1988 over heating

i just bought this 1988 lincoln towncar about 3 weeks ago and everything was running good, jus didnt have a/c or heat. a couple days ago it started over heating for no reason, i tightend the hoses and stoped it from smokin under the engine hoping that it would stop over heating too- but it didnt only stoped it from smokin- It will run for about 5 min before overheating, the radiator is new and the engine was just rebuilt- and when it over heats itll run for bout 10 min then start makin this wierd sound like a diesel truck sounds- n then itll cut off- plz help me im lost on this one

With the coolant level good and all that new stuff, I'm thinking BAD Thermostat.

Of course that's not the only thing that can cause what your describing. Cracked coolant passages, broken gaskets, etc could also be a problem.

Are you seeing a good coolant flow?
Bubbles in the coolant? (before it heats up too much to safely look)

i was jus talkin to my next door neibhor he said the same thing i jus looked at the therma stat and it was a lil rusty so i changed it but the top part where u connect the hose at is cracked up i just taped it up for now but still i can fill the hoses gettin hot but inside it doesnt over heat as fast- but what i didnt mention was the the heat was bypassed if you know what i mean i have no heat at all- no hoses runnin for either imt hinkin that could be the problem-imma take a picture tommorow to let u see what i mean right now im sittin here like this :banghead: , but no it never is safe enuf to look to see if any bubbles ive burnt my whole hand tryin to do that,lol

I know what you mean about the heater core being bypassed, however...
When bypassing the heater core, you MUST use a "U" shaped hose and connect the two coolant ports coming and going from the engine, together. You need to maintain that coolant flow. Make sure the "U" bypass hose is not kinked and allows coolant flow.

The upper Gooseneck (Thermostat Housing) is a common item that can be purchased at any auto parts store. (at least it was at one time) www.Rockauto.com should have one.

You need to look into the radiator while its running, looking for large bubbles.
To do this, uncap the radiator while it's cold... wait a second... does your radiator have a filler cap on top? If not this wont work. Run the engine - Looking down into the coolant flow, are there large bubbles or is the radiator boiling over when its cold?

Large bubbles or boiling over while the coolant is cool indicates cylinder compression gasses entering the cooling system.

Yes, we love pictures :)

I know what you mean about the heater core being bypassed, however...
When bypassing the heater core, you MUST use a "U" shaped hose and connect the two coolant ports coming and going from the engine, together. You need to maintain that coolant flow. Make sure the "U" bypass hose is not kinked and allows coolant flow.



where is this l;ocated at exactly i think i know what ur talking bout and thats were its hot i believe, wll the tube gets hot- but imma still get a pic- i jus replaced the therma stat and its still runnin hot- but the guy the did tha bypass has like 3 tubes conneceted to gether to reach the back of the engine(i have a 5.0 v8 engine)

ok that u shape hose u were talkin about i found it and yes it did have a kink in it- only problem now is that is still over heating- i did what u said bout the bubbles and this is what it did- it started pushing the water out- then it would go down then push water out again and get hot- that'll happen for bout 6-7 seconds till i cant look no more cuz then it start spittin it out, so im back to square one- oh n i replace that U shaped hose but still :banghead:

....only problem now is that is still over heating....

....i did what u said bout the bubbles and this is what it did- it started pushing the water out- then it would go down then push water out again and get hot- that'll happen for bout 6-7 seconds till i cant look no more cuz then it start spittin it out....

OK, this is a serious problem my friend. Has nothing to do with overheating, also nothing to do with the heater by-pass, and nothing to do with coolant flow.

Your engine is the problem. :sorry:

You have cylinder gasses (compression) leaking directly into your cooling system.

I'm not intimately familiar with your massive engine so I can't even imagine all the places where cylinder gasses will be able to enter the cooling system. If it was a simple head gasket crack there would most likely be water and steam coming out the exhaust pipes, and you haven't mentioned that to be a problem yet...

Please run this problem by the folks at LOL >>> here (http://www.lincolnsonline.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=262) <<<< We need to get some other heads involved at this point.

:banghead: :crying:

well i mean how does it get in there?

could it be the water pump not workin right? n if it is then where is that at

I want to see you post these questions at LOL (the link above). There are a bunch of 80's Town Cars over there and the guys are just great...

The water pump wont cause the violent bubbling you saw in the radiator.

I have the exact same car and I had an issue at one time with it overheating however it was a simple fix. You should be able to get your cooling system checked relatively inexpensively. They do it by applying pressure(air) into the system and watching to see if it holds or not.

Also, have you had to repeatedly add coolant since this overheating started but never seen any actually leak out? Check your oil! If your oil looks like a cappucino from Starbucks, you've definitely got cracked heads or blown gaskets like Towncar stated above. Good thing is you have a 302 engine and those are not hard to find parts for.

I just recently replaced the fan, radiator, hoses, water pump, thermostat and thermostat housing on my 88 and it was quite a chore. 20 years of rust makes those bolts awfully hard to remove. The radiator fan is attached to a pulley which is directly attached to your water pump. If you say the engine has been rebuilt, hopefully they were smart and replaced the waterpump.

In any case, good luck and hopefully you have a friend who's a mechanic that works for beer and bbq. :-)