Ive got a 94 and under normal driving it will overheat, now its not to the point where its out of the normal bracket but its still really close to being too hot. At the same time I cant get any heat even though it says the engine is really hot. Now Ive already replaced the thermostat and Ive kept it full of antifreeze but it still overheats and it still puffs steam out of the hood. Now i know its not a head gasket because its only steaming from the radiator and nowhere on the engine. So does anybody have any clue on what might be wrong with my car?

 

It could be a head gasket. #1 cause for overheating in these 3.8's. Some ways to tell:
[ol][*]Oily residue in your radiator or overflow.[*]Air bubbles in your radiator while running.[*]Low cylinder compression. This helps point out exactly where your leak is.[/ol]
If none of those symptoms are there then check:
[ol][*]Is your fan coming on?[*]Radiator clogged? Have rodded or replace.[*]Do you have any leaks in your hoses and how old are they?[/ol]
I went through alot of this on my car but in the end it was the head gaskets I had to replace. I went with the 99-04 OEM gaskets that will never blow out again. They are more expensive but if it saves me that backache its worth it. Let us know what you find.

 

There doesnt seem to be any oil in the overflow and its not bubbling in the resovoir and I just got home from school and looking in the engine bay its done the same thing its been doing. The resovoir overflowed or spewed or something and theres antifreeze everywhere, now what I want to know iswhichofthe two big hoses that are connected to the radiatoris the returning hoses for the fluid. Because the top hose (which is smaller) is hot but the bigger hose on the bottom right, is cold as anything. Its also leaking alot from somewhere around there but not at the clamp or hose.Now what Im thinking is that the top one is the return hose and its pumping air and a little fluid into the resovoir and making it overflow while the bottom one isnt sending any fluid to the water pump and thats causing the engine to overheat. Because the second some fluid does hit the engine the car steams because its so hot.

But this is all speculation of course, I talked to my dad and he knows a hell of alot more about cars than I do and he says that we need to get a pump from advanced auto parts that bolts onto the radiator that pumps air into the radiator so you can see if its leaking and from where.

 

i had a simliar problem if you dont mind replaceing all the anitfreeze and basiclly flushing it.
-let the car cool
-take of theresivor(sp?) cap
-take a hose and just keep pumping water in till it might procuce some sediment
move the hose up and down side to side in the resveror.

it worked for me.

 

Sounds like you have either a blocked rad or water pump is not doing it's job, either of these will cause the engine to run hotter than normal. The pump your Dad is talking about will pressurize the system & since you can do this when the engine is cold it's a lot safer to find out where (or if) it's leaking.
Remember though, an overheated engine will cause a leak all by itself, it will leak at the weakest point which could be at a hose clamp or it SHOULD be at the rad cap if everything else is up to spec.

 

Well the radiator is new and so is the water pump (i dont know when it was replaced) so it could be that the pump has gone bad. But Im going to advanced this weekend to buy that test pump and then Ill determine what course of action to take from there. Im either gonna have to get a new radiator (hour to take out, hour to put in) or Ill have to get a new water pump ( I have no idea what kind of a pain in the *** thatll be.)
Im just really thankful that I dont have to drive too far anytime soon (i live10 minutes from school and 5 minutes from work)

Also, in the mean time would it be alright to just use water instead of anti freeze? Because it leaks about a pint of coolant after it gets warmed up and shut off.

 

If none of the above works out then you must have a blockage someplace else, are your hoses in good condition, not hard, cracked, or swollen, mishaped? If you take off the lower rad hose & use a hose to fill from the top it should cascade out the bottom hose fitting like Niagara falls! You can also get those flush kits & connect up the garden hose to the supplied fittings & do a power flush with chemical cleaning solution running through the engine block, just follow the directions.

Unfortunately none of this will tell you if the head gaskets are leaking, for that you would need to do a compression test &/or leakdown test. You can also get your engine oil checked for coolant contamination. However if it is leaking into the intake this wont usually show up in the engine oil.


Regards Steve.

 

See thats what me and my dad originally thought and we put in a new thermostat thinking that it would solve the problem but it didnt do anything.

I think Ill be alright with what little water I put in because I live in Georgia and right now its a slightly humid 70 degrees.

I got home today and opened up the valve where the top says (remove before filling engine etc etc) and I filled it with water (took about 8 bottles of water) I drove it around the block and it ran fine but then 3/4ths of the way home it went right back to almost overheating and the entire time the heater didnt work.
I got home and turned off the car and when I popped the hood the resovoir had of course, sprayed everything. So I opened the valve up again and let it release all the steam that had built up and after I had let it cool for about 15 minutes I started it up again and let it just idle and revved it to 2k rpm 3 times and it started overheating again and then it started steaming andI noticed it was coming from the drivers side of the radiator. So now Im thinking that there could be a crack in the radiator or its clogged or something. Because both hoses are new and they dont appear to be leaking from the clamps.

I heard froma friend that AAMCO will find out whats wrong with your car for free so if thats true I may take it over there saturday

 

From your latest description it sounds like your head gasket is blown. Your leaking combustion gas into the coolant passages. This pressurises the entire system beyond 15 PSI. The escape route is out the rad cap & into the expansion bottle, when enough coolant has been lost the engine overheats. Also hot gasses from combustion accelerates the heat loss into the cooling system, rather like directing exhaust gas into your cooling system!

I might be wrong , I hope so ! but it sounds like thats what is happening at this point. You could do a compression test & look for bubbles in your coolant. That would strongly confirm the problem, also a significantly lower PSI reading will be found in the leaking cylinder(s).

One last point, is your cooling fan working (radiator fan) & whats your temp gauge doing while this is happening?

HTH, Steve.

 

The fan works but it doesnt do a whole hell of alot, the temp gauge is still high and then steam starts coming from the drivers side of the radiator near the bottom of the radiator.
It might be a head gasket but I havnt seen any engine oil in the coolant and the only time the engine bogs is whent he engine is hot, when its cool and the coolant hasnt turned to steam its as peppy as ever but once the temp gauge goes near the red it starts to bog and become hesitant.

Does anyone know if AAMCO will check and see if its a headgasket for free?
If it comes down to it and the headgaskets screwed, Ive already decided to drop a 99-04 splitport v6 in there. Its cheaper and its faster so other than the month or so itll take for me to get the engine taken out and have a new one put in I cant see any downside.
My only problem will be finding a ride to and from school for a month. (I live out of my schools district and I have work exit =/)