OVERHEAT

[Hunter11]

My brothers explorer always drinks coolant and now it is starting to over heat. I got two questions. What would be the reason for the overheat now, is it probably the thermostat stuck closed? And why would it be drinking(not leaking, disappearing) so much coolant?

 

[HIX]

Blown head gasket plain and simple.....Sorry.

 

[HIX]

Look under the oil fill cap...I bet you will see condensation or a milky film.

 

[Hunter11]

A blown head gasket must be expensive! What does the condensation or the milky stuff mean? Is the overheat the thermo. though? When the head gasket is blown were does the coolant leak into, is it burned up in the engine?

 

[Houston at NCSU]

Its either leaking out through the heater core, and is filling up the housing around the core with antifreeze, does it smell like antifreeze when you use the heat? The water pump could be leaking, look under the truck, you can see the water pump, and look at the weep holes and see if there is a track of antifreeze running down the pump. Hoses and connections will start leaking as it gets cold. worst case your head is cracked and you antifreeze in your engine. Good luck.

 

[leebo]

I would start with the heater core too. Under the passenger side dash there is a box. I would take that off to get to the core and check to see if you have a wet spots or antifreeze. You also may be losing a bit when the truck is first started due to the expanding of the upper raditor hose. When cold it expands a bit allowing some fluid to leak out at start-up but after a mile or two it gets hot and contracts to the raditor.

 

[HIX]

I would try the easy stuff that theses guy mentioned. If it is the heater core it will drain the coollant behind the front passenger wheel on or near the frame rail.

The reason it milky is because the collant gets into the oil and oil and anti-freeze don't mix well. The reason the is water up on the cap is because some of the coolant evaps. and it condenses on the cooler cap.

[Edited by HIX on 11-11-2000 at 12:17 PM]

 

[flyguy]

A head gasket is not expensive... its only a few bucks... now... having someone replace that gasket is expensive... heh... you can do it yourself, with some new head bolts, and a torque wrench...

nick

 

[Hunter11]

Mo Problems!

I figure the over heat is the thermostat and the losing coolant is the head gasket but now the engine is idling really bad and esp. when I put it in drive or reverse. This I figure would be bad spark plugs. But, I replaced my brothers plugs this summer but would these other problems affect the plugs, like could they burn up or just go bad by the over heating and the coolant problem?

 

[BGN]

My 91 Explorer is loosing coolant as well but I can't tell where its going. It seemed to first come up when I had the radiator hoses replaced about a month ago. The overflow bottle looks fine when its running but after it cools down the fluid seems to be being sucked back into the radiator so it goes down by a cup or two everyday or so. Its not overheating, there is never anything on the ground anywhere at home or work, there is no antifreeze in the oil, pressure test holds about 16 lbs.,gas check for CO2 in the antifreeze was negative,I just replaced the radiator cap,the heatercore isn't leaking inside the car, its not coming out the exhaust and theres no white smoke and the thermostat is about a year old.

I do have leaving valve cover gaskets although they've been like this for a while. Could this have something to do with it? My mechanic is stumped, he mentioned possibly either an air pocket at or near the heatercore or a bad thermostat--anyone have any other suggestions--I'm open for just about anything right now!!!

Barry
91 Explorer Sport
174,000 miles

 

[Chav]

Ok this is how I think it works. The reason it over heats is not nessarily because of the thermo. Now if it is a blown head gasket that will cause it to over heat. The coolant will leak into the combustion chamber and kill that cylinder making the idle in gear very rough...running on 5cyl. This is also why u dont see anything leaking because it is being burned up in the combustion chamber. Now remember this is one of the worst case senarios...it may be a combination of very simple problems, but with all the sympotms you are saying it seems that it is a blown head gasket.

BGN search the board for leaky intake manifold gaskets. If you have a leak in the gasket coolant will leak into the combustion chamber.

One last thing. If it is a blown head gasket do not drive it around. If it gets bad enough coolant will fill the combustion chamber and when u try to start it u will have hydro-lock since water wont compress something else will break or the starter will burn up. Please have ur brother get it checked!

 

[ammo troop]

Might help

Hey man, This sounds sorta like what happened to my sisters blazer, The water pump was leaking into the oil pan, And the engine locked up soon after...SURPRISE!! Check your oil
AMMO GUY