Alt/Water Pump belt gone.

[mach4g63t]

So, I feel like an idiot that it took me almost 2 hours to figure out why my car has been overheating. I couldn't figure out why my low coolant light, battery light, and CEL have been on today. Turns out my belt from the crank pulley to the altenator and pump came off this morning!

Didn't realize it and was driving around for a little while on it. The car still starts fine, pulls strong, and doesn't have any smoke coming from the exhaust. My main concern was that my friends said the "geyser-like effect" that was coming from my thermostat when filling the car with water was from a blown head gasket. I was thinking it was from cold water getting into the hot engine and becoming steam and back firing through the system pushing water out with it.

Can anyone confirm this? I'm going to be replacing the belt here shortly, but wanted to get some input before I started looking into other problems that may have arisen because of this.

 

[romeen]

If I am understanding you correctly it sounds like the radiator cap was releasing the steam like it is designed to do after a certain pressure is reached. This would be expected if the water pump is not circulating coolant. If your car is pulling hard and is not smoking and no signs of oil/coolant mixing then it is not likely that you blew the HG/warped the head. Nontheless:

1) Check crank pulley to make sure a seperating balancer did not cause you to lose the accessory belt.
2) Replace the belt
3) Do a compression test for peace of mind

 

[mach4g63t]

Yea, I plan on doing a compression test as soon as I get off work today. The car still pulls hard, replacing the belt remedied all the aforementioned problems except one. My CEL still stays on, but only once the car has warmed up. When it's below temp the CEL generally stays off. One thing I did notice, though, was that while my car was overheating I was moving around my overflow bottle and the sensor on the base of that became seperated. My wiring harness is old and really crappy. I plan on reconnecting that later tonight as well, but does anyone know if that senor being unplugged will cause a CEL? It's the one on the base of the resevoir... for the float?

Also, I replaced my HG and headstunds about 300 miles ago. I used Cometic and ARP hardware and I was told by some buddies that around 250 miles or so you need to remove the valve cover and go back to retorque the head studs. Can anyon confirm that?

Otherwise, it was a relatively simple fix for something that freaked the hell out of me for a few hours.

 

[welfle18]

Yeah I did the same thing about 4 months ago loosing my belt like you did, but haven't had any ill effects so far!! This probably doesn't answer your question, but more of a piece of mind that you aren't the only one who's done this!

 

[romeen]

Yes, it is a good idea to retorque the head studs after a few heat cycles. Loosen up each one about a quarter turn then retorque to spec following the recommended sequence.

I am not sure about the coolant level sensor causing a CEL since I have a 2G and our cars don't have that sensor at the bottom of the overflow tank.

 

[mach4g63t]

The only reason I ask is because I've noticed a slight bit of oil 'seeping' around the bottom of my head on pistons 3 and 4. No real smoke issues, no real driving issues, but looks like someone dabbed there finger in oil and smeared it along the base of my head/gasket.

 

[romeen]

It doesn't necessarily mean that you blew the HG, especially with the Cometic. Go ahead and retorque the head studs, clean that area off with brake cleaner then recheck it after some driving. I would do a compression test before and after the retorque for comparison.

 

[mach4g63t]

Yeaup, yeaup. I plan to. Just gotta get off this stupid 24 hour duty shift first. And, as always, thanks for the advice Romeen. It's nice to have a more experienced DSMer back me up and confirm my thoughts.

 

[mach4g63t]

So, get this-

I retorqued down my head studs to 90 ft/lbs. I've read a lot that you can actually go up to 110, but my buddy said you risk stripped the threads. I just went 10 over what I had torqued it at. I stepped it when originally doing it- 20, 40, 60, 80. I just torqued them to 90, took the car out and got some sputtering and erratic detonation/misfire. I thought it was my plugs/wires. So, I double check them and change the plugs with 7ES's. Engine warms up, do my compression and it's something like 110-80-65-75. WTF How is that even possible when prior to I had something around 120 across the boards when I originally put it on.

Now my car will sputter/detonate when under 2k rpm and after I get over 6k it detonates more (I'm assuming this is because of my lacking fuel mods for the 16g). The weird thing about the top end detonation though, is my car would pull to redline on 10psi on the 16g prior to me retightening my head studs. Now it won't. I'm apprehensive to even drive it with the low-end missing/detonation.

Anyone have any advice or info on how this might have happened? Would hardwiring my pump help any? I need some help again Also, is it possible I warped my head when my car overheated the other day? Is it possible that both the head and the block are warped or just the head?

 

[romeen]

Did you do a compression test right before the retorque (meaning since it last overheated)?

It is possible to warp the head from overheating, but I don't think it's likely to warp the block (I'm not saying it's impossible, I've just never heard of it happening).

Your sputtering/missing problem sounds like it could be a boost leak or something simple that you forgot to hook back up. Recheck everything that you removed when you removed the VC to do the retorque. Make sure the PCV line and VC breathers are hooked up, check plug wires, any sensors/ignition components that you might have removed that were in the way.

You may have to do a leak down test to see if you actually did warp the head. Did you have the head decked before installing the Cometic?

 

[mach4g63t]

No, I didn't deck the head prior to. After some reading, I've come to find that's a VERY bad thing for a cometic gasket. Some people it works for, most it doesn't. I'm gonna go look over my car, I think I might actually have forgotten to hook up my PCV since you mentioned it. I knew the sputtering seemed like a boost leak, I just coudn't think of anything since I only removed the valve cover and I was so incredibly frustrated last night. Anyway, I'm probably gonna pull the head tonight. Got a local machine shop who can deck it properly for 55 bucks with a cleaning too. And all in one day, most likely. So, total, 2 days of downtime to get it done right this time- I hope. Now I just gotta try and keep my foot off the floor.