found what the problem was the hard way

back again, I think I wrote about the lack of heat in my 2001 Sportage, and I thought the flaper was jammed by some acorns. Sunday I was on my way up to Boston, when I heard a odd sound like I was dragging a tree branch under the car. temp gauge was normal. everything normal. I did check my oil and coolant levels before I left, as I always do, all ok, but there was this noise, so I pulled off the Expressway and checked, nothing under the car, nothing dripping, in fact the radiator was cool to the touch, which should have been a clue after driving 70 miles an hour for 30 minutes. Well I decided to turn around and take my wifes car. About 100 yards later, I began to loose power, fast. Got off the road, the radiator was still cool....but empty! The power loss was the engine seizing. the rattling was the waterpump disintegrating, which let go tension on the timing belt, kicking the timing all over the place.
Thre sparkplug boots were melted to the plugs. and if you squeeze the top radiator hose, it's sort of crunchy. The engine is Toast, litterally! The lose of heat should have been my tip off also. Well, new engine (rebuilt) $3500-4000 plus labor, used one $2500. Sometimes the clue is in front of you and you don't see it. I'm going to roll the dice and go with the used engine, and change the pump and timing belt before it goes in.

back again, I think I wrote about the lack of heat in my 2001 Sportage, and I thought the flaper was jammed by some acorns. Sunday I was on my way up to Boston, when I heard a odd sound like I was dragging a tree branch under the car. temp gauge was normal. everything normal. I did check my oil and coolant levels before I left, as I always do, all ok, but there was this noise, so I pulled off the Expressway and checked, nothing under the car, nothing dripping, in fact the radiator was cool to the touch, which should have been a clue after driving 70 miles an hour for 30 minutes. Well I decided to turn around and take my wifes car. About 100 yards later, I began to loose power, fast. Got off the road, the radiator was still cool....but empty! The power loss was the engine seizing. the rattling was the waterpump disintegrating, which let go tension on the timing belt, kicking the timing all over the place.
Thre sparkplug boots were melted to the plugs. and if you squeeze the top radiator hose, it's sort of crunchy. The engine is Toast, litterally! The lose of heat should have been my tip off also. Well, new engine (rebuilt) $3500-4000 plus labor, used one $2500. Sometimes the clue is in front of you and you don't see it. I'm going to roll the dice and go with the used engine, and change the pump and timing belt before it goes in.

here's an update. got the car back, runs like new with the used engine that had 55,000 miles on it. Changed the fuel filter, water pump and timing belt while it was on the engine stand. At the same time all this was going on my daughter blew the head gasket in her 2000 Sportage, and turned out after magnifluxing the head it had a crack.A new one was almost $1,000, and there were no used ones available in the area, Plus she lives 300 miles away. Since I had an entire engine on the floor that was going to be scrap metal, I took the head off my old engine, even though the engine had overheated and melted the rubber boots on the plugs, I was able to get the boots and plugs off, clean it up and ship it up to the Kia dealer by her. he said the heat probabily wouldn't hurt it much, just the rubber parts, he had it milled and installed it for me.

Sorry to hear about all your recent bad luck. At least you were able to salvage your old head and put it to good use. If you, or any other board members are ever in need of a remanufactured head, give these guys a try:

www.cylinder-heads.com

A rebuilt head for a Sportage runs around $350.00 plus exchange. I recently bought a head from them for my wifes 1.9L Saturn. There workmanship is top notch and they even pay the return shipping on the core. Saved me a bundle.:)