soadstang

hey guys ive got a stock 94 gt con. 5 speed and i live in arizona and it gets freakin hot out here! the average temp for the last 3 months has been 110 degrees. anyways my car overheats. the needle gets up tothe A on the NORMAL. I have changed the thermostat twice(190 stat), the upper and lower hoses, I did a flush myself, the fan works, and the radiator is a 3 row copper radiator. I took my car to brakemasters to get a flush but they performed a heat check and he hooked up some machine to it and after 3 tries he showed me some green liquid, supposedley the liquid should be blue, and it turned green cause accoring to them I have a broken head gasket or possibly a cracked head. theyll charge me $$2200 to fix it! am I being conned!? I mean my car does leak anti freeze, or the oil does look like it went in to the antifreeze! and if I had a cracked head would my car overheat all the time? if its cool outside its fine, or wen it heats up i pour water on the radiator and it cools down quick. I think my radiator is messed up cause i had it made in mexico to save some cash, but it looks like a crappy job! Does anybody know what I can do to test my radiator or to find the cause of the problem without tearing the engine apart? Please help cause damn it sucks not having a/c when its freakin 115 outside!

aode08

oil would be in coolant or white smoke out the pipes, get your car and put in a 160 or 180* thermostat.

my77stang

you had a radiator made in mexico????

wtf [&:]

mjr46

the test they performed was a block check, and the liquid is normally blue and if cumbustion gases are getting into the cooling system the liquid should turn yellowish green but you have to lower the level in the radiator a little as to not suck up coolant when performing the test or it'll give you false results....a blown head gasket will cause the car to persistantly over heat and if there were a cracked head or block and or leak in the timing cover gasket from the water jacket to the timing chain area or blown intake manifold gasket at either of the 4 corners where water is transfered from the intake to head it could leak coolant into the lifter valley....any of these would cause the oil to be milky white if the oil is normal then that may not be the problem

SoDakStang

Right on the nuts there

If you want to check it, hook a cooling system pressure tester to it. If you have a leak (which i'm sure you do), the tester will basically force out the coolant from the leaking area. Basically it's a pump that you put where the radiator cap is. With this tool on, turn the car on and get it to operating temp (since you said it only gets hot on hot days). Once it's there, see if the cooling system is building pressure. If the head gasket is blown, you should build pressure. If you aren't building pressure, chances are probably good that the head gasket is fine. As mjr46 said, check your oil and look for it to be milky. And besides, even if all those problems are the case, take a weekend and fix it your self. $100 should get you most of the gaskets.

elmustang5.0

so if he had a blown head gasket then the oil should be milky?

my77stang

^ kinda depends on where the gasket is blown, and how bad its blown.

mjr46

no not necessarily...cracked block, heads,lower intake gasket or timing cover........blown head gaskets usually cause hot cumbustion gasses to enter the cooling system which further heats the coolant and it can cause air in the cooling system whichcould impead the flow of coolant and many other issues as well...all this will raise coolant temp forcing car to over heat coolant in the oil if you can't readily narrow it down to a gasket means you either pull the heads and have them checked for cracks or the block and have it checked for cracks. now if the gasket were blown at the two oil drain back passages from the head through the block or cracked there oil can seep past and get to coolant passages it just depends where the blow out is

Gary H

I hope the radiator was cheap, you can pick one up at autozone for $120-$160. I'd go with a better quality one and a 180 'stat. Have you checked the plugs for antifeeze or to see if it's running lean?

elmustang5.0

is there a way tomake sure that its a broken gasket? im asking this cause my car overheats and i've replaced everything from the radiator to the fan and it still overheats. im just waiting for the water pump to get here so i can see if that was the problem.