This is my first post so please bare with me. I am still pretty amature with the mechanical side, but I have a lot of excitement, and a huge passion for DIY. I have a 73 Stingray fully restored before I took possession. I took it into a famous TV show car shop in Bradford, Ontario for an oil change and they "weinsteined" me. I ended up paying $5400 for things that didn't need to be done, and even worse the car wasn't put back together when I picked it up. Carb was jammed shut, two plug's weren't plugged in, my fan relay switch was ripped off and the overflow tank internal hose was lost in the tank. These are all things I didn't notice for a few hundred KM's. Needless to say, the car is running super hot. They also did a compression test and indicated 1-7 cylinders were 150 and 8th cylinder was 145.

Issue:
Car starts perfect, once I can allow it to idle without feathering the gas pedal, the heat instantaneously rises, and the needle maxes out.
I checked compression yesterday. I only completed a dry test, I didn't have time for the wet.
I tested as follows, run engine, engine did heat up. Removed cable to distributor, removed all plugs, plugged battery into trickle charger. Ran each test twice.
1: Couldn't fit test in with headers attached
2.128-128 3.150-150 4.135-135 5.148-148 6.130-132 7.140-140 8.135-135

Plugs are all fouled and oil soaked

The overflow tank is full

Please help a newb!!!!

 

Your overheating issue has nothing to do with the compression values. Fouled and oil soaked plugs are a separate issue. #2 is a little low but at this point I wouldn't be too concerned with those numbers.

I'm more concerned with the statement "the heat instantaneously rises, and the needle maxes out" that tells me you have no circulation of water or a stuck closed thermostat. I would pull the T-Stat and run the car without one installed and see if the temp problem goes away.

Post up a picture of your engine bay so we can see what your working with.

 

This kind of stuff pisses me right off. Take it back to the Guild and tell them to fix all these issues and also tell them your done paying them. Disgusting. The shop you need to go to from now on is Stingray Auto in Mississauga 4141 Sladeview Cres 905 569-9333. Talk to Brian. Supper nice guy and does impeccable work on older vets only. www.stingrayauto.com

As for the overheating issue, I had major problems as well. One thing that was not working was the re built water pump of all things. Something with the tolerances of the impeller and the way it was assembles. It was not pumping efficiently. And I had a under carb exhaust bi pass ( pre heating circuit ) that was boiling the fuel. We had to change the intake manifold gasket that had the plugs for the bypass. It cost me a bundle as well to sort it all out. Probably a solid $10k Canadian ( $3k US lol ) on top of the purchase price of the car. But I Neve had work done the I did not need by a crooked shop. Good luck, here cars are nice after all the BS of getting them running right.

 

I agree Mr D. There is no flow somewhere. If you still have a problem even with the thermostat removed, it could be a bad water pump. Or you could just have a blockage somewhere. Antifreeze/Coolant can crystalize under varying conditions. If this has happened it will block ports and you will have poor flow or even no flow in certain areas of the engine.

I had an instance very similar to your description. In my case the engine would idle fine but as soon as I would step on the gas it would overheat immediately. The gauge would shoot right up to 260. But my radiator remained cool. The coolant crystalized in my water pump and was blocking the fluid in the engine.

 

So, that shop really is full of bozo's just like the tv show portrayed! No surprise.

Anyway, just how fast does the temp gauge rise? Are you sure the gauge is not faulty?

 

Maybe you just need to "burp" the cooling system.
I'd do that first before spending bucks.

Scott

 

I agree. That was my first thought. I experienced the same thing ( rapid overheating) after a new radiator install years ago and this was the solution.

 

 

Air in cooling system.

 

I've had the same problem on my 79. I put the right front up in the air, so the radiator cap was the highest point in the cooling system. It worked perfectly to get what turned out to be air out of the system, and the straight to hot problem immediately went away.

 

Here are some pictures of the motor, I've still got the spark plug wires removed and off to the side. The only reason I did a compression test was to check and see the status of the motor. More for piece of mind!

 

I didn't attach these properly

 

I will try this thank you!

 

Within 4 minutes, I am not certain, but it does show signs of overheating. Stalling, loss of power, and visual signs of overheating

 

People keep saying water pump, ill grab one of these and a new rad. It is winter, I can take my time with the fix.
Is there any way of checking for a faulty pump?

 

I posted them on a reply, I am new to this forum. The coolant isn't leaving the overflow tank either.

 

Welcome to the Corvette Forum glenhartless!

You should see movement of the coolant inside the radiator when the engine is running. If that doesn't work try squeezing the upper radiator hose and see if it has pressure in it while the engine is running. If that plug on the thermostat housing is the highest point try loosening it up and see if any air comes out while the engine is running. Take a moment and be sure that the radiator's LOWER hose is not collapsing under the suction from your water pump. There should be a large spring coil inside of it to prevent it from collapsing. Watch the lower hose while you slowly raise the engine speed and make sure that is working properly. To verify that it has a spring inside you can squeeze the lower hose in several places.

The only time I had a car overheat that fast (less than 5 minutes) was due to a blown head gasket. It would go from ambient to 250*+ in less than five minutes.

Are you familiar with doing "Leak Down testing"? I would strongly suggest you do a leak down test on this engine. It will tell you if you have any problems pretty quickly and is probably the most important test that needs to be done on your engine.

I would not throw parts at it until you identified the problem piece. I am concerned about the shop's readings from their compression test, it looks like they never tested it or maybe it was warm when they did it. How on earth could they justify $5400 worth of work? I hope you have a good attorney. I hate shops that assume that Corvettes are "Money Makers" and that we owners can "afford" their ridiculous charges.

You are probably going to find a shop rag shoved down one of the hoses blocking the flow of the coolant from the bozo's at the shop you visited. If it is not a head gasket then it was probably sabotaged to "make some more money"....
The idea of raising the front of the car is a good one if you want to get air out of the coolant system. Air WILL stop fluid from flowing but it shouldn't have changed since you last drove it without problems.

I hope that you are able to find this problem without too many hassles! Good Luck and again, Welcome to the Corvette Forum!

P.S. Winter? Our leaves have not even started changing colors yet!

 

I did have similar problems in my 1969. Overheating as I found can come from many sources. Timing and mixture as well as airflow can play a big part.
Spend some time reading past posts on overheating. I am not saying your problem is a not a lack of coolant getting through your engine but you might just want to check timing and mixture as well.
Good luck. It can be frustrating but slowly and methodically going through your systems will help you get your answers.
Pete

 

You guys are killing me with all this air in the system BS. If you really think you have a air pocket just drain a gallon of coolant from the radiator than remove the T-stat housing and fill up the block with coolant. Replace T-stat housing and finish filling up radiator. This is not rocket science.

If this was my car;

1) ******REMOVE THERMOSTAT********
2) start engine,
3) look in radiator and see if you have coolant flowing from cooling tubes.

I have NEVER in 40 plus years working on SB Chevy's removed a water pump because it was not pumping. You remove them because they are leaking.

 

Also, I'm going back to what you stated at the beginning of this thread QUOTE ---> heat instantaneously rises, and the needle maxes out. If that is still your problem forget timing, compression, leak down Etc. because you have a coolant flowing problem or lack of to mean no coolant flowing.You cannot troubleshoot this problem with the Thermostat installed, remove it.