ok, so i have had some issues with my cooling system over the past month or two. first it started with cooling system not holding pressure and blowing water in the overflow and then on to the street. I replaced the radiator cap and it went away for about a month. Yesterday I was driving all the sudden i smelled maple syrup. Knew that I had blown something, exhaust looked fine out the mirror, so i looked down at the gauge and it was in the process of pegging right. PUlled over and opened the hood, and saw steam and water all over the engine around the water pump/ thermostat area. IT had dumped the entire contents the of the radiator out that general area. the skid plate and diff was covered.

My buddy showed up and we limped to my grandma's house, which was about a block away. the engine ran fine, it wasn't like it had blown a head gasket at all. WE got as many containers that we could find and filled them with water. We filled the radiator and started the engine. it was holding water! we started driving slowly down the road back to my house, we would stop every mile or so and check it. no visible leaks, but we added some water because a big air bubble had worked out. then i drove it all the way back to my house, about 4 miles, without a problem, didn't overheat or anything. got back and checked it had leaked maybe a quart or so but not much. When my dad and i looked at we discovered it was seeping around the thermostat housing.

We are hypothesizing that my problem that i was having before with it overheating was because the thermostat was sticking shut. With it sticking shut, it was building pressure against my crappy radiator cap and it was blowing it into the overflow. When i replaced the cap it helped, but when the thermostat stuck this last time, the new cap held more pressure back and blew threw some the RTV around the thermostat housing. then when it cooled the RTV retracted in the crack it sealed to a certain degree.

Right now i am going to go drain the radiator and pull the thermostat and see what i find. Wish me luck.

 

i wish you good luck...

 

Thanks.

 

you may want to just check your water pump very closly while it is apart to make sure that is not the problem, some companies design water pumps to leak if there is a problem.

 

This is true. But the problem still is that it dumped all of the water at once and now it is only seeping around the thermostat. if the water pump seal blew, it would still be blown and wouldn't hold water.

 

i believe im having the same issue. are you by any chance having an electronic sounding whirring noise coming from the drivers side of the engine bay?

 

Alex, I think what dude is referring to is the seep holes on the water pump.

Good luck!

 

Ok, gotcha

Got the thermostat out and tested it, wouldn't open. boiled the water in a pan with a thermometer and it didn't open period. so picked up a new one and it looks much better. I am thinking that the engine boiled the water and it blew out around the plastic thermostat housing. Going to give that a shot first. Might be doing a water pump before i am done.

 

Alright so i got a new thermostat and was looking at the seal on the old one and on the new one. the old thermostat's gasket is toast! stretched and loose on the thermostat, the new one is a nice tight fit on the thermostat and in the housing. Fired it up and guess what, no leaks, no seeps. nothing. runs great warms up faster and i think it is actually running right now. (knock on wood)

What we figure happened is that the thermostat stuck shut, creating excesses pressure and heat in the engine. the engine then boiled the water which created steam. the steam then proceeded to blow out the weak point in the system: the crappy gasket around the thermostat with a plastic thermostat housing. when it cooled and we poured water back in it, the damage had been done to the thermostat gasket, which is why it held water, but the housing weeping. Since the replacement about 4 hours ago, the whole area around the thermostat is bone dry and it hasn't leaked a drop. (knock on wood)

 

assuming autozone or some nearby parts store is open today, ill also be replacing my thermo. i hope i have the same results.

best of luck, hope that fixed it.

 

I hope so too. good luck. Careful taking the nuts off, i ended up taking out two of the studs because the nuts rusted on to them. I separated and cleaned the studs and nuts. I could see that it had leak here before because one of the studs was a little bit corroded. just watch that.

 

I would look into replacing that plastic housing with an aluminum one.
Bigblock

 

where can i get one?

 

Try checking Nix99 = DeathCougar......known as Josh at Nix. You can google Nix or just pm the Coug. Although, I haven't seen him around much lately.

Then again, I may have one. I can check tomorrow in my spare parts bins.

 

is it off an older motor or a different motor? could i cross reference it?

 

If I still have it, it's off of an '89. But, I think it should fit yours.

Let me just check first if I have it. If I do, we'll go from there. I won't ask anything for it other than shipping....m'kay?

 

'89 3vze, that is.

 

I might try and look that up. Turns out i got a crack in my radiator too. so i will be taking it apart again anyway. Thanks. I just don't have a way of getting you shipping money. I don't have paypal or anything.

 

Christmas time takes up much of my life Thookypoo I am on every day, whether I post or not.

Usually Abe beats me to posting...what with his 20 posts per day average and whatnot.

 

Alright, so i got my new radiator installed and good to go. Did it yesterday and it is working great. The radiator is a brand new, copper/brass unit from Performance Radiator. It came with the ports for the automatic transmission fluid cooler. I am thinking of running the low pressure return line from my power steering system through it. I don't know how hot the power steering system actually gets, but I figure it couldn't hurt.

P.S. Performance Radiator has great customer service by the way. I highly recommend them. They even had the radiator hoses, and cap if i needed it.

http://www.performanceradiator.com/