My engine temp gauge (bosch) has been going up to 210 recently. I thought it was just the heat and stop and go traffic but today it went to 280. I shut the engine off immediately.
Steam coming out of the coolant overflow canister.
Steaming coming out of my oil filler cap when I open it.
And white smoke coming out the exhaust once I let it cool down and restarted it.
But the radiator was cool to the touch. Im replacing this first but as you may have guessed my big question is:

BLOWN HEADGASKET?

My thermostat is oem and was installed (by me) with a fresh gasket and new coolant six months ago.
Its too dark for me to check for oil/coolant mix.

 

Sorry to say bud but it sounds like a blown head gasket. Especially because the steam from the oil filler cap and the exhaust. Like you said, definitely check for oil/coolant mix. Not only in the radiator and overflow but also in the oil. Take a look at the oil on your dip stick and under the valve cover. Look for a tan "milky" quality to it. It would also be prudent to check compression at this time. If any cylinder is low or even over 10% less than the others, that is suspect. One true fire technique to check for coolant in a cylinder is to pull the spark plug and crank it over. If any coolant is in there, it will get expelled through the spark plug hole when cranked. I found this best to do after a slight cool down as to let any coolant that may be leaking into the cylinder accumulate.

Best of Luck,

Sam

 

I drained all the fluids. The oil came out like water for ten to twenty seconds then like chocolate milk.
My radiator was clean. And when I unhooked all my hoses, water flushed through pretty quickly.
Also when I popped the drain plug on the block to let the coolant out, it dropped coolant but the level of coolant at the thermostat housing did not change at all. Anyone know what this could mean?
I'm going to test thermostat tonight.
I'm guessing it's the water pump or maybe I had air trapped in the system and it got trapped in the thermostat housing?
Hoping to get the head off today but we'll see. This shade-tree mechanic is wishing he had a shade tree.

 

Sounds like a head gasket to me. Your oil should NOT look like chocolate milk. Coolant mixing into it will cause it to look like that.

 

Yea the fluids confirm the head gasket has blown but my question is why wasn't the coolant circulating and more specifically why was my thermostat housing not draining when i drained the block? Is it normal for a little coolant to get stuck in there?
The thermostat works so either I had air in the system or bad water pump.

The head is off. Nothing looks like Oh My God bad on it but i'm going to take it to a machine shop to have it checked out.

The other thing I saw when I took off my head is the timing chain guides are getting chewed up...I know people say the 20r has a "metal" timing chain guide but does this actually mean a "metal-backed" timing chain guide?
And why do I feel like I'm headed for a full rebuild?
Now that I have the head off, what can I be doing to clean my block? Drop the oil pan?

Thanks everyone

 

Well just a quick update:
Blown headgasket. Timing chain hardware sheared off. Why did i believe the previous owner when they told me this engine had been rebuilt? Maybe they forgot to mention it was rebuilt ten years ago.

Took it apart. Put it back together and finally fired it up last night. To my surprise it does run. Valves are very loud and i need to reseal thermo housing but it wasnt blowing oil on me so my first rebuild im satisfied. Learned a lot, will definitely do things different next time. Way less intimidated to crack a motor open now. Very thankful these 4 cyls are pretty straightforward.

Most importantly I have so much respect and gratitude for all the real mechanics out there who actually know what theyre doing!!!

 

Just seeing this. Glad you got it figured out.
Did you ever decide to replace those timing guides? There really isn't a whole lot to it if you ever decided to. That timing cover, oil pump and water pump comes off all as one piece and then its just a matter of unbolting the spring tensioner and guides and bolting the new ones back up. Of course, you've got a gasket there but there really isn't a whole lot to it.

However, if you didn't and decide to do it in the future, remember that there is a bolt that runs from the head of that motor into the top of the timing chain cover and it has to be removed to take it off. 16 year old me was stuck on that for a while whenever i did my first head gasket/timing chain replacement before i knew about internet or Yotatech lol

Good luck on the build and glad you got it back together!

 

Thanks.
I would never have attempted this were it not for the internets..

I got the lce timing kit. Pretty simple install except for keeping the hardware straight. And stripping threads on timing cover and pulling out the loctite. Next rebuild i will have to replace timing cover.

But first me and the family and the auto stable are moving. So as long as i can drive ms rusty onto a trailer im good. Then its rust repair this winter.

 

Glad you got it worked out!

 

Update: oil leak from somewhere around the oil pump. I didnt put rtv on that top bolt so im going to redo that and if that doesnt fix it Ill try to get a new o ring that seats on a different position on the crank shaft.

Other than that shes running good. Need to adjust the carb still