Our Community is 940,000 Strong. Join Us.


Overheating after doing LIM gasket change


nosaj1033
06-21-2010, 12:33 PM
I have a 95' with 3.1 L engine. We experience what so many others with this engine have..A blown LIM Gasket leading to coolant mixing with the oil in the engine case. So I decided to do the job myself with the felpro gasket fix and I even changed out the oil pump shaft o-ring, thermostat, plugs, and valve cover gaskets. Everything went well, the gaskets are holding up, no leaks, and the oil looks clean (not milky). So I decided to test drive it and every thing was going good until after getting on the freeway the temperature spiked. I pulled over and had a look and saw that the heater hose coupler which is attached to the LIM (near thermostat housing) was snapped right at the LIM/coupler junction. In other words, the coupler threads are still in the LIM case. The coupler looked corroded but I decided not to replace it as it was working fine before plus I didn't know if it was a factory only item. Is this "break" the cause of the over heating? I did flush the coolant as well as did an oil change prior to starting the car up but I didn't bleed any air out. The coolant reservoir is full and not being drawn back into the radiator and it bubbles after overheating with the car off. How can I fix this temporarily? I had to abandon my vehicle at a 24 hr restaurant in hopes that it wouldn't get towed over night. Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated. BTW, I just ordered the Lisle heater hose coupler removal tool to fix this problem.

maxwedge
06-21-2010, 06:44 PM
Start by bleeding the cooling system, why didn't you do this? No temp fix for this.

slingslingbinks
06-24-2010, 02:55 PM
I had the same quick connect fitting crack and when i tried to remove it, it snapped off. A little handy work with a hacksaw blade and a center punch got the broken piece out of the manifold and chased the pipe thread's and put in a brass hose connector. A short piece of heater hose and 2 hose clamps did the fix. Beware that you might have to flush out the heater core. All the trash could plug it as it did mine and in the winter the heater had low heat output. Hope this helps you out. Oh and bleed out the air from the cooling system by running the motor and opening the 2 bleader screws

ladagosta
08-16-2010, 02:54 AM
I had the same quick connect fitting crack and when i tried to remove it, it snapped off. A little handy work with a hacksaw blade and a center punch got the broken piece out of the manifold and chased the pipe thread's and put in a brass hose connector. A short piece of heater hose and 2 hose clamps did the fix. Beware that you might have to flush out the heater core. All the trash could plug it as it did mine and in the winter the heater had low heat output. Hope this helps you out. Oh and bleed out the air from the cooling system by running the motor and opening the 2 bleader screws
I had this same issue with my LIM it appears that that plastic clip on the quick connect snaps too easily and you have to rig something up to replace we did ours close to how you did yours with an extra piece of pipe thrown in cause we needed to adapt one to fit the right threading..

very critical with the bleeding proceedure on this car
I am finding that was my issue all along i never had a manual to follow bleeding proceedure so it has been over heating since going out tomorrow to bleed it properly and get her back home again..

if anyone needs this here it is:
while cold remove radiator cap and fill with 50 50 to top make sure you have bleeder fittings open when filling the first time.. fill till antifreeze pours out the fittings.. then close them and replace cap.. start car and warm up til T stat opens . turn off car let cool down open cap again and refill radiator until topped off (do not open bleeders this time)... should be good to go at this point... I was intitially told to bleed after car was warmed up till anti freeze came out bleeders this has done nothing to help .. so I am hoping the way i was just told is correct for this vehicle.. I will know tomorrow nite and post back if I am wrong

Add your comment to this topic!