Sick97SS

A few days ago i was on my way home from work and smelled coolant. but not overheating..yet
so I get home and realize its way too low and top it off with hose water. Run it for a while to get the temp up, bleed the air screws yada yada. I disconnected my low coolant sensor years ago because of false readings.

Tonite i make a short 15 min trip no problems. On the way back home I have a car full of people complaining of no heat (40 degree weather, heat on full blast). Halfway home the "check guages" light comes on and the "temp guage" is spiking in max redzone. I get home 5 mins later and smoke/steam pours out of the hood and coolant is pouring, well more like gushing, all over the driveway comming from the water pump or in the general area as best as i can tell, but not from the radiator..

So do i have a clog somewhere? bad water pump? bad tstat? The 160 tstat has been in there and working fine for 3+ year along with a fan kickon tune. My temp guage never gets past 1/4 or aourd 160-170 even on the hottest days, until tonite. this is really sucky timing for this to happen as i have ZERO money set aside for camaro repairs.

Angelis83LT

Sounds more like you have a heater core failure or a heater hose failure. I am betting on the heater core. Check to see if the passenger's side floor is damp at all up next to the firewall.

z0s0

Check the weep hole at the bottom of the waterpump...you can see it from the bottom of the car. If it's leaking there, it should start within 5 minutes of running the car. That's how my wp went. Also check the sides of the wp, that would indicate the wp gasket(s) have blown out. If that's all ok, check the hoses going into and out of the wp. If you take your elbow or c/a out, this will all be much easier to see and diagnose.

BTW, you mention you had a carfull of people...isn't that 2 in a 4th gen? lol...I can barely fit my 12 and 14 y/o's in the backseat of my Z.

Stl94LT1

Water pump is shot.

Injuneer

Until you inspect the system and find the source of the coolant loss, there's no way anyone can do anything except speculate on the cause. Get under it and look for the source of the leak. Sounds like it could be as simple as a failed heater hose.... but you need to look it over.

Sick97SS

thanks for the replies guys. much appreciated.

i filled up the rad today (not the overflow). took intake off. started her up and waited. no leak. it also started right up and continued to run without the maf which i though was strange since i've never been able to run it with the maf disconnected before. i think the leak (which seemed to be coming from the coil area) was forced out because of the extreme overheating that was going on last night. but the temp guage still creeped up to around 230 degrees. it's never leaked a drop of coolant before last night.

both major hoses coming from the top of the water pump are still cold to the touch with motor running, even when the temp guage is showing 230. no odd noises or anything. does this confirm that the coolant is not flowing at all?

took my tstat out and boiled it in the kitchen. wide open well before boling point. so its working nicely.

Stl94LT1

When the water pump's bearing is bad the coolant leak can be intermittent.

Sick97SS

alright, the thing is overheating because the coolant level is going way to low. i do have a leak, and a big one, after 15 mins of idling is started dumping coolant out again, coming from what looks like the drivers wp gasket. time for a new pump and gaskets.

Sick97SS

I called a stealership and they wanted 447$ for the water pump HAHA! are they mental?!

I'm going to order a rebuilt pump + gaskets online along with a water pump drive seal to hopefully end my persistant oil drip.

I also need a new opti, and know this is the best time to do it. but that little project i going to have to wait.

thanks again, these forums are lifesavers.

rclearyiii

Did you at least try tightening your waterpump bolts? That may very well solve the problem. If it is not leaking out of the waterpump weep hole...I see no need to replace. At the worst..a new gasket set.

Sick97SS

If i squeeze the coolant hoses, it burps/squirts out the right gasket pretty good. tightening the bolts had no effect, they were all pretty snugg. Im just hoping that something else didnt cause the overheat, forcing the gasket to blow....

so no weeping of the weep-hole means the pumps is still good? its got 117k on the clock. if i could get by with just changing gaskets and drive seal i'll be one happy camper. or a happy driver. or whatever

AlwaysCode390

The stealers got me last month with a new waterpump. They offered to install one I brought to them, but I decided to use a Delco one ... since a cheap one would risk leaking on my new opti... and I was working 60 hours that week with no spare time.

I figured $250 max ...NOPE $437!!!! I almost **** myself when I saw that bill. I think they do that because the "labor is included in the opti install" ... when its really part of the waterpump price

**EDIT**

Were the 97' SS's lt4's!? I went to your website (op's in signature) and it says 13.2 with an lt4 in the 1/4 ... never knew that!!! ---

Sick97SS

My neighboor down the street actually has a 30th anniversary white w/orange stripe LT4 SS. I think mine looks better but i bet thats more fun to drive. Gmmg pipes too.

Injuneer

No. SLP converted 100 97 30th SS's and 29 97 Firehawks to the LT4 engine. All others are LT1's.

sconley1028

I work at an auto parts store and just replaced the opti and the water pump along with a feew other things. I looked into delco but the price from even my store with my discount is Horrible! So what i did was ordered the water pump and the opti online at work because the store didn't have any in stock. The opti came brand new and the brand is richporter which is highly recommended with the cap and rotor all assembled. *PLUS* it has a life time warranty!! And the water pump is a master pro Brand New water pump not any rebuilt crap And it also has a lifetime warranty!!! So you can replace them, if they happen to go out, for the rest of the time you have your car!
Here is the links to the parts I believe you can have them even shipped to your house.

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...aro&vi=1035964


http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...PartType=C0331