Dear God will someone save my car!?!?!

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Wisc SHO

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So I was driving home from a small trip and my car [stupid phrase deleted - SW] over heated. I guess I should have been watching the level of antifreeze and coolant a little bit more. What are the odds that I screwed up the Head Gasket? Cause it won't stop overheating. I need someone's help.
 

shoteen95

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have you put more coolant in it since it started overheating? Is it leaking from anywhere? When's the last time you had the system flushed or had a new T-stat installed?

When i had a heater hose burst on me my car evacuated all of the coolant within a matter of minutes and my temp gauge just about maxed out in a matter of seconds before i could pull off the road..but then i had it towed to a garage because i was too afraid of damaging anything.

I think a messed up head or gasket would be obvious wouldnt it? (oil or coolant seeping out like crazy?)
 

Wisc SHO

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As of like a month ago I had my thermostat replaced and I wasn't really watching my coolant levels cause where the sensor for coolant was working and all but the coolant would always leak out of the overflow. All the time when it was leaking out there was still plenty of anitfreeze/coolant in the radiator. So I never thought enough of it to actually check the level. It was a dumb move on my part.
 

SonicRiot

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Did you torque the head properly? Is the gasket put on right side up? Any water passages blocked that shouldn't have been or vice versa? White smoke out the tailpipes? Are the fans cycling on and off? Is the ECT good? Is the radiator cap holding pressure? What about the system? How can a car be ***? Is the waterpump good? The bearings? The belt? T-stat?


Not a grilling, just some questions for guidance or a checklist, if you will.
 

Bizzy

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SonicRiot said:
Did you torque the head properly? Is the gasket put on right side up? Any water passages blocked that shouldn't have been or vice versa? White smoke out the tailpipes? Are the fans cycling on and off? Is the ECT good? Is the radiator cap holding pressure? What about the system? How can a car be ***? Is the waterpump good? The bearings? The belt? T-stat?


Not a grilling, just some questions for guidance or a checklist, if you will.

From what I read he didn't replace the HG but is asking what the odds are that he screwed his up when the car overheated. I agree on the other things to check, but start checking the simple things first, like fluid level & radiator cap.
 

SonicRiot

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I thought that I had blown my headgasket before I did my service. Turns out the hose that connects T-stat housing & water inlet/outlet housing on the rear side of the head was torn internally and was spraying onto the back of the engine, appearing like a massive headgasket leak. There was even white/red soot all over like when the coolant is evaporating out of the headgasket.

BTW, that leak was a ****** to find and even worse to repair!
 

dtp-sho

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I would say flush your radiator and change the thermostat.

I had the same problem and thats what i did, but everyone's problems are different.
 

Wisc SHO

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Well the thermostat was just replaced one month ago to OEM specs. It turns out that what we can see so far is that one of the hoses that comes from the engine block and goes to the heater core has blown apart. Part of it is metal and part of it is rubber. And on the metal part it has a censor supposedly for the climate control. And of course the part has been discontinued so we are gonna make one up without the censor and hope that it will work till I can find a real one. So if anyone knows where I can get one let me know. Thanks.
 

SonicRiot

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Has the metal rotted?

If just the rubber section is shot, cut the crush joint off and use new rubber and some metal screw clamps. That's what Ford does when they go...
 

Wisc SHO

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Well as I said we rigged another hose on there and that wasn't the problem. Next step is to take the radiator out and have it checked. In a worse case scenario I may need another radiator, so if anyone has any ideas of where I can get one for cheap let me know. And if anyone chats with Black92SHO from wisconsin let him know I need to get in touch with him. Tell him to call 262-968-5208 and that I have Criminal Evidence class with him. Thanks again.
 

pjtoledo

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Wisc SHO said:
Well as I said we rigged another hose on there and that wasn't the problem. Next step is to take the radiator out and have it checked. In a worse case scenario I may need another radiator, so if anyone has any ideas of where I can get one for cheap let me know. And if anyone chats with Black92SHO from wisconsin let him know I need to get in touch with him. Tell him to call 262-968-5208 and that I have Criminal Evidence class with him. Thanks again.

Get a cooling system pressure tester and "pump it up",,check for leaks, and to see if the system holds pressure.

It's a little easier to just take the radiator hoses off and pour water thru it to check for flow. You may want to try warm water this time of year. Throw some anti freeeze in afterwards so the left over water won't freeze and burst the radiator. Remove both block drain plugs, see if coolant, or crud comes out.

Perry
 

Redline

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Best way to tell if you have a blown head gasket is to do a compression test on all of the cylinders. They should all be more or less in the same range. If you have a blown head gasket, one or more cylinders will zero or close to zero compression.
 

2L8V8_4sho

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Is your car an automatic? Maybe one of the transmission lines in the radiator busted and coolant/transmission fluid is mixing?
 

rangerj

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If your overflow bottle is leaking it can allow air to be sucked into the cooling system, which will contribute to overheating.

Note: If the head gasket is intact around the cylinder a compression test will not tell you if the gasket is blown around a water port. The pressure test is necessary to determine if this is the case. (As Perry suggested) Always do both test when a blown head gasket is suspected.
 

SonicRiot

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On Gen1 and 2, the overflow bottle is not pressurized. There is no seal on the cap. As long as the bottle stays full and the leak is not below the water level, it shouldn't create air pockets.

A cylinder balance self-test will help pin point a bad cylinder too and all it takes is a paperclip.
 
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you had better not have a transmission line broken in the rad that really sux antifreeze and transmission fluid are a great way to stop the car in a week the glue on the clutches will come off and there will be no movement trust me we see it all the time in cryco stuff
 

SonicRiot

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That's not really a difficult fix, just time consuming. Flush the system well if that's the case. Your transmission will begin to froth if the coolant gets into the trans.

An easy way to look is to pull the petcock in the bottom of the radiator. Look for oil. Might as well, seems like you need to try flushing it anyway.


BTW, seems obvious, but was the T-Stat installed correctly? It's easy to put it in backwards.

P.S.: Overheating the car will not neccissarily destroy a headgasket. The head or block, however, can warp in extreme cases. I'd check your waterpump too. Maybe the bearing is shot.
 

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