My car recently overheated and i was wondering what kind of damage it may have caused. I just recently bought this car and it is just babied. I got it back from the mechanic that installed a new waterpump and thermostat and also got my heater working. I didnt have the car an hour and it blew a hose off the waterpump and before I realized the temp gauge was nearing the red zone. I immediately shut it off. It never entered into the red but was very close to, a little past the 3/4 mark. it probable stayed on for 45 seconds i would say. Coolant blew all over my engine and hood, i mean all of the coolant was gone. I was just wanting to see what you guys thought it could have done to the engine. its back in the shop now but i havent heard anything yet. Im just praying for the best, its the mechanics fault. I need to know what it could have done, like blow a head gasket or cracked a head or something and what do i need to look for? SMoke? Oil? etc. The car is a 97 z/28 with an LT1 engine. Any help would be great! THankz!

 

Mine did that after only having it for about a week. Pretty much same thing happened. Sitting in a drive-thru, noticed steam coming off the hood, noticed the gauge was almost to the red, and quickly pulled to a parking lot and shut it off. A geiser of coolant was flowing all over the parking lot. Flushed and refilled the next day and she ran like a champ ever since.

 

No hotter than you let it get there shouldn't be any damage to anything and if there is your mechanic should pay for it. As a mechanic let me say we all make mistakes and things happen, don't be too upset with him unless things like this become common. But dont worry your car should be just fine at most maybe need some gasket damage but very doubtful. Give me an update when you hear from him.

 

It prolly did no damage at all.
It would have to be run for longer than that to hurt it.

 

As long as it didn't drench the Opti, you should be ok.

 

Well i found out today nothing is bad wrong, anyway, no major stuff like cracked head or blown gasket. It was the waterpump again. It probably did soak the opti though, since it spewed all of my coolant out. I noticed when I cranked it up it spun over more times than it usually does, took a second or two. But this was in below freezing weather, it was really cold. Who knows, i just want my car back ya know. IM getting it tomorow morning. THanks for the advise guys.

 

Are you getting the gears fixed too.