Help! My 88 n/a is overheating!
 

Well it actually hasn't overheated, but if i let it run long enough it will. So long story short, my old motor ate shit cuz of blown water seals and i ended up getting my friend's old motor from his 87 n/a. I know that this motor ran well before so i didn't spend a whole lotta time inspecting it. I just took off the rear housing, took a good look at the rotor and coolant passages (looked pretty good to me), put it all back together, and dropped that sucka in. After fightin' with a crank no start (bad crank sensor connection), i finally got is started. Anyways, the needle on the temp gauge will slowly rise and won't stop until i shut the engine off. There's no visible coolant leaks and i replaced just about all the hoses, but when i shut the engine off after it warms up, it starts steaming from around the lower intake manifold area. Weird shit, right?! The steam smells like coolant, but i just can't find a leak anywhere, and I don't think there's coolant that runs through the lower intake manifold ( at least in the n/a motor). Any help would be deeply appreciated!

let me get this right.you Disassembled the Engine,and Didn't Use New Soft seals when you put it back together?.I'm thinking Coolant Leak,Internally...Personally If the Motor "was running Fine' when it was Hauled out of One car,I would have Left Well enough alone,and Installed it..(maybe compression check it before the install, By Connecting a battery Directly to the starter,and Checkin Compression that way),But I would not have Started to Take the Engine apart without a some New seals to replace the old ones..That could be the Problem Right there...Another Thought is that you may have just Forgot to Put on the Wire Onto the Temp sender(by the oil Pedestal).That would cause the Temp guage to Go Nuts too.

the steam is from your coolent gushing past your rad caps and spilling onto the hot motor.^ and yes why did u take a motor apart atleast the rear iron and not replace the old crumbling broken coolent seals then wonder why its overheating