Engine sounding like its a diesel????????????

Thanks for all the input to those who answered my last problem. Thanks. Im putting a 93 Grand Prix(3.1 MP 2-door) back together and have ran into another couple problems. I recently installed a radiator in the car and since then I have been getting a low coolant light that comes on and sometimes goes right off and that sometimes stays on for a couple of minutes. It always turns ioff though. I haven't seen any coolant leaks and have filled the radiator and resovoir a couple of times so far. at times I would just have filled the radiator and reso and would get the light while filling. I'm assumiong the problem revolves around the radiator installation. Today it was 81 degrees here so I knew if there was a temp prob it would more than likely rise today. I drove normally about 15 miles and before I got back home the lowcoolant light came on and the motor started to make a diesel engine type niose when I would accelerate. Now if I smashed a little bit I wouldn't here the sound. Once I got home, I checked and there was light smoking coming form the lower right hand side of the engine mostly also the resovoir looked as if it was empty. The car has 160k on it so I'm thinking it may be head gasket but I don't know for sure. Also after installation of the radiator I haven't been able to get the temp gauge to work either. The rest of the gauges work normally with the exception of the temp one. If anyone has had this problem I could use some help. thanks for reading. Also the fans work and the fuses are fine. Just wnated to add that.

I would certainly want to find out where the coolant is going. Check the heater core as it could be leaking all your coolant to the outside of the car and you wouldn't see it. The drain is on the passenger side near the front of the engine on the firewall. Also check the oil. If it is chocolate in color then the lower intake manifold gaskets are bad and need replaced. Don't drive it as you will damage the bearings and ruin the engine. Also do a compression check on the engine to see if you have any low cylinders. Sometimes the head gaskets will go between the cylinders and you will see two adjacent cylinders that are low. Of course you should see a great deal of smoke from the exhaust if you are losing that much coolant into the cylinders.

Thanks for the rsponse. After I had parked it, I lifted the hood and smoke was coming from the drivers side at the bottom of the engine. It was vaguly comeing form the entire botom of the engine though. Me and my mechanic just did some spot checking and some bleeding. What he thinks is that the thermostat and the water pump is bad. The thing is I had just put a brand new water pump on a few weeks before I put the radiator in. His explanation is that the cracked core I had for the weeks leading up to the swap ruined the water pump. I asked him how it could wreck the the water pump so quickly and he said it could. So tommorrow he wants the replace the water pump I just bought and chnge the thermostat. I'm going out now to see how much exhaust I'm getting. Do I need to wait till the car is warm? Thanks for the response I'm going to check on that heate core. But I just don't see how a water pump goes bad that quick. And the fact that he said this makes me wonder if it's te water pump. the motor has 169k. also if the core is bad where would the fluid settle? thansk again

The water pump should not go bad that fast. If it did take it back as you should have some kind of warranty. As for the heater core. Fill the radiator up with water and let the engine run. After it gets hot you should be able to locate the leak. If it is the heater core water should be coming from a small tube on the passenger side of the car on the firewall. It will either be a rubber tube or a round hole. This is designed to keep water off the carpet. The smoke from a bad head gasket should start immediately once you start it although it may have to warm up completely before the leak actually starts due to heat related expansion. If water is leaking into the cylinders you should smell antifreeze in the exhaust and there should be a big white cloud coming from the exhaust.

I still havent solved the problem yet. However no one is at fault in the least. We both know Rome was not built in a day and I thankl you for your help. Well furthermore, I put on the pump and thermostat today and it ran similar to how it had ran previously. But I have also thought of some more ways to get some help finding the problem. I thought it may be the heater core but my guy said that teh antifreeze would be leaking on the carpet on the passenger side(let me know if that's true). Since its not we x'd that. The temp gauge also doens't seem to work anymore. We got a plug that my guy thinks will make it work. The fuses, we didn't check but we thouight since the other dash gauges work it couldn't be a fuse cause there on the same fuse. But pretaining to the coolant prob my coolant light goes on and off. Even when water had just been put in the resovoir. Also today the check engine started doing what the coolant light is doin so Im like is this the end or what?LOL well we cna keep tradin ideas if you dodn't mind and maybe it will fix itself.LOL Nah, but maybe I can get the issue corrected.