S.O.L in SoCal?? Need help badly!

Had a problem with my 90 Gt today. Going down the freeway and my temperature guagewent from 160 al the way into the red in a matter of seconds. Moments later the engine died and wouldn't restart. There was smoke (white) coming from the area around my valve covers. I checked the oil, other than being slightly (it's been 2000 miles since changing.) dirty, it was within acceptable ranges. The coolant was still cool, I was able to remove the overflow cap and the radiatior cap without any sort of steam coming out. Just before it died it was making a jackhammer noise like metal on metal and the engine bay smelled like burning metal. The car is parked right now until morning. Can anyone think of what could be causing my problem? I refuse to part with this car and will do what it takes to keep it. Please help me....

how much coolant was in it when you took the cap off? was there any? sounds like you may have blown a head gasket and then cracked one or both cylinder heads. just because a temp guage is showing normal doesn't mean that everything's fine and dandy. did the motor crank, or did you get no sound when you went for the restart? did you hear a bang when the motor died? it's also possible that you threw a rod and it didn't puncture the oil pan or block by some chance... that would be the case with a no-crank condition. but, it's most likely a cracked head. the jackhammering was probably part of your valvetrain that went out of whack.

sorry dude, sounds like you're fucked. good luck.



edit: to fix a cracked head involves replacing the entire head. might as well step up and get some GT-40 turbo swirls and get a little porting done while you're at it... piston rings may be in order as well, if not bearings and gaskets/seals and such. shit, if you weren't in california i'd offer to do the work myself...

My question here is had you just jumped in your car when this happened or had you been driving it for a while. It definately sounds like you got major engine trouble but what caused it is what I would like to know.

Two weeks ago I was on my way to the speed shop and after being in the car for about 5 minutes I noticed my temp guage did the same thing fortunately I noticed it and pulled over, shut it down and let it cool. When I opened the hood the upper hose I noticed was collapsed. It ended up being a bad thermostat.

Is it possible you had been running hot for a while and just didn't notice it until you heard noise?

Figured out the problem. Chain reaction, water pump went out, and the entire upper half followed suit. Fully rebuilt now, did it in a public parking space. lol

Glad you got it running again, I was wandering what was going on with your situation.

Good thing too, just in time, have to drive it from cali to WA this coming weekend fully loaded with everything I own in it, time to move. Cost about 175 for tools, and just under 100 for parts, labor was free (did it myself) but tedious. Now to flush all the fluids, put some mileage on the rebuild and call it a day. Now if anyone ever asks, yes, you can fit the entire 5.0 in the hatch.

You put an entire 5.0 motor in your hatch? What exactly did you end up rebuiilding.

Stripped it all the way to the bare block, all auxillary components (a/c, fan, shroud, alternator... etc.) also came off for easier access to anything I needed to get to. Took every waking moment for an entire weekend. Now I'm running into another problem. She backfires like no one's business, has NO power (can't even bark the tires) and after only 10-15 minutes of idling the cats are GLOWING red hot. not just a little red and steamy either, it's like having neons. Have tried advancing and retarding timing SLIGHTLY. After a full rebuild I'm not ready to blow another set of gaskets running her too rich. Have also checked for vacuum leaks. Don't know a whole lot about valves rods or lifters, so those are my main suspects right now. Trying to decide whether to risk gutting the cats or not, think they may be blocked.

Oh yeah, and she really only wants to move in the higher rpm's. All of my low end torque is completely gone, she just bangs and hollers at me when I don't run the tach up.

Taken care of again, fouled one or more spark plugs or wires, replaced the full set with bosch's and new wires, good to go now. Was getting detonation that was lighting up my cats. Also thinking that maybe they were in the wrong firing order, but I didn't check before I replaced them, runs smooth as silk now.

Congrats