ok my car tries to run really hot and miss at slow/idle speeds... my radiator is full of water and my fans are fine...and i have bubbles in my oil on the dipstick.... i also have a very small drip below my water pump but it is not making any noise like its goin out....

leaking head gasket right??

 

If the small drip your talking about is coolant. I would check your water pump right away. There is a weep hole on the bottom of pump and if it leaks your pump is usually shot, which would explain your overheating problem. Check it out, and hopefully it didn't leak too much into your opti spark and screw that up too.

 

yes it is dripping coolent,

on small trips around town it pegs out hot, but if i get on the hwy and go a long distance its fine.... at an idle it gets hot, and if i rev it up for a few seconds the temp drops all the way down...

so what explains the small bubbles in the oil??

i don't have a thermostat btw, never have

 

Well if it gets hot you could have warped a head it pretty easy to do. Does your coolant bubble all over or you smell coolant in car? I would pull the heads have em checked and replace water pump.

 

the coolant is circulating but is not bubbling... i don't see how its a warped head cause i never ran the car hot to begin with until now. it is weird because when i am driving in town and it gets too hot to drive, i open the cap and blow all the hot water/steam out, wait a few minutes, and fill it back up with water and it runs fine for another hour or so unless you idle for a long period.....

 

Dunno I can't give you a definite answer without knowing the car and stuff. If you think its a head gasket then pull the heads. I would have a machine shop check the heads while their off just to be safe.

 

yeah, i just hate to go through the trouble and $$ of doin that unless i'm sure thats what it is.....

with the bubbles in the oil like that i'm almost sure its a leaky head gasket....

i think its slowly leaking in the cylinders and its turning the water into steam creating an air pocket in the block causing it to overheat... but the slow leak from the water pump confuses me .

 

The waterpump has a weep hole for when the bearing goes bad it leaks. Thats the skipping your getting.

How bad are the bubbles on the dipstick? I drive my car maybe once a week and sometimes you can see condisation on the dipstick but its normal and boils off during normal operating temp.

I think yuou best bet would be to put a new waterpump on the car and go from there. The waterpump is leaking, its bad, you'l lhave to change it anyway. Take care not to get the opti too wet.

PS.. the leak in the coolant system is enough for it not to cool properly.. The coolant system needs pressure.

 

all the oil on the dipstick had many small bubbles on it.... but the oil doesn't look milky.

i'll just do like you said and pull the water pump and then see what happens...

also, along with the drip, i can hear air fizzing out from under the water pump, maybe this could made the system lose its prime and create a steam pocket??? but why would it cool down open throttle??

where's shoebox when ya need em?