lx5.0

i was driving home and all of a sudden my car started to smell funny then i saw my temp gauge and saw the needle was like in the middle. It is usually lower than that so then when i was getting close to a safe stop which was kinda like an uphill and all of a sudden a made like an pinging noise and went away real quick so i let go gas and turned off the car and glided all the way to a stop sign my needle went up little be little so onece i got to a complete stop i checked motor and saw smoke coming out i guess it was from how hot it was and then i check to see if i had water and no water. That was weird[&:] i always check my cars water so then i got an gallon and put water on it and noticed it started coming out from back on the block where headers where i think i blew out a freeze plug so wat i wanted to know is you all thinkk my motor messed up already. Im just waiting for motor to cool down to install a freeze plug but scared to start it up and hear funny noises coming from motor[]

mjr46

repair the freeze plug if that's what happened the pinging you heard was spark knock/ detonation and occurs a s a result of elevated cylinder temps and when a cars cooling system is malfunctioning the likelyhood of spark knock/ping is greatly increased... repair leak, install coolant..not water and bleed system and see how it runs

projectresto83

If you are wowondering about something being screwed up over a slight overheat like thatI wouldn't worry. My motor has been over the desired temp more than a few times and I have no problems. If you had aluminum heads then it may be more of a worry but with the old cast iron there shouldn't be anything wrong at all.

lx5.0

finally finished fixing it it was a freeze plug that was next to the dipstick had to put the rubber one because the they didnt have the other kind in stock at my local autozone oh well i needed my car fixed for work tomorrow. Oh yeah and car stilll sounds normal no knocking or pinging i was already thinking of going to a bigger block if my motor had messed up to like a 347 or 351 ill just wait untilll my 302 gives up

mjr46

a 347 isn't a bigger block just a 302 bore .030 and crank with longer stroke and longer rods..now a 351 would be a larger block