99 oldsmobile alero overheating

[TurboAlero]

HI , can some one help me with this prob.

My car is over heating don't know why.

Things that I have check, The reservoir tanks caps bought a new one. Installed a thicker radiator 2 row alumin costume made. Check every hose for leaks, hmm checked the oil , didn't find any coolant in it, checked the coolant it self didn't find any oil in it.Hmm the only thing that I could say is that maybe the lower intake gasket went bye bye. but I don't know for sure.

Things that I have noticed is, that when the car is cold and I turned the car on and went it getting hotter, I noticed that there's steam coming out of the reservoir tank when I have the cap off. That strange because the car is like 1/4 hot. And when I go wot, it begins to spill the water out of the reservoir dump hose.

[TurboAlero]

Just need to know what more do I need to check because i'm gething stressed about this prob.

And btw it a 3.4 V6 LA1 engine

[IsaacHayes]

Is it a blown head gasket pressurizing the coolant system? You are turbo'ed right? Are you burning coolant?

If not, then are you sure it's not a stuck thermostat, or clogged heater core/etc from old dex cool sludge?

[TurboAlero]

Hmm, I have elimated the heater, and I dont have the thermostat installed.
Yeps ' I'm turbo'ed.
If the engine is burning coolant hmm, that I don't know. How do you know that the engine is burning coolant??????
But if it's a blown head gasket , should I get coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant system??

[PCGUY112887]

You don't have ANY thermostat installed?

You would know if your burning coolant if it 1 disappears and 2 your exhaust smells sweet and maybe smokes

If you blew a headgasket, you could be burning coolant, you may also see bubbles form in the coolant tank (ensure it's not just air bubbles getting out if you drained your coolant or anything).

[IsaacHayes]

You might have disrupted the stock cooling system enough to stop it from working right.. Superdave had problems when he blocked the heater core.

1) how is the heater disabled? Did you connect the lines or block both off? Needs to have flow between those two lines and not just shut off.

2) You need a thermostat in there. I would go with one that has the thing on the back like the stock has. From my understanding when it opens it blocks the bypass forcing coolant from the heads through the heater core and radiator only, to cool it right away before it goes back to the pump and into the block again.

Try those things first and see where you are at from there.

Burning coolant you can see smoke out the tailpipe sometimes depending on how much is burning. Also if the coolant system is super pressurized with air then combustion gases are getting into the coolant. Blown head gasket can cause the combustion area to burn through to a coolant jacket, and thus you only get coolant into the cylinder where it's burned and you get exhaust gasses pushed into the coolant system..

Unless you are pushing a ton of boost or the car overheated bad the headgaskets are probably ok.

[TurboAlero]

Hmm for the thermostat thing I haven't install one for the past hmmm 4 years, so I think that isn't the prob, and for the coolant lines to the heater hmm, well they are gone , I removed then from the system , there's no connection anymore on the engine for the heater.


Well the only thing that I can say is that the system is pressurized because, when I start the engine and let it idle for a few second and then go open the reservoir cap, I will get like when you open a cola bottle lol.
And I'm not running high boost yet, still @ 8 psi but on a GT40 turbo.


Question
maybe the lower intake gasket is bad?? how do you know when that's bad

[IsaacHayes]

Hmm with no thermostat and blocked/removed heatercore lines then it should flow right to the radiator and through the bypass... So probably not a problem.

LIM is bad when you get coolant outside the engine or into the oil. The coolant jackets are on the outer edges. How does the underside of the oil cap look?

Sounds like you may have blown the headgasket...

Are you running straight water?

[PCGUY112887]

Run the engine with the cap off (while it's cool), see if there are bubbles comming up through it.

I ran straight water for a little while to flush my system with some cleaner, it would constantly bubble and crap from boiling in hot spots I guess. Changed to 50/50, bubbled a bit to get air out, now it's fine.

[TurboAlero]

Well under the oil cap well there's oil lol, no milky stuff lol.

No I'm using a coolant , I don't remember the brand but it's one that they sell in all gas stations over here, so it has to be good.



Well When the engine is cold and I start it I dont get any bubbles but I will get a steam out of the reservoir , and when the cap is on and the car begins to reach it's idle temp at 181 F then I will noticed that it begines to spill the coolant out of the reservoir dump hose.

[geldartb]

if theres oil getting into your coolant then theres somthing wrong.

could be the intake gasket, or timing cover gasket. or something else.

mine had this shortly before it went to hell. i drained the coolant out of the radiator and there was oil in it. did the lower intake gasket and it had already fubared the bearings so i just got a new motor cause i didnt have the time to screw around with fining problems. now its getting rebuilt with a nice cam.

i had coolant in my oil in the engine and oil in my coolant in the rad.

[TurboAlero]

Ohh damn, that sucks man.
Well for me I didn't get any of those, no oil in coolant or coolant in oil


Anhhh no I remeber something I get alot of surching some times

[TurboAlero]

when Idling