Car overheated, drained the coolent out of the engine block, it is greenish brown.
 

Is this normal? What are the chances of a blown motor or broken water seal???
Thanks

did your AST split open? how long did u let the car run with coolant drained? Sounds like the coolant color is old...when was the last time it was flushed?

The AST seems fine, I have the Pettit AST. I ran it for a little over 2 miles to get home, shouldnt have done it, but last time the coolent temp went up was because the system was not properly burpped, but I found out this time it was really low in coolent. Didnt find any leak @ all from the system, but the car overheats as soon as I start it, and btw, my heater will not blow hot air, which was very unusual.....

Oh it was a rebuilt engine w/ a little over 3000 miles on it, and was wondering if the brown coolent was due to the main water seal broke? However didnt see any coolent burning from the exhaust....

you may have to dig around, especially around the heater core. you haven't seen any coolant leaks when the car is sitting?

have you checked the engine oil - does it look like coffee & milk?

Does it look like oil? does it float in the coolant?

No, have not check the engine oil yet, I will tonight, also the coolent came out of the block was just brownish blue/green. Also I have coolent shot out of the filler neck after the car was cooled down...Do I have a blown water seal or o-ring? The engine was rebuilt 3000 miles ago, and no weird exhaust gas color....

could be a bad thermostat.... same thing happened to me 'bout 9 months ago. the car overheated, i put the heater on and cold air blew out. not sure about why the coolant color is so funky though... could be just old coolant as mentioned before.

I just had a new engine put into my car and the same thing happened to me 2 days after, I thought I cracked my block again but come to find out that it was my radiator never had a problem with it before, but because the new engine had a little more power, a little hole in my radiator became a big one really fast, I would check that, I also heard if you have air in the line it would cause water the start pouring out. Also check to see if your fans are working beacuse that could cause the collant to overheat that is why it has a brownish color. if it is none of that beats me, but I know a guy that is an expert with rotary's I will ask him tomorrow

Old coolant and stuck theromostat.

Old coolant in a 3000 mile old rebuild?

Gas I believe looks green. What does the coolant smell like?

It smells a little like gas. Would it be exhaust gas? However, the coolent from the radiator is clear blue. Also would a stuck thermostat causes the coolent to shoot out of the filler neck even the car was cooled? The engine is almost brand new, how can I have a bad seal already if that is the case?

that color coolant is definitely not normal. I can't even speculate why it would be that color after only 3,000 miles. Can you check with the people that did the rebuild or reman? you might have some kind of warranty.

for now just empty it and refill it with fresh fluid, burp the system and keep an eye on things. keep a sample of the old coolant around in case you need to show it to someone.

Did the coolant have enough antifreeze or anti-rust in it to prevent corrosion? Or was the inside of the cooling system rusted prior to putting in the new engine? Brownish sounds like rust.

Another thought - did someone mix coolant types? There are green, pink, and yellow antifreezes (all with different chemistry) that should not be used together.

A mixture of pink and green might wind up brownish-green.

I just got a new thermostat and radiator cap, I will try to burp the system w/ the new parts and see if it still overheats. My nightmare is that the o-rings were shot. in that case, I should see coolent burning from the exhaust right?

Pull your throttle body coolant line off before you fill the system. This will allow air to escape, and allow you to get more coolant in. Don't forget to put it back on after filling :D

im gonna knock on wood as i say this... and sacrifice some bulls..... but, my engine overheated (2k miles on a rebuilt motor) when my thermostat and waterpump failed. i (obviously) feaked... a brand new motor and it overheated already. that was over 9 months and 1500+ miles ago. ive kept a very close eye on things since then and so far im not showing signs of o-ring damage. (did the champaign test a few days ago just to be sure)

lets hope our luck holds, considering that our engines are practically (or were) brand new.

replace the coolant, check over the ENTIRE cooling system and keep an eye on it. let us know how it all goes.

How bad did u overheat the motor? My watertemp gauge shows about 260 as the highest!!! But I have also heard track guys were constantly running around 230+ on a hot track day w/ no problem.....Just curious...Now if I have a bad thermostat stuck, would that prevent coolent from escaping the block to the radiator? Which one of the upper/lower radiator hoses goes into out of the block and vice versa??

at the time i only had the stock temp gauge (zips up flame suit).... from what i understand it starts to move at about 245degrees... i know that varies but the outside air temps at the time were in the 50s... and i was going about 60 on the freeway.

cant tell you off the top of my head exactly where the upper and lower radiator hoses connect to the block. ill have to look at my car and my workshop manual.

if you have a bad thermostat then you wont have enough coolant going through the radiator and back to the block. the coolant in the block will overheat, boil...

did you check your water pump? a bad water pump would mean that youre not moving any coolant through the system.

THanks, Which one is the waterpump pulley, how do you tell if the waterpump failed? I have heard some squeaking noise prior a few days when the car starts, it seems like the belt were slipping a bit, but it didnt ring a bell......Oh BTW, that would have explained when I turn the heat on full, cold air came out instead.....what gives??

The WP pulley is the one without the grooves in contact with the back side of the belt.

that sounds like a bum water pump. that squeak that you hear is water on the belt. when the water pump starts to fail itll leak drops of water (coolant) out of the "weep hole"... and sometimes it lands on the belt.

its likely that the water pump is suspect in your lack of heat out of the heater.... if the pump isnt moving hot coolant, then you wont be getting any heat.