overheating bad
 

Ok the car will warm up while this is going on, the low coolant light and buzzer is still comming on. Then biggity bam! The car overheats and coolant is all over the place. I can feel the water in the hoses and see it in the reserve boiling. What is this? Am I lucky enough for this to be just a stuck thermostat, or is it worse a bad water pump? How can I tell this?


Chris

^

Sounds to me the water seal has shat its self! GO do a co2 test on your coolant and if it shows you have co2 in it your motor its fried... stop driving it and rebuild her or get a new engine

While looking through the archives I came along this


crossbar...try this. With the car cold, open the filler cap. Fill it as far as you can with coolant. Leave the cap off. Now, find the fusebox under the hood. PUllout the 2 fuses closest to the engine. This disables fuel and spark so the engine wont run.

Crank her over, watching the coolant hole. Water should NOT gush out of the hole, maybe a little side spillage, but if it shoots up tot he hood, youre engine is shot.IF not, you have a small external problem such as leak, water pump, radiator, thermostat, etc.

As for a rebuild, parts cost about $700+, and labor is double that. I do rebuilds myself for around $1200 per engine, plus installation


Ok now my water didnt gush out or anything, so does this mean that the engine isnt bad. Could it just be the thermostat?

EXCELLENT!!

Someone who can search the archives to find my old posts! Freakin great! Now I dont have to keep answering stuff!

BTW that above test isnt the "absolute" 100% way to tell if you have bad seals. IT usually works well for me, is quick and easy, so I recommend it. Bad seals are still possible but less likely.


Id start by taking out the thermostat and running it. Not for good, just for a test. Be sure ALL the air is bled out of the system. Fill at the cap on the engine(if you have an 86-8), with the bleed screw out on the rad. When water comes out the bleed screw, replace it quickly and keep filling the coolant until that is full, and repeat a couple of times after runing the engine to be sure all air is out. The system wont act right with air in it.

IF it overheats with the thermostat out, either your fan is shot, your pump aint pumpin, or you have a bad clog somewhere. Does the radiator get warm/hot? Bottom hose get warm? IF not, radiator might be clogged.
Be careful. IF you over heat a rotary one good time it WILL destroy the o-rings from then on, even if theyre ok now.

ok, trying to get my thrmostat out, i have the hose off one bolt out of the thermostat housing but I cant get the other one off. any ideas how to get to the other bolt?

Uh, 12mm socket and 12" extension??
Works for me.

Well I think the car is fixed, I replaced the thermostat and burped the radiator. The low coolant buzzer has gone and the car isnt over heating, I just hope that this takes care of it. Thanks for you help.