97 nissan altima gxe wont start

[alty97]

i was on the highway and my car just died on me all the lights came on the sterring wheel and pedals got real stiff i pulled over and found out my radiator cracked overheating my car ever since then my car wont start ive checked the plugs there releasing good spark the distributor seems fine ivetried adjusting the timing on the distributor but it does nothing when i trie starting it the belts turn and thats it i thought mabe i blew the head but sombody said it was fine if anyone has any ideas what it could be id appreciate there opinoin

[JudoJohn]

I suspect the head gasket blown from the overheat. how does this "someone" know it is not the head gasket? obviously, something was damaged during the overheat. Is there water in the oil, and oil in thewater? check to see if there is compression.

[alty97]

yea he said there would be water in the oil and it appears that theres not then somewon told me somthing would be blowing out of the head when i try to start it if it was broken but idk is there another way of telling if i blew the head and could it be possible that water is not in the oil cause all the water came out of radiator when it cracked then the head blew cause when i popped the hood when this happend i checked the water and it had non what soever so we put water in it then when i tried starting it all the water just sprayed out of the crack thats how i noticed the crack in the radiator

[JudoJohn]

you do not always get water in the oil and vice versa when a head gasket leaks. sometimes it leaks coolant into a cylinder (happened to my Sentra). since you overheated, the head could have warped and caused leaks which do not allow the engine to start. If the leak is from that, there would not be enough time to allow the water/oil mixing. do a compression test.

[alty97]

alright ill do a compression test thanks for the advice

[Marikawn]

Originally Posted by alty97

i was on the highway and my car just died on me all the lights came on the sterring wheel and pedals got real stiff i pulled over and found out my radiator cracked overheating my car ever since then my car wont start ive checked the plugs there releasing good spark the distributor seems fine ivetried adjusting the timing on the distributor but it does nothing when i trie starting it the belts turn and thats it i thought mabe i blew the head but sombody said it was fine if anyone has any ideas what it could be id appreciate there opinoin

Haha I had the same problem happen to me. Except I was in the middle lane during rush hour. I was able to start the car and drive it to a local parking lot. It ended up that my Radiator had blown up and it had to be changed. After changing that it was still overheating and realized that the orignal problem was that I had to change the water pump (pain in the neck). I also changed the thermostat at the same time because it was recommended. That did the job.