2000 Caravan overheats

I bought a caravan today, with a 2.4 liter engine, on the premise that it had a blown head gasket.

The van starts right up, no problem. It runs fine, no smoke/steam from the exhaust... I figure, "OK, it's leaking water into oil or vice versa.."

I check the oil after driving it for about 3 minutes up the road... check the oil and water, no indication of mixing, but after idling for 5-8 minutes, it's REALLY hot. Like borderline over heat, and both fans are running.

Now, is there another indicator of a blown headgasket that I'm missing, or was the garage trying to rip the guy I bought the van from for over $1000?

I'm thinking at this point that it's either a backflush or a new thermostat and it will be running fine, neither of which will run me even $50 to fix...

I can only hope it's that easy to fix LOL.

Any input will be most appreciated, I'm new to Dodges and 2.4's altogether, I'm used to Civics and Escorts.

I bought a caravan today, with a 2.4 liter engine, on the premise that it had a blown head gasket.

The van starts right up, no problem. It runs fine, no smoke/steam from the exhaust... I figure, "OK, it's leaking water into oil or vice versa.."

I check the oil after driving it for about 3 minutes up the road... check the oil and water, no indication of mixing, but after idling for 5-8 minutes, it's REALLY hot. Like borderline over heat, and both fans are running.

Now, is there another indicator of a blown headgasket that I'm missing, or was the garage trying to rip the guy I bought the van from for over $1000?

I'm thinking at this point that it's either a backflush or a new thermostat and it will be running fine, neither of which will run me even $50 to fix...

I can only hope it's that easy to fix LOL.

Any input will be most appreciated, I'm new to Dodges and 2.4's altogether, I'm used to Civics and Escorts.

Do a compression test to see if you are loosing compression or if 2 clyinders side by side have low compression. Could the propelers in the water pump be worn or disconeccted from pump shaft and not turning to push coolant thru system to cool?

I'll be honest, I haven't even hardly touched it other than getting it to my father in law's house to park it until next weekend, when I'll be able to work on it. I never checked to see if the radiator built pressure or anything.

One thought I had was a radiator leakdown test... get a cap/gauge and pressurize the radiator up to 14 PSI - then come back in 10 mins and check it again... as long as it's not losing pressure, then that shows that the head gasket isn't leaking coolant.

Has anyone ever heard of a thermostat sticking closed? When I let the engine heat up a bit, I had the fan on HIGH and the heat all the way up - but there was no heat in the passenger compartment, it seemed just like the AC was on.

Consequently, the HVAC control is in Check mode...so the lights are blinking. Would that prevent the heater from putting out heat though?

This part is no big deal, I know how to run the diagnostic, and I even have a list of HVAC trouble codes. So once that's taken care of, maybe I'll check to see if I can get heat to the passenger area again.

Frankly, if it's just leaking between two cylinders, I don't care. I'll check it out though, but if that's all it is, I'm just going to go get another engine from a Neon or something and wait for this one to blow while I rebuild the other one.

Maybe I could get a GT cruiser motor.. that would be awesome LOL.

The current plan for next weekend is to check/replace the thermostat, back flush each piece of the system independantly, refill it, run with known good thermostat, and check for overheating again.

Compression test, HVAC diagnostic, and some interior refurbishing... needs cleaned up a bit, cuz the guy I bought it from had 7 offspring.

Still thinking a SRT-4 engine or a GT Cruiser engine would kick ass though LOL.

I have had several thermostats stick closed. When it is running hot did you notice a very steamy exhaust? I had a chevy with a blown head gasket it never got water in the oil, just a VERY steamy exhaust. If it were me I'd do a Thermost change first. If still haveing trouble, radiator flush next. I presume that you checked that you don't have a leaky freeze plug. And if any of that is not your problem, I'd put a new head gasket on first as I think it would be less time consuming & less expensive.

I checked the exhaust both by feel and by smell for presence of coolant fumes... didn't feel/smell anything at all, other than normal condensation after 6 or so months of sitting, and even that wasn't as bad as I've seen.

First thing I plan on doing is thermostat, b/c it's only $3.54 from RockAuto, and while I'm doing that, I'll flush the system out, since it's probably due for it, and it's just easier to do it while you're already working on it... this will also allow me to check for leaks/clogs in each part of the system and inspect the hoses and such.

If that doesn't yield a good result, I'll go from there.

Thanks for the help guys.