Hey all, been a while. Hope you can help me out here. About 2 years ago I put an '88 2.8L with just under 80K in my '87 S15. I installed a new radiator, water pump, T-stat, and radiator cap on it. Have put a little over 5K miles on it since. Never had the slightest problem with cooling. It was perfect, you could even watch the t-stat open in the morning via the temp gauge. Got to where I'd know where I would be when it opens.
Last week I took a short road trip, 80 miles total, 40 there, 40 back. 110 degrees out, A/C on, 65-70mph. No problem out, no problem most of the way back, right before getting home the temp gauge suddenly started climbing. 260 is as high as it reads before it pegs. It got to the 260, but did not peg. Engine had none of the symptoms of a seriously overheated engine, knocking, loss of power, etc. Pulled off the highway and popped the hood. No leaks, but it was pushing coolant out of the overflow.
At this point the only thing in the cooling system that wasn't new was the fan clutch. I wasn't optimistic of this being the problem, but since it did have some wobble in the bearing it didn't hurt to replace it anyway, so I did.
Would still run hot, but it was intermittent, I could drive for a while with no problem, t-stat would open like it should, everything would be fine then it'd start heating up fast.
Out of desperation I replaced the t-stat and radiator cap again. Odd thing is, I left the truck idling for nearly an hour with the A/C on and it never got hot. Stayed right where it should. Both upper and lower radiator hoses yielded to my squeeze.
Took it for a drive the next day, at first it was okay, but then it suddenly got hot again. Pushed coolant out the overflow again. Both upper and lower hose were under quite a bit of pressure. Even when it wasn't loosing coolant, but just running warm.
So, earlier today I had it running with the hood up. Noticed it had a miss, uh-oh, found out the #5 wasn't firing. Pulled the plug, it was wet.
No oil in water, no water in oil, no smoke or sweet smell out the exhaust. Is it possible to blow a head gasket just enough to pressurize the cooling system to the point it blows coolant? And that's all it does?
I have some pictures here of the plug, sorry they are very, very poor quality, but you can see the coloring anyway, does it look like it's been burning coolant? And I don't know if it's related, but you can almost see in that last pic that there's a chunk missing out of the porcelain.
Sorry so long, wanted you to have all the details, thanks in advance for any help.
No blockage in front of the radiator, timing is spot on 10 degrees. Put a compression tester on #5, 180lbs hot.
Last week I took a short road trip, 80 miles total, 40 there, 40 back. 110 degrees out, A/C on, 65-70mph. No problem out, no problem most of the way back, right before getting home the temp gauge suddenly started climbing. 260 is as high as it reads before it pegs. It got to the 260, but did not peg. Engine had none of the symptoms of a seriously overheated engine, knocking, loss of power, etc. Pulled off the highway and popped the hood. No leaks, but it was pushing coolant out of the overflow.
At this point the only thing in the cooling system that wasn't new was the fan clutch. I wasn't optimistic of this being the problem, but since it did have some wobble in the bearing it didn't hurt to replace it anyway, so I did.
Would still run hot, but it was intermittent, I could drive for a while with no problem, t-stat would open like it should, everything would be fine then it'd start heating up fast.
Out of desperation I replaced the t-stat and radiator cap again. Odd thing is, I left the truck idling for nearly an hour with the A/C on and it never got hot. Stayed right where it should. Both upper and lower radiator hoses yielded to my squeeze.
Took it for a drive the next day, at first it was okay, but then it suddenly got hot again. Pushed coolant out the overflow again. Both upper and lower hose were under quite a bit of pressure. Even when it wasn't loosing coolant, but just running warm.
So, earlier today I had it running with the hood up. Noticed it had a miss, uh-oh, found out the #5 wasn't firing. Pulled the plug, it was wet.
No oil in water, no water in oil, no smoke or sweet smell out the exhaust. Is it possible to blow a head gasket just enough to pressurize the cooling system to the point it blows coolant? And that's all it does?
I have some pictures here of the plug, sorry they are very, very poor quality, but you can see the coloring anyway, does it look like it's been burning coolant? And I don't know if it's related, but you can almost see in that last pic that there's a chunk missing out of the porcelain.
Sorry so long, wanted you to have all the details, thanks in advance for any help.
No blockage in front of the radiator, timing is spot on 10 degrees. Put a compression tester on #5, 180lbs hot.
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