tacos

How boned am I?

I was driving today, and got stuck behind a slow moving mommymobile on a 2 lane stretch of highway. The road opened up to 4 lanes, so I hopped into the empty one and gassed it. I heard what sounded like rocks bouncing around in the wheel well and didn't think anything of it.

A little while later, my DIC lit up--"SERVICE CHARGING SYSTEM," "LOW COOLANT," blah blah blah. I glanced over at the temperature gauge, and it was pegged in the red. But I couldn't pull over--the road went back to 2 lane, and had no shoulder. So I had to drive for another minute or so.

I pulled over and killed the car immediately. There was a trail of coolant leading right up to my car. I popped the hood and let it cool while I caught a ride to the store to grab a new belt. Got the belt installed, then drove across town and had the oil changed w/fresh Mobil 1 EP and a mobil 1 filter (it's all I use.)

When I got home, I went on google maps, and from where I (apparently) heard the belt go bang (and therefore lost cooling) to where I pulled over was 2.3 miles with one stop light of maybe 30 seconds. Speed was about 45-60, except the stop light. So 3, 4 MAYBE 5 minutes without water pump.

The car seems fine now, other than still being a little bit low on coolant. I'll add more when the car cools off.

Another really worrying thing is that last weekend, I checked my oil life and had 39ish% remaining. I maybe drove 50 miles this week. Yet the first thing the DIC said after installing the new belt was "CHANGE OIL."

I just want to know if it'll be ok, or if it's time to start writing parting out ads or looking for a new engine. Is there anything I should look for?
Any tests I can perform? (Preferably free, I am broke as hell right now. So "Take it to a mechanic" isn't helpful.)

Black LS2

Change the oil immediately and see what happens. Keep and eye on oil and water, and see if they mix or start to drop level. LS motors can be tougher than we expect some times. If you want to start looking into it right now, do a compression check.

I have had motors get super hot before, and been SURE they were toast, only to find them OK. I lost a raw water impeller in a boat once, cooked ALL the rubber exhaust couplers and flaps, but the motor lived.

Time will tell. Good luck to you.

tacos

Oil was changed less than 5 miles after the belt was replaced.
Thanks Black LS2, I feel a lot better.
I think (hope) I was freaking out about nothing.

After all, 50/50 mixed Dex-Cool boils at 265ºF, and my cooling system only lost less than 2/3 of a gallon, so it couldn't have been actually overheating by that much for too long. Hell, the fact that it was boiling absorbed a lot of heat, too.

And all the bad things I've heard about aluminum heads warping is about iron block engines, where the differing coefficients of thermal expansion cause the heads to arch between the head bolts. Since the LS2 is aluminum heads on an aluminum block, it's a lot less likely to ruin anything to the point of requiring gasket replacement or head machining.

I'll check on my oil and coolant to make sure neither are contaminated over the next couple of weeks, then forget it ever happened.

I guess the reason I was freaking out about this is it's the first time I've ever noticed a car over heating when the temp gauge was already in the red, being left to wonder how long it had been there.

RoadkingC6

I have had 1 or 2 of my cars in the past overheat for a short period of time with no bad results, sounds to me like you will be ok.

dryadsdad

A benefit of synth like Mob 1 which few of us really use is that it holds together at much higher temps than conventional oils. Looks like you got full benefit from your Mob 1.

I'd check the coolant a few times to assure yourself that you didn't cause an oll / coolant leak. I think you're ok but why not be sure?

How'd you manage a new belt while on the road? Do you carry tools?

v1 rot8

I was wondering too how you changed the belt on the road

morepwr

I think it will be OK. It got hot but it wasnt a long period of driving like you were going down the freeway for miles.

v26278

In the owners manual they mention a reduced engine power mode that kicks in if you overheat enough, and it alternates firing different cylinder groups. Sounds like you didn't get hot enough to trigger that, so it probably wasn't very severe. As others have said, I wouldn't worry about any permanent damage. I'm wondering how the belt got thrown. You might want to check your pulleys, make sure everything is aligned and true.

weathermaker

Did you reset the oil monitor after the oil change. A little overheating should not cause any problems.

wayback

You can push on the tensioner and release the belt from the Alt. At least that is how I do it on my C4. Should be possible on the C6.

HBsurfer

Same on the C6. A socket and ratchet is the only tool you need and replacing the main belt is a 5 minute job.

Jose2SS

What is the belt part number for a 2005 C6?

RJRSW

Keep listening to the engine for any slight knocking sound with a breaker bar against the block and your ear.

Same thing happened to one of my C4's and finally dropped the pan and found it had spun some of the main bearings. Ended up needing to buy a new GM short block.

djfury05

I'd change out the coolant as well just because.

tacos

I got in an argument about using Mobil 1 EP on Facebook last night, and while I was trying to find the name of the standard Corvettes require, (GM4871M) I found the page about the low power mode and realized that I didn't even get my car hot enough to activate that. (Very neat feature. Using the injectors to charge cool the engine with gasoline and just not igniting it is brilliant.)
I was suddenly much less worried when I saw that even in low power mode the car can go for 50 miles.

The pulleys are all fine, they spin easy and look to be in line. The tensioner and belt were replaced about 10,000 miles ago. I think there was just a problem with that belt from the start. It squeaked as soon as it went on the car. The new one doesn't make any noise at all. I'm still going to replace the balancer I thought had gone bad, since I already bought it and the TTY bolt for it, but I'm in less of a hurry now.

The belt on this car isn't hard to change at all, as long as the engine's cool. I called my dad who happened to be in town, and was just about to leave. We had been doing electrical work on my sister's house, so he had tools on him. I normally do have a tool bag in my car, just in case. It's a habit that developed when I drove ****** cars, and it has saved my *** more times than I can count. Especially the tire patch kit. Unfortunately, my kit wasn't in my car, because I needed it in my apartment a few days ago. (I lift my big tool boxes at my parents house because, to be honest, I'm sick of moving it.) Anyway, since the engine was decidedly NOT cool after half an hour of sitting there, I wrapped a bath towel around my arm and gritted my teeth to get the belt over the idler between the crank pulley and the PS pump. Took maybe 10 minutes. I spent more time pulling shreds of the old belt out than I did putting the new one on.

Jose, I have no idea. I just went to a-zone and asked them for the belt for an 06 vette. Bought the dayco for the warranty.

Weathermaker, I reset it while the oil was draining.

djfury, I would, but the coolant has less than a thousand miles on it after my radiator replacement. It'll be fine, but I'm going to keep an eye on it, and test it in a couple of weeks.