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!

 

[NHerron]

I know, I share your pain. I have the same situation right now and only thing left for me is the HG.

 

[bigtimmyd]

Yeah playing the waitin game at work waitin for my mechanic to call, if it is a cracked/warped head I'm thinking about one of those Japanese engine/tranny deals for 1700,, 20-60k miles... I had good luck with one for a Honda once..

 

[NHerron]

Ouch mechanic eh? How much he want for the HG job?

 

[bigtimmyd]

I have a running tab with him right now, I'm scared to ask! He's my buddy doing it as a side job/ fun project at his house, I'm still scared of the total bill.. He hopes to have me on the road by the end of the week though

 

[007jimmy]

you said your running slim fans on the front side of your radiator. did you wire them up to me pushers? also is the fan shroud sealed against the radiator. air will take the path of least resistance and if there is a gap around the shroud then the air is just blowing out the sides/top or bottom. i would get a piece of sewing string and tape it to the engine bay side of your radiator and turn the fans on. if the string doesnt move then your not getting enough flow through the radiator. if it was a headgasket or anything else really it would take alot less time to overheat.

 

[bigtimmyd]

We are going to try that! There is no shroud... With the 14b I may be able to put the fans on the front now...

they're flowing toward the motor, I can feel air pushing through, now that I think of it, it doesn't seem very powerful..

 

[squid267]

So this overheating issue has stumped me. New radiator cap, new mishimoto rad, 2 slims fans, no thermostat, new water pump. car still over heats. How can i test if it is the head gasket without opening it up

 

[zerq]

Fill the car with coolant, park on a clean surface, let it warm all the way up and start to overheat a little. Look for drops for leaks obviously, check your oil for milkyness (HG) and also smell the exhaust at a safe distance of course and of you're using 50/50 coolant and you smell something sweet, you may be leaking coolant into the cylinders at the head gasket. Also make sure your water pump is good. Simple things to help rule out possibilities.

 

[I-DSM]

Check your oil deepstick look at the oil, does it look greenish or whitish? Check your oil cap look for the same. Does it smokes white? does it waste water but doesnt leak? If you answer yes to any of this you have blown head gasket. Now its a dsm so its not as rare as you may think. If you decide to change dont just slap a new one in. Despite what anyone else tell you.... take it to the machine shop do a valve job and verfy it. If you dont you will regret it trust me. Dont take shorcuts. Machine shop are cheap most people think it cost an arm and a leg to verify. Wrong! it cost me 70 for valve job and 75 to verify thats expensive because I take it to a reputable shop. Do it once do it right. Id change timing belt while at it. If it keeps overheating and no mixture in oil is found could be radiator clogged or thermostat. But these are really rare, specially on a new radiator.

Also I had a car once that didnt smoke, dindnt mix water and oil, but after long runs water would disappear then started to overheat. It was a blown head gasket and warped head. I know the head gasket change its the last thing people want to do but sometimes if done first would have saved a lot of money.

 

[bigtimmyd]

Well I put this on the back burner for a little while, but so far, we have came up with a blown head gasket. He did a compression test before with the VC off (cold) and it was in factory spec (155), well when we still noticed its overheating, he did hot and cold. Hot with rad cap off he said way low... He is sure its HG. Before, with stock turbo and bov he though the bov wasen't working properly... That would cause a HG failure right? This HG only had about 2k on it! Well either way I guess the head is coming off, and while we are at it oil pump and rod bearings. Not quite what I was hoping to spend this money on (was hoping for link and dyno), but a little more reliability won't hurt.

 

[Calan]

He did a compression test before with the VC off (cold) and it was in factory spec (155)

A cold compression test isn't very reliable. Results will vary widely due to the differences in engine tolerances when everything isn't up to temperature.

Hot with rad cap off he said way low... He is sure its HG.

A compression test won't tell you much about a HG failure, unless it's pretty obvious. There are several ways that a HG can fail that won't even show up with a compression test.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-engine-fuel/336535-do-you-have-blown-head-gasket.html

You really need to do a leak-down test to figure out exactly what is going on, before just tearing into it.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-engine-fuel/338152-compression-leak-down-testing.html

Before, with stock turbo and bov he though the bov wasen't working properly... That would cause a HG failure right?

Not very likely.

 

[bigtimmyd]

Thanks! I'm going to borrow my bosses cylinder leak tester and check that tomorrow. I really hope the head is not cracked. I'm wondering because it's had coolant dissapearing and bubbling overflow since I've had the car a year ago and I've replaced the hg and shaved the head already 6 months ago.

 

[onefast2gdsm]

My cel is set to go on when coolant tenp rises past 219 degrees. When im driving on the highway for about 15 minites the cel comes on and i see the temperature gauge slowly moving up. If i turn the heat on it goes down right away. I burped the coolant 3 tomes already and have replaced 2 rubber lines one to the ofh and one to the turbo. I have an almuni radiator with 2 12 inch slim fans. Any help appreciated.

 

[007jimmy]

Still have the AC? Any exhaust heat shielding/wrapping? Compression test to rule out headgasket.

 

[onefast2gdsm]

Motor has about 300 miles on it (full rebuild by kar king) i have the manifold heat shield on but not the o2 housing one. Car doesnt use coolant or oil. No smoking at idle.

 

[finesse49ers]

Where are the fans located? Also is the turbo you're using the same before the engine rebuild?

 

[onefast2gdsm]

I bought the car not running. I had the fans and radiator on my previous gst though and it never overheated. also put a new thermostat in.

 

[rEclipserGST]

Is the ducting the same as the old car you pulled the radiator from? I would look into adding some if there isn't any. Air takes the path of least resistance. Remember this always.

 

[Firsts tuner]

Is it only while driving down the highway? That usually indicates an internal blockage in the radiator. I have the same problem with my jeep. Turn on the heater and the temp drops to about normal. Most radiator shops will flush and pressure check the radiator fo about 60 bucks here locally. Obviously prices vary by location. At least it's getting cooler so you can procrastinate on it for a while

 

[hretter]

I had somewhat the same problem. The temp would rise going up a hill and then return to normal on the way down or on level roads. My mechanic said that it's the classic symptom of constriction in the radiator.

 

[talon2gbuyer]

Ok, here is my scenario:

Drove the talon to school yesterday, as I was pulling into the parking lot i noticed the temp gauge going up. I was on a single lane road that leads to the parking lot with 6 cars behind me, so stopping wasnt an option. Once I started getting into the parking lot, the car started bogging a lot. When i popped the hood I noticed coolant all over the place, to make a long story short, the coolant line that runs from the thermostat to the engine block was ruptured. So after replacing the hose, refilling the cooling system, i'm having this problem where I will start it, the car will run perfect for about 10-20 seconds, then start sputtering horribly, and then eventually stall out. Did I screw up the head gasket with this? Not sure where else to start looking

Also, I checked the dip stick and the oil cap and found no traces of coolant mixing with the oil. So i'm not 100% on where I sit with this right now,

 

[talon2gbuyer]

Ok this issue is really perplexing me.. I just drove the talon home (about 25 miles) and for the first part of the trip it ran like crap, sputtering and almost dying on me, AF ratio was all over the place between 16.5 and 19.2. Then the second portion of the trip, the engine sort of "Hiccup"ed and then ran beautifully the rest of the way home, idled perfectly, even went into boost to see if i could get it to hiccup again to feel the symptoms. No luck, Anyone have any ideas here?

 

[TopGun8818]

Do the "fan mod" where you connect the wires so that both fans come on at the same time. Also change the thermostat with an aftermarket one that comes on sooner - extremepsi has a mishimoto one I believe. At the end of the day - you are not alone with this problem; many 2g DSM owners have cooling issues. Poor designing on Mitsubishi's end IMO but then again it is a "DSM"

 

[onefast2gdsm]

Both fans are wired to come on at the same time. I dont know however if its wired correctly, i put the lo postive an hgh positive together and soldered them to the fans positive, vice versa with the negative wires. I dont knownif theyre coming on at high speed or low speed.

 

[TopGun8818]

Both fans are wired to come on at the same time. I dont know however if its wired correctly, i put the lo postive an hgh positive together and soldered them to the fans positive, vice versa with the negative wires. I dont knownif theyre coming on at high speed or low speed.[/QUOTE

I don't think it's wired correctly if they don't come on till 219* - that is around the temperture that the secondary one comes on.