help...no heat

original repair was flushing out the radiator and heater core..
the fluid was bad and gunky (im a girl) i had some heat
while i was driving still with no heat, the temperature gauge spiked and the car shut down...the thermostat was replaced..i had some heat...
now i have absolutely NO HEAT again....
my mechanic thinks its now the head gasket....$$$$$
he says the heater core and blower motor are fine...

HELP!!!!!!!!!!! any suggestions or thoughs will be very greatly appreciated

What year and engine?

original repair was flushing out the radiator and heater core..
the fluid was bad and gunky (im a girl) i had some heat
while i was driving still with no heat, the temperature gauge spiked and the car shut down...the thermostat was replaced..i had some heat...
now i have absolutely NO HEAT again....
my mechanic thinks its now the head gasket....$$$$$
he says the heater core and blower motor are fine...

HELP!!!!!!!!!!! any suggestions or thoughs will be very greatly appreciated


that would help wouldnt it...sorry....1997 6cylinder.....

Possible - bad, clogged or broken heater control valve??
Too Much antifreeze in the system??? should be a 50/50 mix - water / antifreeze

Your best bet would be to have someone you trust like your dad brother or boyfriend look at it in person and make sure everything looks ok like hoses dont have any holes and things like that.

Your best bet would be to have someone you trust like your dad brother or boyfriend look at it in person and make sure everything looks ok like hoses dont have any holes and things like that.

well if i had one of those i certainly would let them take a look at it!!!
i took the car in this morning, he flushed the radiator again, junk came out of it again and the heat was working....hopefully he's just gonna replace the radiator....
thanks for the help............

ps....sucks being a girl

Your best bet would be to have someone you trust like your dad brother or boyfriend look at it in person and make sure everything looks ok like hoses dont have any holes and things like that.


thanks for the suggestion....i took it in this morning, he flushed the radiator for the who knows how many times...more crap came out and the heat was working...apparently this ""gunk"" is clogging the heater core....not that im a mechanic, but youd think replacing the radiator would be worth a shot???!!!!

thanks for you help............

ps...i love my car...can you tell?? lol

what kind of crap is coming out when its getting flushed

what kind of crap is coming out when its getting flushed

from what this guy says and ive seen it...its a orange colored coolant..
i guess theres been problems with this...its supposed to be good for 100,000 miles....but it causes this ""gunk"" rusty looking stuff....

my x was in charge of handling auto maintance..and i dont believe until this year this fluid has NEVER been changed...so much for his knowledge.

the mechanic called and said that he flushed the radiator AGAIN and now the heat is blasting....i wonder how long this is gonna last....

If Im not mistaking I think all cars have a type of anti-freeze that there ran on. so find out what this guy is putting in there. When he flushed it out the first time the thermostat wasnt open so all the crap in the motor wasnt flushed out. A good thing you could do is take it to a chevy dealer. That works on cars. They will charge more but they know what there doing(most the time).

Here we have another case of factory Dexcool (orange stuff) still in the car and hasnt been changed. Although the say it's good to 100,000 miles it seems to, er, not last as long. It should be replaced with the normal Prestone green/blue stuff. 50/50 mix water and coolant.

Here we have another case of factory Dexcool (orange stuff) still in the car and hasnt been changed. Although the say it's good to 100,000 miles it seems to, er, not last as long. It should be replaced with the normal Prestone green/blue stuff. 50/50 mix water and coolant.

hi...thanks for the advice...apparently this dexcool IS a problem...
the mechanic flushed the radiator AGAIN....and now i have heat...
jeshhh....my car has 92,000 miles on it....and runs great besides this heat issue...so i guess this guy will be flushing out the system alot....

thanks for all your help.................

If theres ANY mix of the orange and green coolant it will coagulate and make this nasty rust/brown gel stuff. Your not supposed to switch kinds unless u get the heater core, radiator, and block 100% clean as in hot tanking them. Flushing the system still leaves some of the old coolant there, very little, but it still mixes. The good ole green stuff actually works better for cooling and heating, the orange just holds up better, but not 100k miles. Another possibility thats less likely is the trans cooler inside the radiator leaking, thats only for auto trans tho. Have the shop do a pressure test on the cooling system, if no leaks replace the heater core, replace or hot-tank the radiator, and flush the block and hoses with straight water for quite a while. There is a new "yellow" antifreeze that supposedly can be used with both types, I'd refill the system with that stuff just in case. Also make sure the system is bleed properly, I don't know if the 6 has reverse flow like an LT1, but if it is all air must be thouroughly bleed out, and once is not near enough.

How do you bleed the coolant system? I think that may be worth a shot on my LT1... The heat seems to take a long time to kick in and when it does, it's still not as warm as I'd like. Of course, I'm going to check the thermostat first, to see if it's opening. Does 160 degrees sound right for the thermostat? I think that's what I've got in my car... Been a couple of years since I replaced the last one. Is it bad to go to a lower one?

Heater Valve could be bad, or thermostat is stuck open not allowing the coolant to heat up fast enough. 160 thermostat is best for high performance. If you want heat especially in winter go with a 180 or 195.

So tell me where I'm confused. When the thermostat opens up, I'll actually be losing heat that could otherwise be routed into my car? I thought that it was vice versa; when the 'coolant' got warm enough for it to open it, I would be able to 'flow it' through my vents into the car. So in other words, I really don't need to see if the thermostat is opening because if it's not then I shouldn't be losing heat anyway? I was pretty sure it was the opposite of that; that if it wasn't opening, I wasn't going to get warm air...