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Old Dec 20, 2003 | 12:01 AM
  #1  
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Angry overheated

well about a week ago we had a big snow/slush storm. Well i'm in the process of moving and well dumb me thought gee the T/A can make it in this. Well what should have been about 20 minutes turned out to be about an hour and a half. And now i'm worried i might have done something really really bad. First off let me say i will NEVER do this again.and second, thank God i put new tires on my g/f's car (she followed and helped out) well what ended up happening as you can imagine the car got stuck ,we spun the hell out of the tires and well we were going sometimes almost 70 and not moving. the engine really got hot!! it started making noises and stuff well we finally got it home i started it up next day and it sounded ok. but now i'm wondering what possible failures could occur from this. I noticed too tonite my oil change light has been coming on and i just did an oil change not long ago... are these LS1's weak when it comes to overheating?? also too we might be going out west in about a month and i don't want a big engine prob out somewhere where trailor parks are abound..
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Old Dec 20, 2003 | 12:28 AM
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Did you reset the oil change light when you changed the oil. Unless Im mistaken the light doesnt monitier the oil it moniters the driving conditions, lots of high rpm will turn the light on sooner then if you cruise down the eway with cruise set. I would change the oil, if it doesnt look like a milkshake I wouldnt worry about it.
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Old Dec 20, 2003 | 12:46 AM
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yea i usually do, i'm just wondering if since it overheated it could have done something to the oil??
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Old Dec 20, 2003 | 09:14 AM
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It doesn't sense oil condition directly. That's not it. You forgot to reset the thing.

Sounds normal? Drives ok? Oil pressure ok?

You're fine.
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Old Dec 20, 2003 | 01:48 PM
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Originally Posted by Colonel
It doesn't sense oil condition directly. That's not it. You forgot to reset the thing.

Sounds normal? Drives ok? Oil pressure ok?

You're fine.


I was racing with some friends one night (street), threw the belt (it broke), and PEGED the temp gauge before I realized what happened ........I pulled over, let the car cool for an hour, and babied her back to my friend's house (only a few miles). The next morning I got a new belt and have never seen any problems as a result of this.


That night, I was VERY VERY happy that I had an oil cooler......I'm sure that the cool oil (never went past 200 degrees) is what saved the motor.....
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Old Dec 21, 2003 | 08:45 PM
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Originally Posted by RAMnGO
well about a week ago we had a big snow/slush storm. Well i'm in the process of moving and well dumb me thought gee the T/A can make it in this. Well what should have been about 20 minutes turned out to be about an hour and a half. And now i'm worried i might have done something really really bad. First off let me say i will NEVER do this again.and second, thank God i put new tires on my g/f's car (she followed and helped out) well what ended up happening as you can imagine the car got stuck ,we spun the hell out of the tires and well we were going sometimes almost 70 and not moving. the engine really got hot!! it started making noises and stuff well we finally got it home i started it up next day and it sounded ok. but now i'm wondering what possible failures could occur from this. I noticed too tonite my oil change light has been coming on and i just did an oil change not long ago... are these LS1's weak when it comes to overheating?? also too we might be going out west in about a month and i don't want a big engine prob out somewhere where trailor parks are abound..

How hot did it get? You said overheated, but what were you showing on the gauge? I'd say you'd be fine up to about 240-250 for an extended amount of time. I'm surprised it got that hot though, since it was so cold out. Below freezing air usually makes it pretty hard to overheat unless you have a cooling problem. I used to have fun in my old car, I'd go in the snow, and floor it in overdrive and the speedo would peg before I would even start moving. Never got over 230.

Dope
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Old Dec 21, 2003 | 11:29 PM
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Little known fact (though it is in the owners manual):
These cars have an overheat protection mode, just like the Northstar Cadillacs. It kicks in automatically if the car overheats. They can run for 50 miles with no coolant whatsoever in them. The PCM accomplishes this by shutting off fuel and spark to one bank of cylinders at a time. One bank fires, moving the car. The other bank cools off. Then they switch.
Supposedly, this works, and all you have to do is change your oil promptly after driving the car in this overheat protection mode, and it's good as new. Seems the heat does a number on the oil, but the engine is fine.


Now, if your car didn't even go into overheat protection mode, then I wouldn't worry about it. You're probably fine!
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Old Dec 21, 2003 | 11:37 PM
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The factory settings for the fans should have kicked in and prevented any serious overheating. Did the fans turn on? Exactly how hot did it get?
If it went past 220, then you need to have the fan setting checked.
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Old Dec 22, 2003 | 02:09 AM
  #9  
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well it went way above the normal 210 it runs....it was about inbetween the 210 and 260 mark.. i'm guessing 220 - 230 ... something started to make a noise and i shut it off fast and let it cool then we tried it again..sounded to me like a belt noise ...as far as the fans coming on i'm sure they did i can't ever hear them.. i guess it was overheating because well usually a car that is doing 60 has alot of air to help keep it cool but just sitting there and spinning lets it get hot quick..
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Old Dec 22, 2003 | 09:32 AM
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Originally Posted by RAMnGO
well it went way above the normal 210 it runs....it was about inbetween the 210 and 260 mark.. i'm guessing 220 - 230 ... something started to make a noise and i shut it off fast and let it cool then we tried it again..sounded to me like a belt noise ...as far as the fans coming on i'm sure they did i can't ever hear them.. i guess it was overheating because well usually a car that is doing 60 has alot of air to help keep it cool but just sitting there and spinning lets it get hot quick..
From your description, sounds like it didn't even overheat. Just 20 degrees higher than normal? Lots of things can make noise when the car is stuck in somehting and you're spinning tires.

I'd change the oil just as a precaution, but otherwise just quit worrying, nothing's wrong.
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