My son borrowed my 74 Vette. I just put a 383 Stroker engine in it only 2 months old. He let the car overheat and it seized up. There is no water in the oil pan put the freeze plugs blow. Any body have any ideas where i should start looking? I guess my first mistake was letting my son take it

 

Start looking for what? A new motor, how to fix this one, or what caused the overheating? Does it have electric cooling fans and do they work?

 

Two electric ones. Brand new Aluminum Radiator

 

I've never heard of freeze plugs blowing out. The cap should've vented the pressure. If not, the radiator or hoses would've popped first.

If the motor seized, it's history. As far as why it overheated, we can only guess.

 

Yep there was Anti Freeze on the tow truck from the car

 

If the two electric fans don't have a shroud to ensure ALL the air is being pulled thru the radiator then the problem is the guy who installed the fans improperly. The coolant leak is just a result of the poor fan installation.

 

If the engine is locked solid and leaking coolant, my guess is that it didn't over heat; he blew it up! Ask him what RPM it was at when it blew!

 

Seriously? Electric fans are made with their own shroud.

 

Please take some pictures of your twin electric fans so we can see what you're dealing with. If the fans aren't enclosed in a full shroud its no wonder its getting hot and your son can't be blamed for a poor fan installation. And then there's the question of where the coolant is leaking because it shouldn't be leaking.

 

How about you find a picture of an automotive electric fan without a shroud. I searched and couldn't find one.

 

Don't get too stirred up bashcraft, there are clairvoyant experts here who can tell it was the fans and not anything else - like stuck thermostat, blown head gasket, pressure leak, waterpump, ect, ect....

 

Inspect the rear tires to see if they show signs of wheel spin.

 

You guys are all getting off the beaten path here, lol. Put the lynch mob away for now. O/P, The engine seized up means you need to either rebuild it or replace it. Your engine seized/locked up cause it overheated due to no coolant. You said there wasnt any coolant in the oil, so I assume there was oil still left in the pan, probably not all of it because Your oil started boiling, lost viscosity, and started burning it, bearings started sticking and that ends all. Pull the motor and start from scratch.

Anything could have happened. If you were running it for two months and it wasn't getting hot means your fans were cooling. Of course they could have quit working for some reason and your son wasn't paying attention to the thermostat. Teach him to always pay attention to gauges. Now I am not saying he wasn't hot rodding it, because he probably was, but if everything was working correctly, it shouldn't have overheated just from a few burnouts. I am thinking something broke or quit working. I have have replaced freeze plugs before on a motor that got hot, and that is before any radiator hose blew. chance you have the freeze plugs that blew ? If so, check to see how tight they go back in the hole, Maybe that might have been the problem. Also, check and see if your fans are still working, alteast see if they come on if you bypass the thermostat. Check for a blown fuse.

It actually comes down to, if the temp gauge was working and your son was watching all the gauges as we should, he could have pulled over once he saw that the gauge was in the bad. You could have fixed the problem before you lost the engine. We live and we learn.

 

I will take some pictures of the fans and the engine. See i did drive it and the temp was good. The oil is dirty looking but no water in it. Also i had this local shop but in the engine and the radiator and electric fans.

 

Is the belt still on the crank & water pump pulleys? If the water pump isn't spinning those fans aren't going to help.

 

Here are some Pictures

 

You had a freeze plug fall out, for some reason.

That's why it overheated, and seized up. The only mistake I see by your son is he apparently continued to drive it during this failure.

I threw a fan belt on my engine. It overheated extremely fast, but I had no place to safely pull over immediatly. I drove it about 5-7 minutes with steam pouring out the radiator overflow tube before I shut it off. After installing a new belt and filling up the radiator, all is well, and I've driven it a couple of thousand miles. However, it did start leaking oil at the rear main seal. I've since installed a serpentine belt system to avoid the the thrown belt issue.

I too have a Dewitt's and electric fans. The thrown belt was turning the water pump.

 

It looks like you have a belt from the water pump to the alternator. I see another belt laying around the brake booster, and it looks broken. What is that for?

 

The belt laying on the engine looks like it went around your waterpump and crank. The belt still on it now only goes around your alt and water pump. Sooo, looks like nothing was turning the water pump and your engine overheated blowing out the freeze plugs and locking it up. You did not notice the belt laying there before you started this post ?
Again as already said, something broke and since your son did not notice the steam and the temp gauge, it only got worse.

 

Something broke, engine seized. Be lucky that broken belt didn't go and hit that fuel line that is way to far forward or your problems could have been worse. IMO.