Overheating problems...please help!

Allright, I have a 97 Pontiac Grand Am 3.1L V6.... I have an overheating problem. I replaced the intake gasket because it wss cracked, I thought that was the only overheating problem but now it over heats again.

I fill my car up with water but it goes away, I pressure tested it but it holds pressure. I just don't know what could be wrong. It overheats in idle and on freeway. I replaced the thermostat so I don't think that would be the problem. Any help would be great.

If anyone can give me some issues they might think of and ways to test and fix it then that would be great.
My email address iis removed by Moderator please only email if you really want to help thhank you!

Welcome to the forum!

How long ago did you replace the intake manifold gasket? Has it been consistently overheating since then? Are you sure you had all the air out of the cooling system when refilling, and prior to replacing the thermostat?

When you pressure tested the system, did that include the radiator cap? If the radiator cap is not allowing pressure to build in the cooling system you can experience overheating since some of the boil over protection comes from the pressure in the system.

Have you checked the operation of the electric radiator cooling fan? If the car truly is overheating on the freeway as well, then the problem is less likely to be the cooling fan, but possibly restricted flow in the radiator or a failing water pump. Any chance someone used a product to stop the gasket leak that might have plugged up the radiator?

-Rod

If anyone can give me some issues they might think of and ways to test and fix it then that would be great.
My email address iis removed by Moderator please only email if you really want to help thhank you!

We would rather members not ask for assistance outside of this forum as any help offered to solve the issue could benefit others as well, not only now, but in the future. New members (as well as seasoned ones) can use the search function to find threads about their issue. If they were to find this thread but no replies it wouldn't do them any good. AF is like a giant reference site, with new info being added and modified constantly. By asking for members to email their responses to you kind of defeats the purpose. It would be like doing a report and researching info only to find that there is info out there to help, only it belongs to one person and you don't have access to it.
Also it really isn't a good idea to post your email address on large sites (or any public site for that matter) as there are a lot of spammers out there that would be happy to know it.

How many miles on engine?? Does the coolant circulate, is the water pump working?? Possible deteriated fins on water pump??? Just a thought. Do you see white smoke out of tailpipe (meaning coolant is being burned by engine)

Try new coolant reservoir cap (if system is not completely sealed water will boil faster). Boiling point of water is raised under pressure. I also drilled the outer ring of my T-stat at 12, 5 and 7 O'clock so now I have constant (slow circulation of cooler coolant) to protect my LIM gaskets and prevent forming of air pockets.

"fill it up with water but it goes away"... reminds me of someone (me) who kept topping off the reservoir with water when it was low; eventually you end up with mostly water and very little anti-freeze(anti-boil) in the system. I'm now a big fan of topping off with the 50/50 pre-mixed antifreezes since its convenient and they use real distilled water like you're supposed to, but which of course I never did. I'm near the beach in Florida, and there really is an incredible amount of crap in the tap water here. You have to wipe down your car after washing it or you'll have a lot of white "splash" marks on it.
Be aware that it may be the reservoir itself, not the cap, that's letting the pressure escape.

3100 - Crap! Drilling the thermostat sounds like a great idea; too bad I didn't do it the previous three times I replaced the thermostat (i switched to a 180-deg hoping to protect the LIM gasket) Is it worth it to go back in to drill the holes? What diameter? Getting to the thermostat is a P I T A.

ps My '98 Sentra thermostat has a "jiggle-valve" which lets air/coolant get thru; when installing a replacement you have to be sure the jiggle-valve is at top-dead-center.
Do the OEM thermostats for the 3.4L have the jiggle-valves? The off-brand I got from AdvanceAuto did'nt.

about 2.5 - 3mm in diameter. This is safer for engine blocks during winter period because hot block will not receive sudden cold stream of coolant which can create all kinds of problems including block cracking etc. Also in the case of T-stat failure you will get at least some circulation and air pockets will be eliminated also.

A bad coolant bleed procedure can cause an overheated condition to loose coolant , again, again, again.

Is the coolant reservior tank contaminated with oil?
It could be a bad head gasket!

Thanks to everyone. I replaced the cap so that's not the issue either. The thing I don't understand is that the water goes away but there no water on the floor or anyrthing like that. I replaced the intake gasket a week ago and the car started overheating the very next day. The gasket was cracket all the way through so that was the only thing I thought caused my overheating.

How could I know if its an air pocket? Wouldn't the air pocket be gone after a week? Would it cause my water to "go away"?

Thank you for your help!

Btw, less that 130,000 miles on the engine. No white smoke or anything like that either. The main thing I can't figure out is where is my water+antifreeze going?(btw I used prestone 50/50)

I'm just left clueless...

Couple of things:
How much coolant are you loosing? quart/week? gallon/week? More?

Some folks use "overheat" and "boil-over" to mean same thing; do you mean that your car boils-over at idle and on freeway? If it's boiling-over, I'd expect that coolant would be coming out the overflow tube on the reservoir.
If it's overheating, note that 3.4's run hotter than most people like; the OEM thermostat is 195-deg; fans come on low-speed at 220deg and highspeed at 230. How high is the temp getting?

And if you haven't seen it already, check out Xero's bleed-procedure here:
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=718130

and, I've heard that a slow coolant leak into a cylinder may not be noticable (no big cloud of white smoke) but that the coolant acts like a fantastic cleaner. If you are able to take out the plugs and look at the piston heads, the one that's bright and shiny is the one that's getting the coolant treatment.

Well everytime I use the car I need to put water in it. It gets up to 260 and the red light on the dash comes on. The fan works because I can hear it kick in after driving for a couple minutes or when the car starts getting warmer...so I'm really confused....with the old radiator cap when the water was boiling I could see it leaking a little so I changed it but stil no fix...so thanks for the help...I'm trying to cut down the cost because I replaced the gaskets so that was a hefty bill so I'm trying to fix this on my own before I have to pay another hefty bill

If you are loosing water then you did not pressure test the system properly. Pressure test it to 15-20 psi and pressure should remain same for 5min. Water is going somewhere. Check carpet under the heater core, and check transmission oil for milky deposits. Or unusually high oil level. Why? because transmission oil cooler is integrated into the coolant radiator and it could have internal leak and mixing with trans oil.

I would also clean radiator from bugs etc, and straighten radiator fins if they are bent. Also flow test your radiator to make sure it is not clogged.

I hope you installed the belt the correct way. Make sure water pump pulley is spinning :) Water pump is not expensive for 3.1 and it is easy to replace if I remember it was 23$ I would replace the pump as a last hope if nothing else works since water pump impeler could be damaged. To eliminate water pockets remove the cap, start the engine turn heater to high and temp selector to hot, let engine idle If you see that water level in the reservoir is decreasing put some more coolant but always maintain the correct level. Once the coolant level starts to raise turn off the engine and put the cap back on.

Allright so I tried to do the bleeding and the water pump silver shiny rotating thing thing was spinning I did notice that the air coming out of the vents in my car wasn't hot or warm...it was barely warm, is this a sign of something?

Allright so I tried to do the bleeding and the water pump silver shiny rotating thing thing was spinning I did notice that the air coming out of the vents in my car wasn't hot or warm...it was barely warm, is this a sign of something?

If your engine was hot/running for some time and your heat inside was switched on and the temperature selector was adjusted to hot, then you should be getting heat inside the car. If not, it could very well be your heater core. Like the other guy said, if you feel any liquid under the front floorboard carpets, your heater core is bad which would be the reason for all the coolant loss.

What kinda of pressure test did you do? Was then engine hot or old? How long did it hold pressure before it dropped? If all air is bled from system, test system with engine cold and see if it holds pressure. If it holds pressure and you still have an unexplainable coolant loss, have your coolant analyzed to see if you are getting combustion gasses in it. It is possible that you have a small crack in the head or block that is not opening until engine is warm. After it opens, the engine would get real hot real fast. The water would be scalding hot really fast. This happens when an intake gasket blows and you don't know it until your car shuts down because it overheated to the extreme. That always does damage. I have seen this with these motors a few times in the past. Hope this helps. lilwhitelude