Took out the thermostat to see if that was the problem, but the car still overheated with it out.
Try bleeding the radiator but apparently the d16y8 engine is self bleeding?
Right now have the thermostat installed, but still have no heat.

Does anyone have any knowledge of the d16y8?

This is my daily driver so all immediate help would be greatly appreciated

 

No heat means air bubbles in the coolant system. Check for leaks or cracked headgasket. Smell any coolant burning?

 

Checked for leaks...nothing. Didn't smell coolant burning.
I tried to bleed the radiator as so many people have written and squeezing the upper and lower rad hoses to get air out. The upper hose gets unbearably hot and the lower hose doesn't really heat up.

When I took the thermo out the first time, no fluid came out of the lower rad hose. I didn't get the "push of water" flow out from behind the thermo either.

Maybe this helps troubleshooting?

Thanks for the response mouab18c1

 

If coolant is not flowing then there is a clog somewhere.

 

You think in one of the hoses? Or in the radiator?

I don't understand how this kind of problem could happen overnight. I mean what usually causes a clog? If it was buildup of some sort wouldn't it slowly stay at a higher than normal temp until it progressed to overheating?

 

Trust me **** happens over night, ahaha. But usually clogs are in the radiator. Did you add more coolant btw? If its clogged and coolant cant flow then it will overheat sooner then expected.

 

Yeah, I added more coolant straight into the radiator cap with heat blowing on full blast (even though it was blowing cold). I put almost a whole gallon into the top of the rad but it never came up and I ran out of coolant. Haha. Does it usually take that much? From what some people said, the only time fluid should be flowing through that rad cap area is when the coolant reservoir overflows.

How hard is it to "unclog" the radiator? I heard you have to take it to a shop or something?

 

i would pull off a hose and see if i can flush water thru or if its clogged. if no clogg. fill it back up start it up with the cap on let it build some pressure and then find the highest hose and unclamp it and use a screwdriver and slide it under hose to bleed out air. may take a while.

 

Im assuming your way low on coolant if a whole gallon didnt fill it up to the top of the radiator. Coolant is always flowing. The overflow tank is where extra coolant would flow to.

 

Checked the lower rad hose today (the one that wasn't heating up) and no clogs....when i detached it from the bottom of the radiator quite a bit of coolant came out. The other end of the hose that attaches to the thermo had nothing but dried and crusted coolant I'm guessing.

I'm guessing water pump here guys. Anyone have a good way of testing this?

BTW, when this prob first happend - my overflow tank almost filled to the brim.

 

Usually when a water pump fails, it would start to leak.

 

I also have a 94 sentra that has some clutch problems >:-( Anyway, first thing I had to change on that was the water pump, but it never leaked. Don't know if that's just because it's a sentra or what.

I'm running out of options here. I need some other method of troubleshooting. I read that there's some spring valve under the overflow tank that opens via vacuum effect when the system cools down to let coolant back into the radiator.
Could that be the problem?
Also, do all rad caps have to have a spring of some sort? Mine does not....

 

The overflow tank is just there so when the radiator is full the coolant would drain into it. But for your rad cap there should be a spring look a like thing on the bottom of the cap. Just google a picture of a rad cap and compare it to yours.

 

So what would cause my overflow tank to be half full and then after the initial "explosion" it be overflowing?

 

Sounds like your **** was empty...

 

What explosion?

 

The starting problem of all this was when I was idling for about 15-20 min in a parking spot. When I backed out and started to pull away, a loud spraying sound happened and immediately steam poured out from around my hood. I opened the hood and saw coolant everywhere and my overflow tank was filled to the brim.
That's when all the overheating started. Managed to get it to a jiffy lube where I have a friend or two because it was close by. Everyone there said it was 90% the thermo.

 

Thats good to know. So you never found exactly where the leak came from after that happened?

 

Never saw a leak or any evidence of a leak. No one could tell me why my pressure built so much and poped the top off of my overflow reservoir...

 

The F, so it just made a pop noise and your coolant resevoir top just flew off? Now thats some random ****

 

Actually not really a pop noise. Just the sound of the coolant spraying. Part of the parking lot was sand and as I moved forward it sounded like I had no traction and was peeling out and sand was flying up everywhere. Only to realize it was coolant after seeing the steam everywhere.

My coolant reservoir is just a plastic top and it goes on and takes a quarter turn to the right for it to be secure. When I checked everything immediately after the incident the top was still on but not twisted (locked into place).

I'm getting ridiculously stressed by all this and need to figure this out ASAP.
Other helpful piece of info just thought about - when I had the car on with the heat blasting trying to bleed the system with the rad cap off, after the car gets to operating temp steam started to come out from where the rad cap is. I put it on afterwards and steam was still coming out from the sides of the cap. OMG did I just answer my own problem!? Is my rad cap bad??

 

Sorry for double post.

Would that be why my car still ran hot after I removed the thermo?? Because I have no pressure in the system so it couldn't push the coolant through the lower rad hose? And through the thermo?

 

Rad caps are cheap. Buy one and see if thats your problem.

 

man i have the same problem and noone on here can figure it out either
the only thing i can narrow it down to since i have a brand new radiator which i checked to see if it was clogged which it isnt is the headgasket even tho im burning no coolant and or the water pump which is leaking mine builds up mass pressure and sprays out the reservoir also but the bottom hose hardly builds up pressure and doesnt warm up