While driving down the highway my camaro decided to overheat to the point of smoking. I have no mods. My temperature sensor failed on me a while back, have not had time to replace it. When it overheated and started smoking, I shut it down immediately. The next day I was able to crank it right up and pull it up onto the tow truck. When I got back to my home, I cranked it and lifted the hood and heard a loud tapping on the drivers side, sounds like the valves, not sure though. I do know its coming from the top of the motor. Took it for a drive and I can definitely tell that there is a loss of power. Can anyone please help me in figuring this out? Thanks

 

Whenever that happens, you have to check for the usual signs of a blown head gasket. For starters, check your oil and make sure there's no antifreeze in it and check your coolant level.

 

I checked for that and there isn't any water in the oil. I checked the stick, and even went as far as changing the oil and filter just to be sure.

 

I also checked the coolant level, it was leaking and I fixed the leaks. But now I am trying to figure out what is that tapping noise.

 

Nearly impossible to diagnose a noise without hearing it. Maybe you should look underneath the valve covers.

 

Thanks for all the replies by the way.I lifted the valve covers to listen closer. and it definitely sounds like its coming from the valves. My question to all is: Why would the valves tap after engine has overheated? Could it be the gasket, lifters, etc. I know I would have to pull the head in order to check the gasket, or do a compression test. But why has only one side been effected by the overheating?

 

You can't predict where and what will fail. I would not bet on it being something in the head that is not obvious when you look at it with the valve cover off. Of course, we can't hear what the noise sounds like. It might be a lot to go through for not having replaced a relatively cheap sensor.

 

I totally understand that you can't here it. So tomorrow I will post a vid of it to listen. I am sort of mechanically inclined so pulling the head will not be an issue for me. if I pull the head and see no damage to the head or head gasket, what else could it be? I will say its not knocking but tapping. Just trying to get a head start on what to look for....Thanks.

 

What codes did it throw on you scanner?

 

No. Its a 93 with a 95 lt1 motor in it. I believe the 93 is an OBD1 system correct? Hard to get my hands on a scanner for that. That I know ,would really help point me in the right direction. Someone mentioned pouring transmission fluid in the oil to get rid of the tapping. I would rather try lucus oil than trying that. Dont quite trust that info about the transmission fluid.

 

From the way you described the overheating I would almost bet that you need to replace head gaskets and have your heads checked for being cracked or warped. The tick could be from a exhaust gasket or a bad lifter and the head gasket could be bad without water in oil or oil in water but all kinds of things can go wrong when you overheat an engine as you described. Have your cooling system pressure checked for escaping gasses.

 

not hard to get what it takes to scan. If the 95 engine is converted to run with the 93 pcm etc a paperclip is all you need to read codes. If the car was converted to run off the 95 pcm then a $60 cable and use or free software on a laptop should get you there. If it was converted this way the obd plug needs careful observation to see if it was changed to the 95 plug( looks like the obd2 plug) shoebox shows how to jump with the paper clip and given no damage would occur jumping a 94-95 setup(given you dont know which way the conversion went) I would try the paperclip first.


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I assume when you say your temp sensor failed you mean the one in the head that supplies the temp guage and therefore you dont know how hot you got it other than enough to boil over. Assuming this is correct the temp sensor in the water pump that supplies the pcm was still functioning and fans worked correctly on car. I go here because something is amiss when car overheats to begin with(often its a headgasket). As fast as ive seen temps rise with a bad headgasket or no water circulating you could have really cooked things. Warped heads and the like are all possible. Was it a violent type overflow of coolant when you pulled off or a slow gurgle of an overflow? Also was it steam or smoke you saw or not sure?


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ok guys I am back. I pulled the cylinder heads and there was coolant sitting on top of the pistons. The gaskets were shot. I replaced intake manifold and head gaskets with new ones. Talked to my mechanic and he said that I must have shut it down before any real damage was done. Because the block isn't cracked or the heads warped. I replaced heads with a pair of perfect aluminum ones off of another lt1 I had sitting on the ground. Put everything back together hoses, sensors, etc. Went to start it up and it ran for about a minute and then died. But while it was running, it was running rough. So rough til all my tools I had on the car vibrated off the car. Now it will start and then immediately die. I want to know will a valve adjustment cause this problem? or is there something else that could be the problem. But I don't believe so because it ran before all of this. I am leaning towards a valve adjustment. I did remove rocker arms to take the heads off and tried adjusting them to the best of my knowledge. New to this stuff and need advice.

 

A poor valve adjustment can surely cause it to run rough.

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