Coolant can't get back into radiator.

[Camaro95V6]

Hey guys. My car's been overheating. My fan wasn't coming on and my car was hesitating when I would give it gas. I replaced the temperature sensor(the one next to the thermostat), and that fixed those 2 problems. Fan comes on and car no longer hesitates. I also replaced the radiator cap. But I have another problem. My radiator was going through A LOT of coolant. I had no idea where it was going. It also appeared that the coolant in the reservoir was rising. I found out a few days later. Before taking my car to drive a few days ago, the radiator was low on coolant so I filled it up. When I got home, I looked under the hood, the battery and reservoir were covered in coolant. It looked like it came out of that little hole that's in the center of the reservoir cap. All other areas of the engine bay were dry, even the radiator. So it appears that the coolant is able to pass through the overflow hose into the reservoir, but for some reason it can't be sucked back in. I'm replacing the thermostat as well as let out any air that was in the system, but other than that I don't know what else could be the cause. I was also wondering if something possibly fell into the reservoir, so when the coolant comes in, the object is moved out of the way, but when it's sucked back through the object gets in the way. So tomorrow, I'm going to clean out the reservoir and the overflow hose as well. The car runs good. There is no smoke coming out the exhaust, the exhaust doesn't smell like coolant, nor is there coolant in my oil, so I'm pretty sure I don't have a cracked head/gasket. Anyway, I love this car so much and this overheating thing is driving me crazy! So please, any other suggestions I would be very grateful.

BTW, my car is a 95 Camaro 3.4l V6.

[Camaro95V6]

Alrighty, good news. I cleaned out the reservoir and put fresh coolant in it. The coolant that was in there was brown as a motherfucker. I replaced the thermostat w/ a 180* thermostat and let the air out of the system. The car now has a cruising temperature at exactly the half way mark. Stopped it goes slightly above the half way mark, and w/ AC on it goes slightly under the half way mark. The 3.4 Camaro is running good.

[IsaacHayes]

Dexcool strikes again! You need a good flush and replace with new stuff thats compatible with all anti freeze. That is unless you have green antifreeze and it was just really dirty! In that case you still need a flush lol

[Camaro95V6]

I took my car for another drive. After 5 minutes in, the temperature gauge went up to 235 for about 5 seconds, then went down to 180 and it stayed there for about 10 minutes, then it went back to 210, then about 220 and stayed there the rest of the drive. Maybe I'm not letting all the air out of the system. Water pump could be bad or clogged as well. Either way, this thing WILL be getting a flush. It's kinda weird how it did go all the way down to 180 and stayed there awhile. The thing is though, I think there is actually debris in my system. The coolant that passes through the throttle body is really brown and sludgy. I'll probably get it eventually, but this thing is just being annoying.

[Superdave]

I've been cycling plain water through mine to get all the dex cool gunk out.. the engine has under 700 miles on it and it's still pulling crud out.

a good flush should fix your problem though, probably an air bubble in there somewhere...

[IsaacHayes]

eewwww sludge. I'm glad my motor has only seen the green stuff from it's birth. No sludge for me!

[Superdave]

eewwww sludge. I'm glad my motor has only seen the green stuff from it's birth. No sludge for me!

the green stuff is getting hard to find!

[Camaro95V6]

I've been cycling plain water through mine to get all the dex cool gunk out.. the engine has under 700 miles on it and it's still pulling crud out.

a good flush should fix your problem though, probably an air bubble in there somewhere...

That's what I'm thinking. My car probably has never had a flush before and has Dex Cool still in the system. When I took off the throttle body, when I pulled off the coolant hoses, this orange brownish sludge came out the tubes. It looked a lot like rust. Plus my old radiator cap was all rusted. I really hope a flush will get this thing running cool again.

[SappySE107]

Do a compression test on your cooling system. It sounds like you have a blown head gasket and are forcing water out of the system and into the overflow/all over the place. I had this happen once.

[dohcfiend]

i am with ben. i have seen this twice. once on one of my cars and once in my bro's car.

also when was your last oil change? you might be in for a surprise on your next one.

[Camaro95V6]

i am with ben. i have seen this twice. once on one of my cars and once in my bro's car.

also when was your last oil change? you may be in for a surprise on your next one.

Last oil change was 4 months ago.

[Camaro95V6]

Well guys, the car is finally getting fixed. I was hoping it would be something simple, but not so, so I had to save up the money to get it fixed. Anyway, took the car over to my mechanic's house. He got the intake off, and last night me and my dad went over to his house. The LIM gaskets were fine, so we took the heads off. The head gaskets were fine, there was a cylinder full of coolant, and then we looked at the bolt holes. There was part of a bolt that was still in the hole, which is where the leak was. We used an easy out to get it out. Here's my new souvenir.



Went to AutoZone. Got the Fel Pro Head/Intake gasket set, head bolts, coolant, oil, oil filter, spark plugs, and sealant. Went ahead and bought a new water pump. Getting my heads worked on too.

[pocket-rocket]

I won't put parts from Autozone in a car anymore. I went to take a set of 3400 head gaskets back that were 2 months old. "Oh, we don't warranty head gaskets." WTH! Advance carries the same exact part with the same exact part number, and gives a 1 year warranty on it. I vowed from that point on, never will I do business with Autozone. I am not even going to bring up the rest of my history with Autozone....

[Camaro95V6]

Heads are back from the machine shop. They look brand new.