I've been having an engine overheating problem for the past month, I checked the water pump and it spins, new radiator, I fill it up with the 50/50 mixture, no Thermostat, The two weird things that i noticed about this overheating problem is that the coolant reservoir is not dumping the coolant back into the radiator and when I let the car cool down, i open the radiator cap, look inside the rad and i see no water. any ideas on how to fix this problem?????

 

what do mean no thermostat

 

Maybe blown head gasket? Are you smoking, or is there milky resdue under the valve cover or the radiator cap? Water pump may spin, but can you see the fins spinning? Any coolant leaks?

 

The fins on the water pump spin freely. I checked the seal on the water pump and it's okay. I also checked for shaft wear and everything passed. No coolant leaks anywhere. The valve cover does have milky residue. I was told the milky residue was caused by the previous owner not changing the oil, I don't know if that's true. I don't think it could be the head gasket, the motor builds compression.


The engine doesn't have a thermostat, I took it out of the thermostat housing.

 

milky residue is a sure sign of head gasket failure.

and the head gasket can be blown and you still have compression. it may have blown a hole between a cooling passage and a oil feed passage. (NOT between the cooling and the cylinder)

 

agreed^^ If everything is working then, its has to be head gasket. Did you take out the thermostat or was it not there to begin with, when you got the car? If it wasent there before, i think the previous owner, took it out in hopes that you wont find out about the blown headgasket, and so that it doesnt over heat right away.

 

Yea, you should get a thermostat and replace that head gasket

 

everything is working, so then it would have to be the head gasket. When I got the car it didn't have a thermostat. Head gasket change in a couple of weeks.

thanks guys for the advice.

 

As mentioned, what you see in the valve cover strongly suggests a blown head gasket. When you install the new head gasket, also install a new thermostat because, believe it or not, running without a thermostat will cause the engine to overheat.

 

I'm with RonJ@HT on this one. Head gasket.

I had the EXACT problem with one of my cars (the
coolant not being sucked from the reservoir)..I
changed everything in hopes that it wasn't a HG.
It went on for a while. It ran fine but you had to
add coolant to the actual radiator. Through the
radiator. It starts to overheat because the
pressure / air from the blown gasket is pushing
coolant out and not allowing any to return in
to the radiator and the rest of the system.

Finally, after I had spent lots of time in the garage
and money on parts trying to avoid changing a HG,
I changed the HG and it was fine.

I'm positive that's what the problem is on your car, man.

 

Wow that's exactly the same thing I'm going threw. Thanks for all that info, it's helping me out alot. New head gasket on the way.

 

Right on. I was suffering from head gasket denial too. Hah. I actually drove
the car for a few months like that. Adding the lost coolant to the radiator
every day.

Good luck, man. I'm positive all your problems will vanish with the new HG.

 

Thanks man. I got the headgasket set a couple of days ago. I'll update this page as soon as I finish up everything.

 

Awesome. definitely post the outcome. Doing it yourself? I actually need
to do mine in the next week or so. Has a little oil running
down on the transmission side. No problems any where else, though...yet.


.

 

glad you found your solution! once youre in there you should change the water pump and T-belt... when we bought my gf's hatch, same exact problem, and also didnt have a thermostat.. we drove it from the bay area to the central valley(california) overheated twice, got home, changed all parts in hope it wouldnt be the HG, but it was lol.. she drove it for 2 more weeks then it finally gave out completely, since repair it hasnt gave any problems.. good luck with your car!

 

Yes, sir, I'll post the outcome. I'll try to get some phone pics of the old gasket and of other things. I'll be changing the headgasket my self and my dad is going to help me out if I get stuck.


I thank peaseapea and the others on this forum for helping me find the solution. I'll check to see if the timing belt needs to be changed and if it does, then new belt. I checked the water pump a couple of days ago, it passed all the test.
I'll keep this page updated.

 

Small update with pics, phone pics. Old headgasket. The headgasket is divided into three open sections. The worst part was when I took the head off the block and turned it over to get all the oil out and bamm thick LIGHT COLORED CARAMEL MILKY OIL poured all over the garage floor.

 

*PROBLEM FIXED*

We finished up installing the new headgasket, everything is assembled and the car doesn't overheat anymore. Thanks guys for all the help.

 

So since them, how does your car run? Is the idle good or rought?

 

The cars idle is awesome, no bouncy needle movement on the tach at idle. The car accelerates real quick, it's almost like if I have a new motor. No more overheating problems, the new headgasket fixed the problem.