First off I have owned two different cars with the ls1 engine, the current being an 1999 WS6 in good condition with 140k miles. I've always took care of this car but the other night my friend and I drove it about 20 miles to a neighboring town got there friend says he smelled burned antifreeze I didn't think anything of it cause there was no leak I could see about 10 mile back to my house it buried the needle on the temp gauge and it went into limp mode no pulled over checked the fluid it was bone dry!!!! There was no where at 1am to get water to cool it off so we decided to limp mode it for 10 miles to my parents house where we decided to let it sit for 30 minutes to cool before adding water, after adding the water it went back to 210 degrees and the check lights and limp mode went away but now I got a streaking noise coming from the engine from cold idle that goes away when it warms up but comes back when rpms go up, no knocking just a loud streaking from the passenger side, what's the worst case scenario?? Trying to get more info because it's getting takin to mechanic the 6th of July. Thanks for any input on the matter and yes I should of left it on the side of the road but I had no way of getting picked up.

 

Blown head gasket, water in the oil . . . not good as a lubricant. Faulty thermostat or bad water pump.

Rick

 

Could be the bearing is shot on the water pump, tensioner pulley or the A/C compressior or A/C tensioner pulley. One way to find out is to remove both belts and start it up and see if its still making the squealing noise. If not then its something accessory related and if its still doing it then most likely something internal. What does it look like when you pull the oil dipstick? What does it look like in the radiator when you remove the cap?

 

I had a thermostat fail and the rubber gasket got stuck in it thankfully and held it partially open. If that hadn't happened it would've shut and spiked the temp. But you're losing coolant. If it was just the T-stat or water pump you'd have coolant that just isn't flowing. But yours is going somewhere. And just about anywhere for coolant to go outside of the cooling system means it's getting into your oil too. Do you have the cooler crossover tube on the radiator hose? My 99 didn't have it but you never know how some people put things in cars. If that's there it could be the issue. If not then I'd agree that it's most likely a head-gasket issue. Check your oil and see if it's milky.

 

Water streaking passenger side... Elaborate better please? Dripping down side of block? First, i would start by pressure checking if no water in crankcase. Could be old o ring and rear steam pipe. Heater core is passenger side. Coolant hoses. I had my 04 Tahoe once up that high when stuck in traffic and fan clutch crapped out. O ring gasket for the heater core on quick disconnect connector leaked via warped from the excessive heat! I popped capped off resvr and let it shoot out overflow tank. Got boiling water out asap. Let it sit for an hr. Filled up plain water from nearby source and drove home zero issues. Again.. Iron block yes... But heads were fine. No leaks! 1 year later water pump went out.. Totally related

So... # check your cooling system and go from there! Take your intake manifold off if you have to! You should have the tb coolant bypass done already! Good luck!

 

Being that the person didn't want to be stranded and chose to drive it anyway regardless of how hot may have gotten could have put the motor in bad shape. I was driving back from a concert in Austin in my buddies GTA because he was too wasted to drive and about an hour from home it thew the belt so I ran it up as fast as I could before reaching critical and I'd shut it off and coasted to almost a stop then fire it up and get up to top speed again before running hot and shut it down and coast again. It was late at night and freeway driving but I got us home and no harm was done to the engine.

Now I always carry an extra belt!