Overheating

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SHANNON LAWRENCE

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What a day..my 2002 track decided can get warm today. I was on the way to work today and within about 15 to 20 minutes at highway speeds the temp gauge went straight to the red. Well I got pulled over to the shoulder and popped the hood to the sound of hissing near the thermostat housing and a whole bunch if steam. I let it cool down added some coolant and limped it

back to the house...barely. the temp

gauge would go up and then down, then back up..and so on. When I got home my beloved trac was marking its territory on the driveway. The puddle seems to be coming from the back half of the engine compartment with the puddle basically accumulating under/vicinity of cat convertor

The hissing sound is coming from near the Tatar housing and I must have air built up because when it heated up I released the vent on the Rad cap and it popped the overflow tank cover off. To make matters worse....no heat at all....just the heat from the motor...lol. thanks for any help
 
 
This just happened to me, it feels just like it was yesterday, but it really was about a month ago. It was good that you were able to still drive it home. When this happened to me, I was just 2 miles from my house, but after letting it cool down for like 1 hour and then adding coolant. I still couldn't drive it. I had to get it towed.



I hated to find out what needed to be replaced because its just that and its in a really crappy place to work with. With me and my dad doing the repair, it took about 1 hour to tear it down and probably about 2 hours to put it back together.



Good luck on your journey of getting it fixed. It sure is going to be fun.
 
Albeit confined, not bad using the proper tools. Relax, take your time, and have all the parts on hand.
 
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Well, the t-stat is changed and that what not the problem. Still same symptoms. I definitely have air in the system because when I release the vented radiator cap, I can hear the air going out of the system and the water in the top radiator hose flowing back. What are the chances this is a water pump or heater core leak/failure? I did notice a little water on top of the upper thermostat housing near the elbow but not much....just a lot of hissing from that area. Thanks again, Shannon
 
Need to pressure test the system and check for a bad gasket....



Todd Z
 
Most auto parts stores will loan them with a fully refundable deposit.

Check with AutoZone, O'Reilly, Pep Boys, or NAPA in your area. GL



 
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If you are losing pressure, then the next challenge will be to hunt down the leak. It sounds to me that you might quite possibly have a blown head gasket that is allowing the air/fuel mixture from one or more of the cylinders to be pumped into the cooling system. This is a frequent result of overheating. There are other things that could be going on too.



A quick test you could probably do right now would be to fill the radiator, leave the cap in the 1/2 position (venting the cooling system freely to the overflow hose, and unhook the overflow hose from the recovery tank and insert the end of the hose into a glass of water. Run the engine and watch for bubbles coming out the end of the hose in the glass. If you got bubbles, you got an internal leak (blown cylinder gasket, cracked head or block, etc.).
 
Thanks everyone for the info. Flushed the system, refilled, etc. Let it warm for about a 1/2 hour and then drove about 10 miles roundtrip. Stayed at dead center on temp gauge and never budged. When I got back released the vent on the Rad cap and that was when I could hear the hiss and see the bubbles coming from between the top/bottom t-stat housing. Just a few bubbles but when I closed the vent on the Rad cap...no more hissing or bubbles(damn...now that I think about it maybe the opening/ closing was the.other way around). Lol. So....now that is known.... t-stat housing?
 
One more thing.....I know...long winded....the radiator hose going into the housing was super hot but the radiator cap was still cool to bare hand....didn't know if that mattered. Shannon
 
I could hear the hiss and see the bubbles coming from between the top/bottom t-stat housing.
Click to expand...

The thermostat housing is leaking, one way or another, it needs to be repaired.

Use the link I posted, it covers the entire t-stat housing replacement. Good luck.
 
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