cdcarter

My car won't take any coolant. When it gets up to temp., it won't take any coolant in. The coolant backs up and comes out of the catch can on the side of the radiator. I replaced the thermostat and bypassed the heater core. The coolant in the catch can doesn't start to buble out until the car is very hot. Would it be a head gasket or do you think there is a plug in the coolant somewhere. How do I figure this out? I also didn't have any heat. I would think that if the head gasket is blown, then it would still take in coolant.

50fiend

Check the thermostat to see if it is installed in the proper direction.

cdcarter

Yes, the thermostat is right.

horatio102

if a head gasket is blown it could be pushing air/mixture/oil into the coolant, causing it to overflow. Easy way to test: hydrocarbon test.
Is the water pump working?
is there water in your oil?
is there oil in your water?

VertStangGT86

Check the oil, if it's leaking chances are there will be some in your oil, should look all nasty, kinda milky even. Does your engine overheat if you leave it running for a while? If it's overheating and ticks after you shut it off (that's the hot metal cooling) you can try and narrow down where a blockage might be, use a stethoscope, i.e. broom handle or long screwdriver.

vfast

if it's gushing out it's about a 90% chance it the heads gasket

TheGmKiller331

Yup sounds like a head gasket.

Another thing to try is start it up with the radiator cap off and see if its bubbling out.Alot of times you can smell the exhaust in the coolant.

roundman

you could also do a compression test and this will definitely tell you if a head gasket is blown. another trick is to hook compressed air up to the compression tester fitting and listen for air blowing into the crankcase and look for bubbles in the radiator.

VertStangGT86

smelling exhuast from the radiator is not a good thought.[:'(]