So last week my car overheated. I added coolant and it was soon empty in a few days. There was no visible leak or puddle of cooolant underneath so I assumed it was the thermostat. I changed the thermostat on Saturday. It is now overheating again! There went my income tax refund Any ideas?!
Check your oil, if it's overfull or smells like antifreeze and your exhaust is blowing smoke...that'd be your head gasket.
This has happened to me before and ten years later I'm still paranoid it's going to happen every time I check my oil. That awful milky dipstick!
Dude, don't panic yet. Sometimes, when your car overheats and blows out the water from your engine, you'll have to refill the water a couple of times. The reason being that when your car is hot and you put water in, the steam it creates throws it right back out. Additionally, you could have air pockets in the system which could cause you to run low. One more thing, if your thermostat was closed when you refilled it, then you just added water to the radiator and as soon as that stat opens up, the engine will suck up all the water. If none of these apply, check your oil. If it looks like a chocolate milkshake, then you've blown your head gasket. If you ran it hot, you may have warped your heads, and that would cause overheating as well. When you had your motor rebuilt, did you have the heads checked for warping? Oh, one last thing, have your radiotor cleaned out. Not just flushed...take it into a shop and heve them take the end caps of and run lines through each pipe. Let me know how it works out...
Yeah the heads were all warped to hell so they put them in a oven or something to warp them back. It was indeed a big mess. But its been running fine the past 6 months. I'll go by and see my mechanic after work and see what they think....grrrrrr. I'll let ya know later.
To me, it sounds like a busted water pump. I'm sure you know this already, but you can keep your car from overheating by running your heater while driving. It's only a temp fix, but at least you can drive it while your finding out what the problem is.
I'm not saying it not a busted pump, but that should leave you quite a puddle (as in everything you just put in) as soon as you refill unless it all left and you didn't see it and now it's dry again. You could turn on your heater and if you smell anti-freeze - that'd be your heater coil. Or while the car engine is <b>cool</b>, take of the cap of the radiator and fill it up, start the car and like Falcon says, it should go down once the engine warms up and the thermostat kicks in, fill it back up while running, shut the car off, put the cap back on and fill the reservoir. Then start give the car another day of driving and check it for leaks.
Oh, do you have a bleeder screw on the thermostat housing? My Dad's intrepid has this and the refilling is quite different than on my mustang.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm gonna print them all and take them to my mechanic and see how much he's willing to screw me for. also, the oil is not milky. Its beautiful and black! oh BTW, its a '94 Toyota truck. Nothing fancy, but it gets me there.
One last thing... After driving the truck around, squeeze the upper radiator hose. Does it have pressure in it? Check radiator cap pressure or just get a new one.
Definitely check the gasket around the water pump as others had advised. Here is a few way to detect a blown head gasket: See if steam is coming out of your tailpipe Check your coolant overflow reservoir for exhaust gases Check to see if your oil has water intermixed with it (if so, then your oil will look kind of like chocolate milk). Also, just because you don't have a coolant puddle underneat your car, doesn't mean you don't have a leak. Sometimes, the leak can be so small, that fluid will only leak out once it is pressurized or hot. Then, it will just come out in the form of steam. A few other suggestions: Check your cooling fans and make sure they are running. If your car is consistantly overheating when you are at a stop sign or stop light, then that means your cooling fan is not cooling the radiator. If your car is over-heating when the vehicle is going over 40 or so, then your radiator might have a small leak in it. There are a number of places that can do a pressure test on your radiator for a small fee. It might even be a hose. It really does not sound like a head gasket to me though. Normally, when that occurs, you will have performance problems (hesitation and what not).
Sounds like when the heads were resurfaced during the overhaul, they may have been shaved beyond tolerence. You may need a second opinion. If you want.. call Ray at Alliance Engine Rebuilding..tell him John Higgins asked you to call, he will give some advice. 473-6863. P.S. Hes a long time, big time Rockets fan.
My head gasket leak started as a noticeable need to refill the radiator, but the oil was black. Just be careful and observant. YMMV. At this point the worth of the vehicle may be less than the fix, but we are waiting with bated breath for the evaluation!
Oh one more thing: If your mechanic tells you that you do indeed have a blow head gasket, ask him to do a compression test and have him give you the readings. I have books on every car out there and I can tell you if they are normal or not.
