plugs and reinstall and see if it starts. If she overheated it really bad the head gaskets could also be blown flooding the cylinders with coolant....

How hot did it get? Did the car get so hot that it shut off?

redbird555

iTrader: (14)

^^Ding Ding Ding. I had the same thing happen on my old v6 not a fun job in the least. Thank gm's dexcool for that one. I would check the oil though too if it got real hot it may have blown a head gasket and could have coolant leaking in there

Crimson

Yes the car overheated so much it turned off.

Crimson

The car started but would not stay started I tried to keep the heat on high and rev the engine up but it died after 5-10 seconds. I check the coolant temp sensor and it looks and reads fine. 2,500 ohms at room temp

FiredUpZ28

I like to thank owners who do not flush the coolant out every 5 years per the owners manual.

Head gaskets on 3800 F bodys are not hard. Maybe a bit time consuming - but theres nothing fancy about it - just a typical cam in block engine. Not like newer DOHC engines that need to be retimed n what not.

Id start with pressure testing the cooling system n see if there are any leaks (rather external or internal)

lt1pwr1

iTrader: (1)

Yeah not good....most likely blew out the head gaskets which is why it is having such a hard time running.

1. You probably have low compression now
2. The cylinders are flooded with coolant due to the bad gaskets which is why it won't run right

Hopefully the heads aren't damaged.....

Crimson

I rechecked the coolant and drained the radiator. No oil. I checked the oil again no coolant. We pulled the plugs and cranked it with no plugs in and no coolant came out. The plugs were dry / a little burnt so we replaced them and replaced the upper hose going to the thermostat because I looked like that was the culprit for the loss of coolant.

Still lost. As what to checj