2G 98 GST Overheating Bad - Possible Head Gasket?

[Jeff D Desantis]

So first off I'm a newbie with cars in general but I've always loved the 2g eclipse and purchased one from someone Pennsylvania. Drove it back to Rochester NY with no Issues. Cars body was rough so I've had it at a collision shop in and out the past 2 months. (never drove more than 50 miles up to this point) I finally get the car back 2 days ago and driving it around a lot more and start to see smoke coming from the hood and overheat gauge is literally over the line red I also hear a bubbling sound from the engine... I'm not sure if the owner somehow patched up maybe a head gasket issue or if someone at the collision shop blew up my engine joy riding, I have no idea but I just want to fix it and I don't have 1500-2000 laying around to give to a performance mechanic around here. STM tuned is right around the corner, which is great but I can't afford their services unfortunately. I designed this car from top to bottom with paint wheels seats everything and it really sucks the engine is having major issues. If anyone can help I'd appreciate it. Car is somewhat modified with HX35 turbo, straight pipe cams I think. If someone is local to upstate NY let me know also.

 

[Mello]

I would say, check for air in the system & burb if needed, take the thermostat out & check/replace it. Many over heating problems are related to air in the system, failed thermostats & also the radiator caps. Radiator cap gaskets tend to dryout & crack. I only try & use OEM radiator caps becuase I've had bad luck the the part store caps. Unfortunately, if you've drove around & overheated to the point of redline on the temp guage I think you could very likely have done some more serious damage now. It's possible that you've wrapped the head &, if so, will need to be removed & decked flat to fix. Doing a leakdown test would be helpful in diagnosing & elliminating what is or, is not broken.

 

[Jeff D Desantis]

Hi, there was some smoke that came from the car as well. And it seized up practically wouldn't start. How to I go about getting this diagnosed/repaired without getting destroyed at an actual auto repair shop? I just got off the phone with somebody who said 3K

 

[Mello]

You're probably screwed now. You should have stopped when it first start showing signs of over heating. Most likely it's time to pull the motor & do a full rebuild. Put this into the "live & learn" column for the future.

 

[Jeff D Desantis]

Hi, I stopped driving after I saw smoke. Lets hope there's a way to salvage this.

 

[pauleyman]

You sound like a victim of mods first maintenance second. If it locked up its probably already done. You are going to have to do some testing. If youre really lucky you van just fix the cause. Given what you said there is probably some damage now and you will have no choice but to rebuild or cut your losses

 

[Jeff D Desantis]

Hi, started car up today. It's running 'good' or 'ok' just gets way overheated especially after putting high ways miles on it.. I'm taking it to a very good tech and i'll update this week with what the issue was.

 

[Dreams Realized]

Your HG is probably blown as the others have said. I would check all components others have already said to check. Also is it smoke or steam? steam is pretty common when your car overheats, but if smoke is coming from the engine itself then you are probably looking at a full engine build or replacing the engine entirely.

My advice is to do what I did when I blew my HG, take it to a shop have them look at the thermostat and other gaskets and do a leakdown test. From there you will know if your HG is blown or not. I personally towed my car home and pulled the head. Look at the head and use this forum to look at what your head "should" look like. then from there look at your block make sure everything looks okay, if you're not comfortable with this you will have to have a shop look at it. I was incredibly lucky my machine shop said my head looked beautiful and they barely had to do anything (other than upgrade all the parts I gave them ). My block looked great and wasn't warped so it just got a nice little clean and that was it.

If you expect things to be cheap, they won't be, even with myself doing about 60% of the work it cost me around $1K in labor. If you plan on deconstructing yourself take your time, take lots of pictures, and most importantly do not let any detail slide. Remember it's the little things that keep these detonation capturers from, well, detonating

 

[Jeff D Desantis]

It was steam I think but the engine was VERY hot.. I've never driven the car for 1-2 hours in a day before and the car was a drag car setup before. Maybe its just not meant to be driven a lot? I'm having it towed to the shop tomorrow and will bring all this good info and give it to the mechanic and see what he finds.

 

[Jeff D Desantis]

Radiator Leak no coolant/water. No issues overheating now. Bringing to mechanic to check if there was any damage as check engine light is now on when it overheated.

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

OBD 2 scan will tell you that...