Overheating, check engine light, spraying coolant; Help.

Rerun

Founding Member
Mar 31, 2002
312
0
16
South Bay, California
Got the car back from the mechanic, 20 miles into it back home the car starts heating up. Got around 240 then I pulled over to turn the car off, and the Radiator overspill unit was spraying coolant and steam. After inspection, and a chemical block check the head gasket wasn't blown. We noticed that the electric fan is having intermittant problems (sometimes working sometimes not) so we think that is the culprit. It was wired by the previous owner to work all the time instead of only working at certain temperatures. The place where the fan is tapped into is getting a strong 12 volts. So I guess my question is, would the fan not working be the cause of all this? He's also thinking it may be a stuck thermostat. Please advise, thanks in advance.
 
Rerun said:
Got the car back from the mechanic, 20 miles into it back home the car starts heating up. Got around 240 then I pulled over to turn the car off, and the Radiator overspill unit was spraying coolant and steam. After inspection, and a chemical block check the head gasket wasn't blown. We noticed that the electric fan is having intermittant problems (sometimes working sometimes not) so we think that is the culprit. It was wired by the previous owner to work all the time instead of only working at certain temperatures. The place where the fan is tapped into is getting a strong 12 volts. So I guess my question is, would the fan not working be the cause of all this? He's also thinking it may be a stuck thermostat. Please advise, thanks in advance.

Try checking your thermostat and "burp" your system...did the previous owner wire it directly to the battery or what?...Check the wires and all...make sure it hasn't got a "short" in it...?

Good Luck...
 
What was your mechanic doing to the car when it was in the shop...if it wasnt overheating before it makes me wonder if something he did to the car caused some other problem elsewhere in the system. I would start there and also check your T-stat make sure it isnt stuck closed.
 
ninety15.0 said:
What was your mechanic doing to the car when it was in the shop...if it wasnt overheating before it makes me wonder if something he did to the car caused some other problem elsewhere in the system. I would start there and also check your T-stat make sure it isnt stuck closed.

Good point...what was the mechanic doing?
 
The initial problem with the car was smoking during startup (white) and quite a bit of ticking in the engine (which was later diagnosed as a busted valve guide). When I went to the shop yesterday no smoke and engine was healthy as hell and no more ticking so I was happy.

Car needed quite a few things to get it running how I wanted it.

New Oil pump, oil pan gasket, oil pump screen, new intake gaskets, new belts, couple of new hoses. Car got a valve job because the valvetrain was **** on the drivers site, had a cracked valveguide and a few other problems. The heads were machined, new head gasket. Adjusted valve and ignition timing. New oil, new coolant. Car got a compression test, all checked out fine, and the car has good oil pressure.

When I took it out of the shop the car was running great, I made a few stops in between the shop and the trip to my house. The fan must of took a **** at one of the stops; because it no longer works.

The fan worked fine prior to going in the shop, but the shroud was busted so he put a hayden fan install kit on it to keep it from later busting and falling into the engine. I'm thinking that while putting the install kit on he probably screwed the fan some how; or it was already on it's way out anyway.

He's putting in a new fan and t-stat as we speak, I'll keep you posted and I do appreciate any more feedback.

Thanks guys, what an expensive ****ing habbit.
 
wow well that is a ton of work that your mechanic did to your car....so if its not the fan and/or the T-stat it could be a million things. tells us what happens im interested to find out what it was.