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Car Overheated / Overheating / Overheats [MERGED]

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NTRCOOL

Probationary Member
24
0
Apr 10, 2002
Richmond_Va.
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!
 
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Just take it back to whoever did the repairs and tell them this problem came about just as they returned the car to you. If nothing else, they will diagnose it for free (unless they are complete scumbags).

Good luck.
 
Well a million pages of reading later and I'm still not 100% confident I know why my 98 GSX is overheating.

Quick run down about last nights events, left headlights on at work, battery died, when I jumped it I blew the headlights, LOL. Forgot to turn them off. I let the car idle for about 10 mins making sure battery charged with no problems. Didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Headed home, a mile later I glanced down at the cluster and noticed the coolant was at about 3/4. Pulled over turned car off for about 10 mins. Checked coolant level and it still was super hot. Steaming and shooting coolant into overflow tank. After letting cool down another 5 mins I couldn't even see coolant in the neck area. Filled it up a bit. Started car, leveled off at normal temp, but after bringing it to 2.5k the needle moved quickly to the red zone and nearly hit max. Repeats the cooling off part, but didn't refill coolant. Had about 5 miles to go to get home. So I took the chance, however this time the needle pegged full max, beyond the red area. I literally coasted about 3 of the 5 miles in neutral. Made it home and let her rest. Popped hood, steam everywhere but what really caught my eye was the tremendous amount of coolant coming from the overflow tank. Ran inside got the laptop and took a quick log. 278*!!!! For coolant.

This morning I tried the " top off coolant, leave cap off and check flow" attempt and this is what I got http://youtu.be/SjlCW5-RDgQ
 
Nothing? No insight at all? I just need a bit of confirmation it's the HG before I go tearing into it for no reason
 
When mine blew the head gasket from a warped head due to overheating it did the same thing in your video. So I would agree with you, it's probably the head gasket and possibly a warped head/block.
 
Looks like its blown HG.

Pull each spark plug after it runs for a minute and look at each one. Look for plugs that are much cleaner/hotter than the rest or a greenish tint. Then after engine cools off look down in each cylinder. Look for puddles on the pistons.
 
Well a million pages of reading later and I'm still not 100% confident I know why my 98 GSX is overheating.

Quick run down about last nights events, left headlights on at work, battery died, when I jumped it I blew the headlights, LOL. Forgot to turn them off. I let the car idle for about 10 mins making sure battery charged with no problems. Didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Headed home, a mile later I glanced down at the cluster and noticed the coolant was at about 3/4. Pulled over turned car off for about 10 mins. Checked coolant level and it still was super hot. Steaming and shooting coolant into overflow tank. After letting cool down another 5 mins I couldn't even see coolant in the neck area. Filled it up a bit. Started car, leveled off at normal temp, but after bringing it to 2.5k the needle moved quickly to the red zone and nearly hit max. Repeats the cooling off part, but didn't refill coolant. Had about 5 miles to go to get home. So I took the chance, however this time the needle pegged full max, beyond the red area. I literally coasted about 3 of the 5 miles in neutral. Made it home and let her rest. Popped hood, steam everywhere but what really caught my eye was the tremendous amount of coolant coming from the overflow tank. Ran inside got the laptop and took a quick log. 278*!!!! For coolant.

This morning I tried the " top off coolant, leave cap off and check flow" attempt and this is what I got IMG 0014 - YouTube


With continuous bubbling like that, you definitely have a leak between one or more of the cylinders and the coolant. The temperature spikes you're seeing are a result of steam. Once you've created head space (from all of the bubbles), the steam will occupy it and your gauges will be reading the temp of the steam instead of the coolant (coolant can only get that hot if it turns to steam or is kept under tremendous pressure).
 
Well for anyone who's care what the problem was with my car it was a ....……… thermostat!! Lol. Old thermostat was rusted close. It was the original thermostat with 130k on it. Replaced radiator cap also to ensure my sanity. Thank you to everyone who helped.

HOWEVER, I will be replacing the HG this week, as long as the head isn't warped. If it is then #### it engine swap coming my way. Lol the wife is going to really hate me then
 
After changing the thermostat and gasket the car ran at idle for about 15 mins with no bubbles, no steam, no overflow, nothing. I'm really thinking a partially seized thermostat. After testing the old one I wasnt really able to tell if it opened at all but to me it looked like it opened maybe an 1/8". But I will be doing a compression test ASAP and go from there. Again thank you very much to everyone who helped me out.
 
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After changing the thermostat and gasket the car ran at idle for about 15 mins with no bubbles, no steam, no overflow, nothing. I'm really thinking a partially seized thermostat. After testing the old one I wasnt really able to tell if it opened at all but to me it looked like it opened maybe an 1/8". But I will be doing a compression test ASAP and go from there. Again thank you very much to everyone who helped me out.

Throw the old T-stat into a pot of water and heat it up until the water boils. If it isn't open (you can pull it out with tongs and physically look at it), then that makes sense that that's your problem. If the water can't circulate, you can end up with it heating up excessively, turning to steam, and forcing coolant into the overflow reservoir just because of the expansion of the water when it turns to steam. That would also explain where the bubbles were coming from, so I apologize if I jumped the gun saying that that much bubbling can only come from the cylinders.

If you have good compression and you don't have a definitive head gasket leak, then why bother changing it??
 
Well depending on the compression test results will I then make a decision. But yes I agree why fix something that's not broken. Today is the second day driving it with about 50 miles total and not one blip of overheating. No smoke, no smells and no difference in car performance. I guess I thought I wasn't going to be one of the lucky ones with such an easy fix. So next time I won't jump the gun and do the small fixes first. Also my inexperience with my cars cooling system also was a bit intimidating. As amateur as that sounds, this is my first turbo car so I didn't want to risk anything.
 
Ill start off by saying i blew the headgasket about 2 months ago (didnt overheat, just too much boost and head lifted).. so i pulled the head, resurfaced, put a copper sprayed HG and ARP studs back in..

car was running fine for these 2 months, temps would hit 180 cruising, 200-220 after pulls.. car did hit 240 at one point but didnt affect anything..

i am running no T-stat, oem radiator, oem puller fan (passenger side) and a slim fan in front of turbo.

Well i had a manifold-turbo exhaust leak, so i pulled the manifold, turbo and o2 housing 2 days ago.. welded up the manifold to the turbo, as i was putting it back in, i must of pinched one of the water lines ### it started leaking once i took off the radiator cap.. so i just re-routed the water lines so none were going to the turbo..

Drove around last night.. car hit 240* so i stopped, checked fluid and it was empty, filled it up, drove, it started creeping up again, but this time there was water still in it..

My slim fan right now is pushing air out of the engine bay.. but its been like that since i did the HG 2 months ago, and this problem just started occuring 2 days ago.. seems like my water/coolant is escaping but it is not leaking..

Help is much appreciated, thanks guy.

Car is not smoking or mixing water/oil, so i doubt the headgasket is blown again.
 
first you should have a thermostat . you want the coolant to stay in the radiator a little so it gets cooled and if your loosing coolant and there aren't any leaks then your burning it . try doing a leak down test and watch the coolat at the stat housing if it starts to rise then you are burning it . when you had the head off did you check to see if it was waurped .
 
Are you sure you have all the air out of the system? Have you noticed any water boiling in the overflow? I'd run the car with the cap off for a while and add fluid if needed. Turn the heater on high just to hopefully get all the air out. You might not be building enough pressure in the coolant system to keep the boiling temperature higher.
 
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