Well I had an appointment with my ex wife's lawyer today. So I drove from San Jose to Modesto, about 90 miles. I got all the way into Modesto and as soon as I got off the freeway and stoped at a light, my temp gauge starts going up. By the time I got it to a decent place to pull off the road its up around 260. After I let it idle to see what it would do, it pins the needle well past 260 before I shut it off.

Then I give it about 10-15 minutes to cool and start it again while running water over the radiator and filling the radiator with water and the temp doesnt drop at all, right back to 260 with coolant boiling out the cap. And then the car dies. So i leave it and go to the lawyer appt.

When I come back I change the thermostat and try to get it make it to my grandparents across town. By this time Im spitting water/steam out my tailpipe. Half way there it gets above 240 and I pull over and leave the car there. 2 hours later I go get it and take it to the grandparents house.

My oil looks fine, Its not milky at all.I didn't notice any water coming from the bottom of the water pump (I didn't really look though) There is water coming out the tail pipe, so Im assuming I blew a head gasket and praying I didn't crack a head. The car idles really rough, so maybe I got the opti wet. The car overheats in no time at all once I start it. Does it sound like the water pump failed? Im stranded here in modesto until at least saturday so I can tear into it. Any body have any other posible causes?

Oh, and im not trying to be a jerk, but please don't say that I should just go ahead and replace the opti, and get an elec. water pump and all that stuff while im down there. I honestly have close to zero dollars to my name and no job. So as much as I would love to, I really cant right now. This car might have to sit for a few weeks until I start my new job and i'll drive my truck for now.

 

If water is coming from the tailpipe I'd be willing to say that you blew a head gasket. Water justr may have not had time to get past your rings and into the oil yet to be enough where you would notice water in the oil. Was the water bubbling when you opened the radiator cap?

 

Yeah, the coolant was bubbling the whole time the cap was off.

 

I'd say it is a head gasket then. Maybe someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure if the water is bubbly and frothy it means that the compression from one of the cylinders, where the gasket is blown, is pressurizing the cooling system.

 

Thats what we were thinking. Im going over there to take it apart in a few minutes. Im going to remove the spark plugs and see what side blows water out and remove that head. But what could have made it get that hot in the first place? I replaced the t'stat and it didn't make any diff. Is there any way to check the water pump to see if it is the problem, or should I change it out and hope that works?

 

Head Gasket..Same exact symptoms when I blew mine..Lucky enough that I didnt warp/crack a head..When I couldnt get the car to cool down and no access to a trailer/tow..I manually bypassed the High Fan realy to coll the motor to damn near frezzing so I could drive it to my house..

 

You could try and replce the water pump and see if thats the problem. I know thats a whole lot easier than pulling a head off. You are on the right track pulling a spark plug and seeing if any water comes out. I blew a head gasket on mine and there really wasn't any evidence of it on my spark plugs though but my oil had water in it. You can pick up a water pump around $150 or maybe even cheaper. I bought a new AC Delco one from Sam taylor Buick Cadillac for $145. There is a guy named Jason Cromer there that gives us board members a pretty good price on factory GM parts. The list price on it was $291.67 so thats a pretty good deal. His number is (850) 243-8826 if you want to give him a call.

 

Thanks for the info. Ill give Jason Cromer a call if I decide to replace the wp. $145 isn't that bad. Ill let you guys know what I find out.

 

Thats got to be a head gasket, I really don't see any other way coolant can come out your tailpipes.

- Z28WannaB

 

Yeah. im sure its a head gasket. Im pulling the heads off it today, as soon as I can get a ride to the car. But thats not going to fix my overheating problem. I hope I can figure out what caused it to get hot in the first place. After 90 miles of freeway driving, as soon as I get into stop and go traffic it went up to 260 like a rocket. I know my fan switch doesnt work, but anytime im driving in town I have the defroster on to force the fans on. And my fans were on while it was at 260, but it didn't seem to be helping.

 

The head gasket could have caused your overheating. The air in the system forcing the water out of the head gasket leak might have starved the pump of water casuing it to overheat. The real question is why did the head gasket blow? How many miles are on the car? I've heard the the orange coolant is hard on head gaskets but I don't know how much truth there is to that. Mine blew around 132,xxx miles.

 

The car has 113,000 on it. I wasn't thinking that a blown head gasket would cause it to heat up. But that does seem right. Doesn't the radiator rely on pressure or vacum to keep the coolant recirculating itself? Or am I wrong about thinking that?

I was just assuming that the engine overheated and that caused the head gasket to give out.

Ill be back later. Thanks.

 

Yes the pump makes pressure but just think of it like this: Water is being pumped to the heads first on these engines, and the water is leaking out of the head gasket and not sending a sufficient amount of water to the pump causing it to cavitate, therefore the pump is basically pumping air into the system causing it to presurize your radiator with air instead of water. I know when mine blew, my car would run at normal temp as long as I was moving, but as soon as I would stop, the heat guage would shoot up instantly to the red. I opened the radiator cap when I got home and the water was bubbling and forthy and a bunch of air came out.

 

Just for an update, Im at the same place I was at earlier. By the time I got to where the car is it was already late in the day, so I got nothing done today except for removing all of the shrouds and the fans. I couldn't get it inside the garage at my grandparents or anything so I left it until tomorrow.

So I hope to have it torn down tomorrow.

 

Well just for an update, I got the heads off it and got them to the machine shop today. The biggest pain was trying to get the Ex. manifolds off the sumbitch.

Both of my head gaskets were in pretty poor condition. The driver side hadn't given out yet, but it had to be close. The passenger side was leaking coolant into the cylinder closest to the firewall.

But along the way I happened to bust off one of my spark plugs. I snapped it right in half with my drivers side manifold. And on the same side I broke off the coolant temp sensor too.

The coolest part of my day was when we got to the machine shop and my uncle and I are having a beer with the owner (he's just there working on his projects by himself) and my uncle mentions how I'm looking for a job, and the owner starts talking about how he wants one more guy in the shop to take over his section so he doesn't have to do anymore labor and he can just work on his hotrods. So I'm going in monday to talk to him about the job.