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Ok - I've got a '92 Seville, 124K on the clock. On occasion it overheats - when it does it pushes coolant out of the recovery tank. Now I've been around the block on this one - and the following has been done to date.
1) waterpump, thermostat and radiator cap replaced
2) radiator rebuilt (tank removed, core rodded out, new tank installed) - prior to having this done, the shop "sniffed" the coolant to see if a head gasket was compromised and it came back negative. They also did a compression check with a max of 6% difference (as I recall) between cylinders and an average (again, from memory) compression reading of around 180 PSI - again indicating that the head gaskets were fine.
3) cooling system flushed and re-filled (with anti-foam in the new coolant) - after the temp "spiked" once following item #2.
Yesterday (right after the flush) and this morning it ran fine - nice and cool (considering that it was 15 degrees out this morning, I guess that could be expected!) but driving from a meeting to the office it did the following:
coolant temp was 164 degrees - I saw steam coming from under the hood
coolant temp rose to 260 (I was in traffic - no place to pull over)
I gassed it onto the highway coolant temp dropped to 206 - eventually rose to 210 again - but was fine until I hit the office. I popped the hood and the coolant recovery tank was full. Also - when it gets hot I have no heat (which is sort of counter-intuitive).
Something is blocking the flow in the coolant system - if it's not a head gasket, it's not the thermostat (which I checked in a pot of boiling water prior to installation) and it's not the radiator (which flows fine following it's cleaning) does anyone have an idea as to what it can be???
It's not an "everytime" thing - the car will go fine for a week or so and act up perhaps once - and it's driven every day.
Is there a check valve in the system somewhere that I'm missing? Is the 4.9 like a friend of mines Jag engine where there is a water pump just for the heater core? This thing is driving me nuts - it's actually making me consider going back to driving a jeep (I think I can buy my old CJ-5 back from the guy I sold it to) and to hell with the caddy - but I'd hate to take that step for a number of reasons.
This is quite frustrating - I don't ask much of a vehicle - just that it get me to and from work and other places I need to be - any ideas or thoughts will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Steve
1) waterpump, thermostat and radiator cap replaced
2) radiator rebuilt (tank removed, core rodded out, new tank installed) - prior to having this done, the shop "sniffed" the coolant to see if a head gasket was compromised and it came back negative. They also did a compression check with a max of 6% difference (as I recall) between cylinders and an average (again, from memory) compression reading of around 180 PSI - again indicating that the head gaskets were fine.
3) cooling system flushed and re-filled (with anti-foam in the new coolant) - after the temp "spiked" once following item #2.
Yesterday (right after the flush) and this morning it ran fine - nice and cool (considering that it was 15 degrees out this morning, I guess that could be expected!) but driving from a meeting to the office it did the following:
coolant temp was 164 degrees - I saw steam coming from under the hood
coolant temp rose to 260 (I was in traffic - no place to pull over)
I gassed it onto the highway coolant temp dropped to 206 - eventually rose to 210 again - but was fine until I hit the office. I popped the hood and the coolant recovery tank was full. Also - when it gets hot I have no heat (which is sort of counter-intuitive).
Something is blocking the flow in the coolant system - if it's not a head gasket, it's not the thermostat (which I checked in a pot of boiling water prior to installation) and it's not the radiator (which flows fine following it's cleaning) does anyone have an idea as to what it can be???
It's not an "everytime" thing - the car will go fine for a week or so and act up perhaps once - and it's driven every day.
Is there a check valve in the system somewhere that I'm missing? Is the 4.9 like a friend of mines Jag engine where there is a water pump just for the heater core? This thing is driving me nuts - it's actually making me consider going back to driving a jeep (I think I can buy my old CJ-5 back from the guy I sold it to) and to hell with the caddy - but I'd hate to take that step for a number of reasons.
This is quite frustrating - I don't ask much of a vehicle - just that it get me to and from work and other places I need to be - any ideas or thoughts will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Steve