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This is about my buddy's 1999 Grand Am GT with a 3400.
he was having coolant leak out of his water pump bearing so he changed it, and only put about a half gallon of coolant in it (to fill the tank), and drove it to work the next day.. (brillant, I know)
Well it over heated twice on the way to work, and I told him to burp the system and keep adding antifreeze to the system until it wouldn't take any more.
it was fine and he drove it home. the next day it overheated again, so he put a new thermostat in it, filled it, and the next day it overheated again after about 4 miles of running.
Meanwhile, he is adding the green coolant to the dexcool crap. So, I said, you probably have something plugged in his system (ie dexcool vs green sludge) so we drained it, and filled it up with all water (per the coolant flush instruction) and run it for a few minutes.. ran it up the road for like a 1/2 mi and it over heated started to run crappy (also turned the SES light on too?), and I saw white water vapor coming out the tail pipe, so we shut her down after getting it cooled down a bit by hosing down the radiator.
So, after it cooled down, we fired it up to pull it into the garage, and to my surprise, no white smoke, but it was running crappy.
So, I am thinking when he overheated it the first time, he put a small crack in the head, and it (the crack) just keeps getting bigger? If it was the head gasket, it wouldn't all go back to normal when it cooled off, would it?
There is no coolant/water mix on the dip stick, but there is a little water build up on the oil filler tube.
we also verified that the thermostat is working; pulled the hose off of the output and water was coming out.. Also, while this is happening, no head was coming out of the heater..
So, new head, new motor, or new head gasket?
he was having coolant leak out of his water pump bearing so he changed it, and only put about a half gallon of coolant in it (to fill the tank), and drove it to work the next day.. (brillant, I know)
Well it over heated twice on the way to work, and I told him to burp the system and keep adding antifreeze to the system until it wouldn't take any more.
it was fine and he drove it home. the next day it overheated again, so he put a new thermostat in it, filled it, and the next day it overheated again after about 4 miles of running.
Meanwhile, he is adding the green coolant to the dexcool crap. So, I said, you probably have something plugged in his system (ie dexcool vs green sludge) so we drained it, and filled it up with all water (per the coolant flush instruction) and run it for a few minutes.. ran it up the road for like a 1/2 mi and it over heated started to run crappy (also turned the SES light on too?), and I saw white water vapor coming out the tail pipe, so we shut her down after getting it cooled down a bit by hosing down the radiator.
So, after it cooled down, we fired it up to pull it into the garage, and to my surprise, no white smoke, but it was running crappy.
So, I am thinking when he overheated it the first time, he put a small crack in the head, and it (the crack) just keeps getting bigger? If it was the head gasket, it wouldn't all go back to normal when it cooled off, would it?
There is no coolant/water mix on the dip stick, but there is a little water build up on the oil filler tube.
we also verified that the thermostat is working; pulled the hose off of the output and water was coming out.. Also, while this is happening, no head was coming out of the heater..
So, new head, new motor, or new head gasket?
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