Well it's official I overheated my AR Racing stroker motor a while back.....pretty bad too....my rad hose blew while my temp gauge was "faulty"...... I was REALLY close to my garage, but not close enough. :o


Anyway, 2 warped Edelbrock RPM aluminum heads (only by 5 thousands...whew!!) , water in the oil---(think grey milkshake. )...I am dis-assembling the short block now and sending off for magnaflux to check for cracks....I am hoping for the best, I can't really afford ANOTHER $5000 on a motor.....

On the plus side, if my block comes back OK, I will be sending my heads to Louthan Competetion Cylinder Head shop for a "stage 2" port and polish....should gain me >30 CFM... should put me close to 500 Hp.

See Louthans' shop:

http://www.performancecylinderheads.com/mainpage.htm

 

Thats why I put in a water pressure guage.

 

Not a bad idea.........although

 

If you ever suspect you're loosing coolant and for some reason you can't trust your water temp gauge/or its not working....turn on the heater. If you've lost a lot of coolant, the heater will not blow hot.

The heater test is really pretty good. On C3's the engine temperature gauge is actually a sensor located in the intake manifold to measure coolant temperature in the intake manifold. On these cars, if you've lost a lot of coolant, the intake manifold temperature sensor can actually start reading an abnormally cool temperature. (Even thought the engine heads are becoming dangerously hot.) If your engine temp starts to surprisingly read cool, this is a good occassion to turn on the heater. If your engine temp gauge starts reading cool and you've got no heat out of the heater, this is a good indication you've ran out of coolant.

If you're loosing coolant, another indicator may be a "caramel" smell. Yes, "caramel" ... a burnt sugar smell. Anitfreeze, ethylene glycol, when it hits exhaust manifolds starts to smell like burnt sugar. I've had experience with coolant lose situations and when the intake manifold on my 97 Thunderbird developed a crack (these manifolds are plastic) and started leaking. I could actually start smelling the caramel odor. I did the heater test, and when I couldn't get heat I knew I had coolant loose problems.

 

Nothing like hijacking a thread....

 

Who sells water pressure gauges for the C3, where would you pipe it in, and what would be the expected/required psi reading?

The General doesn't have any specs for psi on water.

 

Most rad systems are 12-16 PSI--- The pressure in the system is defined by the rad cap. I think adding a pressure gauge to your coolant system is a little over the top when your rad cap is supposed to control the pressure of your system and replacement of it is only $10. I say replace the rad cap along with your thermostat every couple of years when you flush the system.

Really the cheap insurance is to get a infrared thermometer and confirm you temp gauge and sending unit. I think adding a pressure gauge to your coolant system is a little over the top


Sorry about your luck. Hopefully the block won't have damage and you can just do quick rebuild of the bottom end, "fix" the heads and be on your way.