ltrayne84

ok, so here's the deal. I've been having cooling problems. The temperature rises out of nowhere. But lately, even if the tempereture is not high, when i turn the car off the car spills coolant from the reserve. And the other day, after letting the car cool off over night for over 9 hours, I went to go check if i was low on water and when i started to open the radiator cap it was still full of pressure!! as was the hose going from the radiator to the water pump... So people told me that i could have had air in the system and that maybe my radiator cap was no good. So i burped the car for about 40 minutes and changed the radiator cap. Ok, so that seemed to have fixed it for about 2 days because i wasn't losing anymore coolant and the temperature wasn't going up. But today when i pulled up to school, my temperature wasn't high but i noticed that some coolant had spilled out. And after letting the car sit for a while.. it was still holding pressure! So whats the problem here!?!?

black89gt

did you change your thermostat? maybe you still have air in the system.

gt884me

I recently had a similar problem, I ended up putting a 180 thermo in and replaced the radiator with a three row and havent had a problem since.

ltrayne84

yes i changed my thermostat to a 180 2 weeks ago and i'm positive i put it in the right way. You think there's still air in in after burpin it for over 40 mins??? is there a better or right way of doing this?? and is there a way that air can be getting in???

ltrayne84

but i already have both a 180 and a 3 row aluminum radiator.. i'm just so confused

88BlueGT

Have you taken it to a shop yet? Take it to a shop and have them see if they can find the problem. Tell them not to do any work yet because you have another shop to take it to that might do it for cheaper and when you find out what the problem is do it yourself. I have done that a few times lol I feel bad because Im basically using the mechanics but hey.... thats how it goes!

gt884me

Is your radiator dirty, look at your coolant isit dirty? Could also be timing or a water pump

ltrayne84

how can my timing be making it hold pressure like that??? just curious

pedal2themedal

Also sounds like it could be a bad gasket, I had a 5.0 blow the intake gasket and it did the exact same thing. Or even worse yet, could be a head or head gasket putting extra pressure in the line. You can check that by starting it with the cap of when there is no pressure, it should just set there. If the antifreeze bubbles then there is air bleeding into the system somehow. Ive never really known a 5.0 to develop air bubbles, but my 3.8 t-bird i had was a whole other story. You would have to bleed it just right or it wouldnt stay cool at all.
Try the heater and see if it works, see if it stays warm or if it goes cool and then warm. That is another indicator of a flow problem.

i have been a mechanic since i was a little kid, so i know my stuff pretty good, just my two cents though.

If you still wanna trade your car for mine maybe we could cut a deal. good luck, robert

vristang

I prefer to do testing before replacing parts.

Try a pressure test on the cooling system.

From what you describe I am guessing a decent size HG leak.
Just a guess though.


Wish you luck
jason