coolant / heating issues

my car started acting funny today, temp wise.
this morning all was fine, car heated up like normal. while on the hwy for 20 mins, my coolant temps jumped to 130 and the coolant temp CEL activated. I pulled over resevour tank was not spilling over, I then released the pressure in the tank, it overflowed, spilled over...then driving again, my in car vents were blow'n cool air.

I sat in my driveway with the car idling and 1500w zero start plugged in to help it keep warm. Guage temp was at 90, but no heat from vents. the radiator fans were BOTH on, I have only ever once seen this happen on the hottest of humid days stuck in traffic with the AC on.

when I remove the cap, it fills up and even spills over again, but its not coming from the return line, it appears to coming from the coolant sytem fill line ( bottom of sphere ). Squeezing the return line, i could feel pressure building, but again, no coolant.

upper rad hose is hot, lower rad hose is cold...squeezing all lines leads me to believe there is coolant in them.

any info / pointers would be great.

thx

It sounds to me like you have a bad water pump impeller either broken or slipping on shaft. Take the small line off of resevoir and have some one rev the engine. If nothing comes out of this hose it is likely your pump.

It is NORMAL for a hot cooling system to overflow if you remove the cap. The system is designed to maintain pressure within the system when hot. (Because the pressure raises the boiling point of the antifreeze) Removing the cap from hot engine can cause antifreeze to IMMEDEATELY boil over due to the loss of pressure.

DONT REMOVE ANTIFREEZE CAP WHEN ENGINE IS HOT OR YOU WILL LOSE YOUR ANTIFREEZE. (and mebbie eve get scalded.)

I think you made a bad situation WORSE by removing the cap. Now, you may have air-pockets within the system. I agree with the last append that your original problem may be due to waterpump failure. Also, thermostat may be to blame.

Personally, I would replace thermostat 1st because it is significantly cheeper than waterpump job.

So both fans are on (as if it's over heating) and the temp gauge is only showing 90deg.
How's this?
I assume the temp gauge was working prior

Am I insane and not reading this correctly?

Dave

Pull the t-stat out first and check it in boiling water, see how active it is opening and closing. While the t-stat is out you can reach the back of the water pump to do a preliminary check of the impeller.

pghPAtdi said:

So both fans are on (as if it's over heating) and the temp gauge is only showing 90deg.
How's this?
I assume the temp gauge was working prior

Am I insane and not reading this correctly?

Dave

Click to expand...

thats right, my car was sitting in the drive, idling and zerostart on to help heat ( it was -15C w/o windchill today ) and both fans were on and cold air blowing thru to the vents, 90Deg on the gauge.

up until today, i have had no reason to suspect the gauge is faulty.

i think i will order up both a t-stat and water pump. R&R the T-stat and try to spin the water pump impeller by hand as mentioned.

thx guys

v

BTW dooode, your car is rockin' based on those mods.
Where is the VNT17....20 for that matter
Next time I'm up in grimsby I'll have to see that car

I would think that the temp sensor is buggered if you were not getting a reading with the driving and subsequent zero start???? easiest fix right off

pghPAtdi said:

BTW dooode, your car is rockin' based on those mods.
Where is the VNT17....20 for that matter

Click to expand...

thx and yep its a pleasant ride lol

wheels r in motion for a vnt20, and the soon to be needed spec stage ?? clutch

thx again