this just started today, never a problem before. As soon as you start the car, you can watch the temp gauge start to rise immediatly. The fan is running, but the gauge just keeps on going. I watched it get to 270 degrees and then turned it off.

Could this be my water pump has finally gone out? The front of my engine looks to be wet with oil or something, hard to see with the belt in the way.

 

Radiator full? Radiator feel hot?

When engine is hot, squeeze the upper radiator hose with a rag around your hand. If it feels hard, the thermostat is probably not opening, so hot coolant is not being circulated.

If not, see that the front of the radiator is not covered in road debris and other air blockages. Also, check the space between the back of the radiator and the condenser. Upper shroud needs to be removed. This space tends to collect lots of leaves and garbage that restricts airflow.

Do not let the car reach those temps. Shut it off earlier.

 

Do not let the motor get to those temps doing so will cause other problems. Remove the belt and the water pump pulley see if you can find where it's leaking from. The other place a L98 can leak from is theTB coolant hose that could be split it's a small hose going from water pump to TB. If you remove the MAF and the coupler you should be able to see better.

 

same symptoms that i had when my head gaskets went south !

 

The thermostat is probably not opening.

 

I don't think its my head gaskets because my oil is still clean with no water in it.

I am going to check the thermostat.

 

ok, put a new thermostat in tonight and found out the car didn't even have one to begin with so I am sure this is not my problem. So before I fill it back up with new antifreeze does anyone have any other idea?

 

Do a backflush both ways, including the radiator.

 

how do I do that? Never heard of that to begin with.

 

http://temp.corvetteforum.net/c4/vad...erheating.html

 

You basically remove the radiator hoses (and drain plug), and blast water from a garden hose full blast through the radiator untill it comes out clean on the other end. Same to the engine. You flush through the T-stat housing (with t-stat removed) untill the water coming out the water pump end is clean. Flushing in both directions helps free up the build up in the water passages.

 

Buy a back flush kit like Prestone and install per directions and backflush cooling system. With no thermostat an engine will tend to run cool not hot. Like others said check the area between the front of the radiator and condensor, maybe you sucked up a plastic bag.

 

This sounds like the issue to me as well

 

Sorry man, I hate to be the one that says it.....The head gasket doesn't have to leak water out sometimes it leaks super heated gasses into the cooling system.

this would explain the heat rise in a short period of time.

 

ok, went ahead and put the new thermostat in and filled with antifreeze, checked to make sure there is no trash blocking the air flow and started the car.

Still has a fast increase in temperature, fan cuts on immediatley and I finally shut it off at 230.

Check the coolant in the radiator and its still cold to the touch, not even hot.

Is there anyway to check to see if its a head gasket? If it is then here comes the 383 build.

 

My headgasket blow thing was the best thing it ever happened to me.
after 2 weeks of ownership,wow.

that made me start a fresh build
amazing ,loved every second of it !

 

Yes, you can have the coolant checked for Aromatic Hydrocarbons present.

Do you still have the old coolant??

The fact that the coolant never circulated is disturbing...yet may be the thing that saves you from a rebuild.

You'll have to ask everyone else, is there a way that the Water pump just stops without having the weep hole give out first?? Could the Water pump seize up all together?

*Edit*
Now that I think about it, if it is the WP, and you change it out, it is all fixed up and you drive into the sunset. If it turns out to be a Head Gasket, you don't want to be putting an old WP back onto a fresh rebuild either.......

WP swap could be in order, wait for some others to chime in that know more than I do.

 

the front of the motor is wet looking, but it looks to be oily, like I have a oil leak. But when I drained my coolant, what came out of the radiator was just water looking and then I looked into my overflow and that was full of green antifreeze that I didn't even drain out.

But all I was able to get out of the radiator itself was maybe a tall glass full of water slightly green, but more clear looking.

 

You have a blockage/restriction in the cooling system. Did you not run garden hose full blast through the radiator and motor like I suggested? The hot coolant trapped in the block is not being circulated through the radiator to be cooled by the fan and air flow. And the cold coolant in the radiator is not making it to the block where it's needed. That's why you temps keep rising despite the fact that the fan is running. That's your problem. Forget about a head gasket right now. If it was that, you'd see white smoke out the tailpipes and the coolant level would not hold. Find out why there is no circulation.

This is exactly why I asked you in my very first post if the radiator was hot to the touch, and you never responded till now. I've see this too many times. A friend recently trashed a motor because he had a piece of plastic blocking the coolant flow in the radiator. The engine got so hot it blew the head gasket and damaged the valves, yet the radiator was cold to the touch while the motor was up in smoke. I did fix his car though. Spent $700 just on parts.

Another car I worked on, the radiator had a bunch of mud inside with similar symptoms. It took several minutes with a garden hose at full blast in both directions, and through the drain hole, to get that crap out of there and restore full uninterrupted water flow. It sounds to me like this is what you need to do to your radiator. Remove both hoses, and open the drain plug on the bottom. Blast that SOB with a garden hose in both directions and through the drain hole till the water comes out clean and in full flow out the bottom outlet. Might as well do it to the motor too. Once you get full flow, refill with new anti-freeze/water and try again.

 

ok, so I take the bottom hose off the radiator and open the drain plug right??

Then how do I do the motor? take the thermostat out, but where does drain out??