2003 corvette 50 Anniversary edition with Hurricane cold air intake system.

Hi, I'm still relatively new to this forum and am not sure how to navigate the threads/posts. I apologize if this question has been asked and answered before but here is what is happening:

A few months back, out of nowhere my car's temperature starting climbing to the point that the warning light came on then the "reduced engine power" light. I pulled over and waited a while for it to chill out then headed out the rest of the 5 miles or so home. It seemed like some glitch because at some point on the way home it ran totally normal at about 220ish then the block before my house it jammed over to the red zone.

The next day the coolant tank was low so I filled it up and that seemed to take care of the issue. No problems until about 3 months later. One morning I peeled out of my driveway and literally turned it off a few seconds later at the bakery ( I mention this because not sure if the rapid acceration and quick turn off of engine affects it). I turned it back on seconds later and drove the four miles or so to work. Just as I pulled in to the parking lot I got the coolant over temp warning. I turned the car off and didn't come until after work about 6 hours later.

I checked the coolant and it was fine. Turned the car on and drove about 35 miles or so to Irvine then Back with no issues!! Two days later on my way to dinner, BAM! temperature climbing and then the coolant over temp warning!! I drove home pulling over twice when the reduced engine light came on the left the car alone until the next morning. I checked the coolant level and it was way down. I did noticed coolant seemed to have sorta sprayed on top of the surge tank but no visible leaks?! Filled it up, drobe to work the usual four miles or so then again the temperature begins climbing to the point of "coolant over temp" warning.!! What gives?! Weather has been in the mid 60s in California. not even hot.

If anyone has any suggestion as to what I can do let me know please. The local dealer wants $109 sbucks to run a diagnostic. I'm not a fan of shops and dealers if its something I can do myself. Thank you so much in advance.

 

The reservoir tanks are known to leak at nipple where the hose connects. Replace your tank for 80 bux and see what happens.

Low tank will cause high temps. The other known causes is debris on the radiator or air in the system due to the low tank.

Don't waste your money on diagnostics. Replace the tank

 

Sticking thermostat?

 

1. Get under the car and check for crud, shopping bags, etc on the radiator. You won't believe how much stuff these cars can vacuum off the road.
2. Search the forum for how to purge the air out of the cooling system.

Good Luck, should be something simple.

 

Thanks for the reply guys, I really appreicate it. Any ideas where to find a new surge tank and cap? Autozone and Napa auto parts don't seem to carry it.

 

Combustion leak test then cooling system pressure test. The location of the leak should become obvious during the pressure test

 

how do I perform these tests??

 

Don't waste your money on finding out what is wrong????? seems like poor advice to me.
change the tank? suppose it's one of the ten other things it could possibly be.
Many people from the 60 or who have 1960's automotive mentality, throw parts at a problem in the hope that sooner or later and after wasting lots of money replacing good parts with new parts until you stumble on the problem.

it could be a blocked condenser, could be a blocked radiator, a bad stat, a bad pump, a leaking tank at the joint or a leaking line, a blow head gasket, a bad sensor, air in the coolant line, a bad radiator cap a glitch in the BCM, a bad fan , a fan that has sucked in a plastic bag.

The right answer is to find out what is wrong not throw parts at it.

 

YES!! I'm so glad I read this! I examined the car again after I drove it home from work with no overheating. There is a leak! Right there where the hose connects to the surge tank. the hose that goes towards the passenger side of the car. What can I do? What do I need to replace?? There is no hole in the hose itself it is leaking at the part where the hose connects to the surge tank..please help. Thank you.

 

Honestly, remove the tank which is easy, drain it clean it good, make sure its dry, get some rough sandpaper and rough the plastic up as well as remove any oil or other residue. Hit autozone or walmart for the original JB weld mix it up and let it start to thicken and then apply it liberally around the leak and try and push some inside the hole.
Let it sit for 24 hours minimum then sand off any big
extra large protrusions. Hit it with a heat gun or the wife's hair drier just to be safe and know its good and dry. That part will never leak again if done correctly. If you want while you have it off give it a paint job so the repair is not noticeable.
I Broke one of the cheap plastic nipples on my radiator off. I Could not afford a new radiator, I sanded the area down smooth, drilled the hole a bit larger, went to lowes and bought a brass coupler and used the same method. 2 years and no problems, I know it is not perfect and some purest people would say always replace the parts.

Sometimes money is tight and you have to make do.
My local autozone and advance both have the caps in stock.
If you need a cap, have your local autozone check other stores in the area, they normal can have one to you the next morning if any stores in their district has the part.

After you get it repaired do not forget to bleed the air out.
I found it easy to do so by taking one of the small hoses on the front inside of the heads loose and adding coolant to the tank but leave the cap off and letting it set for an hour or so, then arattach the hose, top off the tank and you should be ready to go.
If its very hot never use cold water, if adding water or coolant in the Winter I always use hot water or at least room temperature adding ice cold water to a ot engine is not advised..

 

I had the same leak in the same spot. Mine was small, no over heating just smelled coolant and saw a drip. I replaced the original hose clamps with new worm clamps and it solved the problem. Worth a try before removing the tank.

 

As always, Bill (ET) gives sage advice. To do other than he suggests is, as I tell my kids, kinda like, "I have the answer. Now, what's the qeustion?"

The Lizzard

 

Awesome,I really appreciate all of your responses to my problem! I havnt had a chance to see exactly how bad the crack/leak is. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow morning. I will keep you guys posted.

I did check for debris as many of you mentioned and there was a small amount of leaves gathered up towards the top.
Thanks again. More than likely I will replace the tank. I wish I could upload a picture because it does seem pretty worn and beat up. Better to do it now before I'm stranded. Il let you guys know what I end up doing. Again, Thank you all so much!

 

If it gets too bad and you do not have access to a new tank but need to drive it, although not really advisable but I saw one at a car show once where the guy had removed the tank completely and used a brass T connector with 2 large ends and a smaller one along with another inline valve with a handle to open and close it to release pressure or add coolant. Its hard to enplane without a picture but basically he bypassed the tank with the fittings and used the valve along with another fitting and hose if he needed to add coolant. He also had an electric water pump along with two small digital gauges one for temperature the other for pressure. I am not sure why he would have them mounted under the hood other than for the hell of It. It was all nice and neat looking almost like it was supposed to be there. He had also removed the washer fluid tank and had something else mounted in that area I can not remember what though.
It was more of a show car than a go car
He had the engine compartment all clean and lots of stainless steel and everything was spotless. He said there was a hidden pressure release check valve that would vent pressure if it got too high.

You can add coolant by removing the upper radiator hose should you have to go that route.
It may be fine to do it that way, it basically is like old school radiators where you added coolant directly into the radiator

If you get a new one go ahead and make sure you also get a new coolant level sensor.
They have a habit of going bad. If you already have it off replace it, it will save you a headache down the road.

 

If the tank has a crack in it you should replace it, period. There is no such thing as a "good" bandaid fix on the coolant system.

 

update
I went ahead and bought the new tank at the dealer for 100 bucks. Not sure if I screwed up on the install and air got in or something but unfortunately for me the car still overheated after I filled it up with coolant. I turned it off and let it cool all day. At night the coolant level had gone way down.
In the morning i filled it back up and let the car run for about 5 min. It didn't overheat but still I was too afraid to drive it so i left it alone. the next morning, once again the coolant level had dropped.
I filled it back up and felt confident enough to drive it up Mt. Baldy here in California. On the way up the temp did reach 230 but I'm thinking it was because of the steep steep climb up. On the way down it didn't go over 220 at all.

So...i'm thinking problem solved.....I couldn't quite figure out the whole bleeding out procedure. People were saying that the whole remove cap, idle, install cap etc procedure didn't work and another member posted something about unbolting some stuff and opening the tank to bleed out the air..I didn't get around to that and I hope I don't have to...

Happy thanksgiving, I'm thankful for this forum!

 

rockauto.com

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php?ck[ID]=0&ck[idlist]=0&ck[viewcurrency]=USD&ck[PHP_SESSION_ID]=s179o036ljrg1j90sh6uolfb95

 

you can squeeze the hose to pump the coolant through the system about 50 times rapidly.

So no coolant leaking from the waterpump?

 

For 99% of people the air bleeding procedure works as it should. I've done it twice myself, once when replacing the surge tank and again when I replaced the radiator, and have had no problems. You need to bleed that air out.

 

this may sound crazy but I have had a problem getting air out of mine a and overheating.
I discovered taking one of the small hoses that connect to the front of the heads off. Then took off one the heater hoses from the water-pump.
Used a garden hose and ran water through it till only water came out.
There was lots of air in it each time.

I ended up finding out I had a very small head gasket leak, when running it hard it would suck air into the cooling system.

It would run cool for months and never lost coolant till it would overheat.

I finally got one of the kits to check the coolant to see if it had combustion gases in it. I borrowed the kit from a friend, but I think autozone loans them but you have to buy the chemicals.