Sorry to get to you so late, I had to go out with the wife and daughter so they could pick up some last minute Christmas dinner items.

Sure you can do it in the driveway as long as the weather permits. I do all of my work in the driveway since the two car garage is packed with tools, supplies and "stuff". The only thing that sucks (other than the weather) is I have bring everything out and then back in again when I quit for the day. Otherwise it'll all be gone in the morning. Too many "sticky fingers" in my neighborhood.

 

New radiator and thermostat. Losing coolant we thought it was just from the heater control valve.

White smoke, had clouds of white smoke some months ago not long after I got the car. After I replaced the bad o ring on the one injector it seemed to have gone away. Can a head gasket leak come and go over a long period? Couldve been going bad before I bought it over a year ago? Especially considering the lack of maintainence.]

No puddle on the ground no drip from either exhaust pipe.

Block leak tester turned light green sure it would turn yellow after another minute.

Bubbling in the radiator made it hard to use the tester,had to remove a lot from the radiator.

When we squeezed the bulb to draw air into the tester or when we released the bulb, you could hear air leak in the head on passenger side near the outside edge around the two middle plugs.

My friend wants me to use steal seal he says he heard it works, has a money back guarantee but of course I dont have the details on how that works yet.

 

I spend way too much time on Corvette Forum. Now there is a C4 group on Facebook too, so I'm over there for hours every night. I'm helping everybody else and not getting MY stuff done.

 

At this point and with final questions answered all I can say is Sorry sounds like its coming apart. Now for the question do Head gasket leaks fix Thy Self Generally NO, a Combustion chamber is very Harsh environment everything from high pressure explosions to expansion/contraction do to cold morning starts to summer overheats..

the sealant might work but it is a temp repair at best. my advise is find a nice S-10 to get thru the winter layup the Vett. do some upgrades like worked heads and so on, if the lay up is not an option get all the tools, parts (that includes replacement heads or a machine shop to rebuild your old ones) and help you need. whichever route you take have the Heads off as little as possible dry out the cylinders and wipe them down with oil keep them from getting rusty.

If you truly have a head leak between coolant and combustion you need to protect the cylinder walls with something until you take it apart, I am sure that others have a preferred products. I kind of like Marval Mystery oil in a pump bottle or a spray penetrating oil. Pull the plugs crank motor over blow out Cylinders spray rotate motor to coat and blowout more moisture respray install plugs.

I also have 1 other concern, you had said the car had weak/running on water antifreeze the last time I looked it gets cold there,and has it gotten cold enough to freeze the block possibly crack it?

 

1) I'd be REAL surprised if the heater control valve leak has anything to do with this, outside of the coolant loss. Bypassing it is only going to mean the heater won't warm the interior; virtually no effect otherwise.

2) that you are seeing proper cooling when moving screams that the system is working as it is supposed to with enough airflow. Some cars shut off the fans above 35 mph, or so. WITH PROPER AIRLFOW, the system sounds like it works okay. That means you have a low/no speed airflow problem.

3) the fans coming on as designed, albeit at 'high' temps (a gazillion threads from newish C4 owners exist, along with the reasons it is so designed) probably means the thermal switch and relate relays are working, hopefully, NOT intermittently.

3) IF, and this is a big if, the system is properly filled, the fan(s) may look fast enough but may be slow (been there) as the bearings/bushing age. I suggest you search either online or get a FSM to get and follow the proper fill and bleed procedure, or pay a competent shop to do it.

If the o'heat remains after, then suspect the fan or the circuit; no expensive items and relatively easy to R&R, whether fan or relay. Relays and wiring ages and may be spotty in function.

While it is also possible that the thermostat is sticky, at times...

See #2 above.....

Been through this quite a few times with various cars.

 

New thermostat, one day it did drop once I was moving once it got worse to where the white smoke was coming out no longer does temp drop when moving. This thing has been progressing, possibly for months.

There is white smoke combustion gas in the radiator and you can hear the leak inside the head as I stated.

I think the thread has grown so far its lost its context.

Merry Christmas all Corvette people and ty everyone who has taken time with this and with other Corvette people who needed advice help suggestions etc.