Car Overheated / Overheating / Overheats [MERGED]

[NTRCOOL]

OVERHEATING? The issues and their solutions have remained the same- either you don't have enough cool air reaching the rad, there's a cooling system obstruction which is preventing coolant from circulating, or your head gasket has failed and is allowing coolant to be consumed or pushed away from the engine.

Discuss all possible overheating problems and solutions here.


OK,
I just left my house to go over to my GF's,and happen to look down and see my needle right before the red mark. This just happened out of nowhere. I stop the car as quickly as i can, and pour in some coolant(Coolant a little low). Still same thing. Welp im in the middle of the road, and HAD to get it home. Im only 5 min from my house. I decided to try and make it(I really had no other choice). Welp I drive no faster than 20mph, and the temp needle is BARELY into the red the whole way.And occasionaly to the left of it. Am I ok?? Do ya think any damage was done?? And im thinking either thermostat, or water pump. For each of those, whats a round about $$ figure to get replaced?? Any info you have would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[bagged420a]

Power and ground is all you'll need for the toggle.

 

[Fotowntalon]

is your radiator cap leaking? are you making sure to burp the system after maintenance?

 

[TYGRR]

Ok everyone. Heres my prob. I am overheating only when i turn my A/C on. I have completely upgraded my cooling system. (mishimoto rad, fal fans with shroud, new temp sensors, 3 new thermostats) I have "burped" my cooling system more times than i care to remember. I have had my whole a/c system checked and there is nothing wrong there either. I have even installed another spal fan as a pusher in front of the condessor. And yes the condensor is brand new as well. I built duct work to go from my fmic to the condensor and completely sealed the gaps in between the radiator and condensor just to make sure i wasnt pulling any hot air from the engine bay. I called up RRE and they told me that I needed to put a hood scoop on because I live in AZ and the engine bay doesnt have anywhere to push that hot air. So i tried driving around without the hood on to see if that would do it. That didn't work either. Then I called my tuning shop and they told me that i needed fans that pull more air. Please help as i have exhausted everything I can think of. My car is completely built up good and strong and this is my last issue.

 

[BlackMount]

Found the problem(s)

1: Water was evaporating
2: Clogg in Radiator. found this out by getting out of my car popping my hood and my Radiator hose was swollen huge. So I flushed the radiator with a powerwasher hoping it would unclogg it...sure enough took down the road and *BOOM* the whole nozzle on the radiator for the hose exploaded into pieces.


So I have new radiator now

 

[lAsErfWd]

I was having the same problem with my mishimoto and slimline fans but i didnt have a shroud. I put the stock fans back on and had no problem so i guess my fans went the right cfm and with out the shroud usless. I would check the slim fans cfm and make sure it is flowing enough and you have the wired in correctly. If you dont have all the wires right it wont run at full speed i believe.

 

[DGajre777]

What are the CFMs on the FAL and SPAL fans? I had the same issue until I upgraded to SPAL fans - http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/302001-resolved-overheating-issues-continued.html

 

[TYGRR]

The fals are 900 a peice and the spal pusher is 1250

 

[DGajre777]

The fals are 900 a peice and the spal pusher is 1250

Do you have an FMIC? I don't think the SPAL pusher is doing anything if the FALs on the other side are slowing the air down. I think you need fans with more CFM. Try installing stock fans (if you can), to see if the problem goes away.

 

[ist dwa]

Move to North Dakota, you won't have overheating issues then..hey you said you wanted a solution. All kidding aside, that FAL kit is probably a piece of crap. Get some nice 1250cfm 12" fans from summit, that'll keep you cool, also I hope you are running a 180 stat, you never stated that or if you run a FMIC. FMIC and stock condesors don't mix well to begin with.

 

[gtmoney822008]

I had a lot of overheating problems with my car. A new 180* thermostat, a new radiator cap, new mishimoto radiator with two fans wired to the battery, wrapped my headers, and i removed the center section in my headlights. Now my car never goes past half no matter how much i step on it

Im currently having overheating issues, my car runs strong, it just overheats, I have a new pusher puller 12v individually switched setup ,Fluidine Rad,New thermo cap,New thermostat,New Waterpump,arp studs,comectic metal gasket 2years old but I passed compression test,Im going to try 160 thermostat and wrap my header cause my setup gets hot Ive got a monster In thereim going try that and repost

 

[my dreamt dsm]

I can't really see if you have an intercooler because your mod list isn't filled out. That's one of the first things you do so people can help you. From that all i can say is maybe your intercooler in blocking air from entering your engine bay?

 

[JD98GSX]

Okay... So I drove my DSM down to the dragon over the weekend. The car drove great all the way down to the dragon, Drove around the mountains all weekend, and drove the dragon great. She ran like a champ. Well when it was time to come home I went out to the car to start it up and the blets squeeled alittle. They stopped after a few seconds. So i didnt think anything of it. I drove the car like 8 miles to the gas station. She ran fine all the way there. I shut her off, filled the tank and started her again. No squeels so i drove on. Well going through gatlinburg, and pigeon forge at a whole 5 miles per hour for 2 1/2 hour the car started running hot, REALLY hot. so i turned on the heater and rolled down the windows. Will once traffic started kinda moving alittle faster, i turned the heater off figuring now i could get some air to the radiator. Well after maybe 5 minute the temp gauge maxed out and i had to pull over. Coolant was spewwing all over from my overflow tank. So i let it cool down for about 30 minutes, and tred to get going again. Well i made it about 40 miles or so and my wife said "wow this road really stinks!". well i looked down at my gauges and the Temp gauge was maxed out again. So i shut the car off put it in nuteral, and coasted to a stop on the side of the road. I got out opened the hood and again the overflow was going crazy. Well my brother in law googled a parts store about 5 miles up the road, so after letting it cool down again i figured maybe if i can get it to the parts store i can get it fixed. Well i started the car and it was being kinda hesitant like it was bauging out. So after it idled for a few seconds i put it into gear. And and started going. well i noticed that going from first to second gear the rpms went from around to 3500 to 6000 as soon as i pushed in the clutchWTF, and it did the same from 2nd to 3rdWTF, i have no idea why it did this. Well i got into 4th and as just trying to cruise to the parts store and the temp gauge went from ok to maxed out in a few seconds, actually less than a second. So i shut it off again and pulled over, making it mybe a mile. I opened the hood again and this time nothing was coming from the overflow tank, but over next to the cam gear cover was smoking alittle, NEVER seen that before. Well we called a towtruck, and had it towed to UHAUL so i could atleast tow it the rest of the way home. And when i went to put it up onto the trailor it started right up, drove up the trailor, and the only thing i noticed when i took it off the trailor was a large oil spot the size of a CD. Does anyone know WTF i did. or how to fix it?

 

[Klubbhead]

Well after ive called mechanics, and some research. I believe you guys are right

Now ive been quoted what i thought it would be (700-900), which is pretty freaking discouraging. Ive been thinkin of other possibilities to fix the problem such as doing it myself or replacing the head/engine.

Sooooooo questions are, has anyone ever DONE a job like this? Any how tos u might wanna point me to? Should i just replace the whole damn thing?

 

[Yamahaulin]

If you have any mechanical skills the head gasket is not a hard job.

 

[haswesley]

Get yourself a Chilton's manual or Hayne's manual. Biggest tip you can get is to take the head, intake manifold and exhaust manifold off as ONE unit. Trying to get to those intake manifold bolts on the underside is a pain in the a** while the head is still in the car. I just pulled my head and block last weekend to put in a new engine. I've pulled the head 5 times in the past 4 years for one reason or another. Gets easier each time. Good luck.

 

[delta448]

You most likely overheated and warped or lifted the cylinder head. I'm guessing right now that you'll find problems around the rear of the block at the headgasket near cylinders 1 or 2. It's time for compression and leak down tests to determine if it's permanently damaged to the point of needing a rebuild.

Also, take a good look at the intake manifold to cylinder head mating surface as well, sounds like there was a big leak there from the clutch-in-rpm-climb you described. It's definitely a post throttle body air leak.

 

[JD98GSX]

i got under her last night and noticed that the bottom of the mottor around the back of the oil pan is covered in oil.

and when i have had to start it (to put it on the trailor and take it back off) it has no power

 

[delta448]

It's lost compression, that's why there's no power. The head will have to come off to fix it. Make sure you flush the cooling system really good and refill with new when you put the resurfaced head and new headgasket on.

 

[JD98GSX]

so you think i need to replace my head? and gaskets. Damn that sucks..

 

[delta448]

Head = machine shop resurface and reuse.
Head gasket = replace.

But do a leakdown test first to find the location of the problem.

 

[Klubbhead]

Alright guess ima have to do it rambo style.

Thanks for the info guys

 

[JD98GSX]

Ya, I have a feeling that if i would have just pulled over and let it cool down , Then tried to find out why it overheated. I could have avoided all of this. But it is a lesson learned. So I am going to be pretty buisy with a leak down test, boost leak test, and compresion test, plus the whole trying to figure out why it overheated to begin with.

 

[delta448]

Well going through gatlinburg, and pigeon forge at a whole 5 miles per hour for 2 1/2 hour the car started running hot, REALLY hot.

That would be pretty taxing on the cooling system of any car, but with a turbo car that's as old as all DSMs are now, it's a miracle it made it as far as it did.

By chance do you have a FMIC or were you also running the AC?

 

[JD98GSX]

AC doesn't work, but as soon as i noticed that she was running hot i turned up the heat, and I am still running the SMIC, the only parts installs i have done are the Punishment radiator w/ slim fans, and samco coolant hoses, and the mishimoto thermostat. K7N FIPK filter. and a mishimoto oil catch can. but ya, everytime i got stuck in traffic it wouldnt take long to run hot as hell.

 

[cutty2fast]

i dont like those slim fans i had a old cutlass with a 355 chevy i bought a aluminum race radiator for it and 2 big slim fans and it would still overheat, then i went with a fan of a dodge van and it stayed right where the thermostat was