I had a radiator replaced 2 days ago at a local garage. Drove it about 60 miles the next day with no issues including about 30 highway miles. The day after I got a catastrphic leak somewhere (where is still to be determined) and had to pull of the side of the road. The temp gauge made it just past the 3/4 mark but not to the redline before I shut it down.

Obviously that's hotter than usual but is it reasonably safe to assume the engine wasn't damaged? (I killed my first Camaro in almost this exact same way except it was dark out, I was on the highway and I didn't notice anything wrong until the engine made a funny noise and then the overheat idiot light came on)

Also, would a water pump fail like that (dump the entire contents of the radiator in under 5 minutes?). I'm thinking bad radiator/faulty hose connection from the mechanic or just hose went bad but a friend pointed out the water pump might have gone out too.

('97 LT-1)

 

I actually had the output tube on my water pump come out of the water pump housing. The entire radiator/motor went dry within about a minute or so. The crazy thing was that after the water dumped, the tube went partially back into the housing so with no water, I couldn't tell at first where the leak was.

When I went back to get a new pump under warranty from NAPA, I checked the replacement pump and sure enough, I was able to turn the output pipe with my hand.

 

Great... If that's the case I bet my opti's gone too....

 

Iv had my camaro pegged, never even blowed a head gasket.

 

^^^ X2