bought a new rad cap last week. im really going to just replace the water pump and radiator. when i open the cap i can see the brown crap caked onto the inner walls of the radiator so soming has got to be clogged also water pump & rad have over 120k on them prob need to get swapped ne way but im just broke, i found a GM pump for $50 with low miles and i was going to buy a Proliance radiator but want to here some feedback first and if there is a supporting vendor that sells them and how the install is... Help me out Thankss

 

You could have blown a head gasket. I think.

 

how can you check for a blown gasket? Drain the oil and see if there is a white milky substance in there?

 

The radiator install is easy, but time consuming. If I can do it, anyone can. Disconnect the fans. Than all the hoses, than the ram air/air lid assembly. The rad will just slide out from the top. I think I slid the fan assembly up and out before I slid the radiator out. Can't remember.
Water pump is just as easy.

But man, if the coolant is flowing it shouldn't be a bad water pump or a clog. If you've seen temps up to 260 you may have warped a head(s).

A leakdown check can tell you if you have a blown head gasket. I think you look for bubbles in the radiator (fill cap) while doing the test.

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ok so heres what im going to do, i found a new gm water pump and proliance rad for 255 shipped so im going to buy them and attempt to install myself hopefully this will solve the problem

 

ok so i guess im gonna have to bring it somewhere to get checked

 

at what temp do the heads warp

 

ok so when i bleed the system no coolant comes out at all, arent you saposed to bleed until you get a nice flowing stream? theres got to be a blockage somewhere or a bad pump no???

 

If the water is flowing...the pump is working. If you have a blockage....you won't have flow. I think that rules out blockage and/or a bad pump.

I think its something else.

Didn't this just start happening out of the blue, BAM!!! Or have your temps been creeping up for awhile?

Also, how many miles do you have? Have you ever cleaned your condensor? At 7 years my engine temp would go right across the guage like a windshield wiper the second I turned the A/C on. I cleaned it and there was so much **** in there I would say that 85% of the surface was blocked with debris. I cleaned it the car engine never goes about the 185 mark on the guage, A/C full blast in the hit Florida heat.

But the few times my temp went close to the red zone on the guage it still never boiled over like yours is. It just got hot as ***** and I pulled over and turned it off to let it cool down. Than drove off.

I think you have warped heads or bad head gaskets that are allowing air into the system, and thats causing the boiling over. If the coolant system isn't sealed, it will overheat. Any breach in the system and you're screwed.

I think I was told that the if its a blown head gasket, when the piston is on the downstroke it sucks coolant from the system and you will burn coolant. And when its in the upstroke (compression stroke) it will blow air into the cooling system. If the ladder is your case, than thats the cause of the air getting into your cooling system and causing the boiling.

If this is wrong, someone can correct me, but I'm pretty sure this is what I was told when I was trying to track my over heating problem down.

Has your engine detonated recently or before your over heating problem began?

Do a leakdown check, you will find the culprit.


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Another, cheaper thing you can do to check for a blown head gasket is: Go to any mechanic and have a pressure test done on your cooling system. If you have a blown head gasket coolant will leak into your cylinder(s). But if you do this check, make damn sure you take all of your spark plugs out while doing it so if a cylinder does fill up with coolant, it will come out the spark plug hole. If a cylinder fills with coolant and you try to start the car you can cause a hydralock and damage/break your engine internal parts.


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this just sonds better and better. I bought the car in the end of march, it has a rebuilt engine rebuilt by jasper. I had a bunch of work done already in that area i just had the distrubiter changed because of a leak and i put new plugs and wires in. i guess im not going to mess with it because i dont no what im doing just put 2 grand ino this car last month so im kinda hurt right now, as far as the heating problem goes yes it just came out of the blue but 3 weeks ago when it happened i brought it to a shop and they drained and refilled the system and it was fine then on Friday it just happened again, the temp did get up to 260 because i dident notice it until the check gauges light turned on. This blows

 

$20-30, get a coolant system pressure check. Take the plugs out and see if you get coolant in any of the cylinders or if you see coolant leaking from anywhere around both heads where the gasket is.

You could have a blown gasket that caused the temp to rise the first time 3 weeks ago.

I can't see a radiator that is becoming clogged cause an over heat all of a sudden.

Get the pressure check, than go from there.

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that's what I'm gonna do gotta wait till 9 then I'm gonna call my mechanic and see what he thinks you think driving the car to the shop is out of the question or what? Yeah and i cant thank everyone on this board enough for all the help you guys rock come by my bar NE time beers and crazy college girls for everyone

 

Please let us know what you find out on your car.....
Thanks

 

where are u located maybe i can help you out and how old is that jasper motor i deal with them often and those motors do come with a 3 yr 36000 mile warranty.

 

i just bought the car in march and did not get the paper work when i bought the car...
i still dont no whats going on i dropped the car off last night figured to drive when it was cooler out, so after driving for 2 min the temp spikes up dident let it get in the red but i was pretty close i pulled over there was a gas staition right there it overflowed a little i put 2 gallons of green and a little bit of water and i let it run for a while with the cap off, then i bled all the air out let it sit for a while. it went down to normal temp and i got on my way, the garage is about 25min away and it was perfectly fine did no go up again after that, its really bugging me, could there have still been air in there? or is it getting in from somewhere else? it seems like when its bled right its fine. i dont no whats going on hopefully i find out tomorrow.

 

ok heres the deal so far... just got a call from the shop, he said that there was allot of air still in the system and that two of the lines on the side of the radiator cap were switched and not on right and was forcing something that made the therostat close. they have it running for about a half hour and its been fine, he pressure checked it and there was no leaks that he could find. he said he going to take it out for a good run and let it idle for a while longer then give me a call back, so if thats the problem should i be ok, also im only running a 130deg thermo, should i switch to a 180? also should i just suck it up and buy a be cool red so i dont have problems all summer since everything i read saz that lt1's have problems over heating.????

 

I didn't see it mentioned anywhere, but you need to have the heater on and running when you are running all the air out of the cooling system. If not you are missing any trapped air that is in the heater core and connecting lines.

 

Thats where he said the air was getting trapped because of the lines, its ready to go now im going to pick it up now, hopefully im good to go now... thanks for all the help ill keep everyone posted on how its running

Thanks again

 

What did they say was actually wrong with the lines??? Hopefully it is one of these wierd mysterious air bubbles.

Air in the system IS the boiling problem. Whether its getting trapped or coming through a blown head gasket, which I think is simply BS 99% of the time. Air bubbles getting trapped in a cooling system is an over-hyped, over-talked about issue. It simply doesn't happen as often as people like to say it does. And if this mysterious air bubble is somewhere in there, it comes out by topping off the coolant, after the t-stat has opened, period.

I've completely drained my radiator many times, let the coolant drain out of the botton valve while the engine is running until the coolant runs crystal clear from the radiator. Than I close the valve and wait with the fill cap still off until the t-stat opens and the dirty coolant from the engine flows into the radiator and the clean water goes into the engine. Than I drain the radiator again, close the valve and fill it with Dexcool. Than I wait until the t-stat opens one last time and top it off with water and cap it. Done. Air in the system, just doesn't happen. Maybe it happens if something is collapsed, broken or just messed up. And I've never run the heater while topping off my radiator. I check my fluid every few days and it couldn't be more topped off.

If you run your engine while cold, with the radiator cap off, wait for the t-stat to open and watch the water level go down.........then you keep topping it off for a just a couple minutes.......THATS IT, there is NO air in the system.

If you do that and it still boils over, you have a blown head gasket. One of the main symptoms of blown head gasket is boiling over of the coolant.

Do a leakdown test.


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