My baby overheated!

[jtstuedle]

1995 3.4 V6...

I accelerated to about 65-70mph a bit quick, and held it steady between there for about 5 miles down the road, and I noticed my exhaust was smoking, checked my guages, temp guage was not even 1/4 of the way up, pulled over, and smoke starts billowing out from under the hood. Killed the car, popped the hood, and the top of the engine was smoking(it had apparently overheated, I turned the key forward to check the guages once again, and to my surprise, it had heated to about 250!). let it sit for about 45 minutes to cool down, started it up, and crept it to my destination(which was about 2 more minutes down the road), Car now runs perfectly, oil was changed 2 days ago, and it has plenty of water!

[92zcamaroperson]

unless you had the motor started you wouldnt of gotten an accurate temp reading. Where exactly was the smoke coming from? Id say that something was leaking and then got on the manifolds. Look for stuff like that.

[wrightz28]

if it's an automatic trans you'd better change the fluid and filter ASAP.

[92zcamaroperson]

Its a good idea to do that...but im not convinced that he actually overheated it. If the need was a quarter of the way up when he saw smoke and then he killed it theres no way it couldve over heated.

[92zcamaroperson]

Was the oil changed before or after you saw smoke? If it smoked after the oil change then most likely too much oil was put it and it came out of the valve cover seals and onto the manifolds.

[wrightz28]

Yeah, he never really mentioned WHERE the a/f was coming from, I would suspect a blown upper hose or something.

But, since he continued to drive it be it all just for a few minutes, trans fluid does not dissipate heat and breaks down quickly, I see it as cheap insurance, not to mention it's kind of a general statement for anyone wandering by, anytime you have a coolant problem and the radiatorahs been ran hot, the trans fluid passing through it is going to get burnt.

[97cavalier]

and also don't run water, run antifreez, water rust things out and gets hot QUICK!!

[jtstuedle]

Thanks for all the replies...I think the thermostat got clogged, which would explain why my temp guage wasn't registering until after I turned the car off and clicked the key over to turn the electrical back on(computer reset), it ran just fine today though, will check the thermostat tommorow night after work, no hoses broken, no fluids leaking, could've had water in the combustion chamber(it might have been mentioned in the thread above), and no head gaskets cracked, it wouldn't have ran so smoothly today if so.

[wrightz28]

woah, woah, woah,

first off, a thermostat is not what sends the temp guage reference. A thermostat does nothing more but stay closed keeping the coolant in motors water passages until it reaches the set temprature. Once the set temp is achievied the spring is overcome by rising wax seal (cork if you will) allowing the coolant to pass through radiator for heat transfer to the air.

second, where there is coolant externally on the motor, there IS a problem somewhere. Antifreeze has glycol (sugar) in it for a reason. When it is leaked out and dries it leaves a nice tatle-tail white resedue. Look for traces of this white residue around the hoses, radiator (and overflow tank they are notorious leakers in 4th gens), heater core and intake manifold.

third, how did you determine the head gasket isn't cracked?

AND FINALLY, water in the combustion chamber!?! That's called hydrolock my friend. And if that werre the case the motor would not have restarted, and would not have been fine until the water is removed by a painstaking, long ass process. water does not compress.