about to friggen break down in tears

[billbrown72]

Well let my brother borrow my car to go visit a friend and somehow the overflow cap popp'd off and engine overheated and is shot....
Looks like time for a rebuild...any suggestions....thinking forged crank, .30 over, heads worked and flowed.....
what I need is good parts makers...(brands) to rebuild with..
I'm upset but she'll be better stronger faster when finished....

[stealthee]

You may be jumping to conclusions. These engines are resilient to overheating. I overheated mine a on a few occassions and never killed it that way. The overflow cap popping off was due to it overheating, not the cause of it. A fan could have quit, you could have had a hole in the radiator etc. Diganose first, figure out fixes later.

[green-lantern]

That sucks but I'm not sure why an overflow cap would do that. Are you sure your brother didn't just raise hell in it and overheat the car?

[stealthee]

The overflow tank is exactly what its name implies. If the car overheats, water expands and will dump back into the overflow. Thats why there is a full line on there and you dont just fill it to the top. When it flows back into the overflow it will do so forcefully. That force is plenty to knock the cap off once its full.

[billbrown72]

not stock overflow and after getting it towed home, both fans working...verified this when he called and went to check car out....also water left in radiator (drained when got towed home had looked like oil in it)....maybe jumping gun but he said it started smoking and thats when he saw temp shoot through roof before he shut it down.....
go back to work tommorow so won't be able to trouble shoot until tuesday night.......overflow was turned sideways and cap off......radiator has no leaks...

[billbrown72]

getting some sympathy by the wife so good time to "fix" my car

[green-lantern]

The overflow tank is exactly what its name implies. If the car overheats, water expands and will dump back into the overflow. Thats why there is a full line on there and you dont just fill it to the top. When it flows back into the overflow it will do so forcefully. That force is plenty to knock the cap off once its full.

No I mean overheat the engine that quick. You don't even need it if you top off coolant every so often.

[stealthee]

If he wasn't paying attention to the gauge then who knows how long it was in the red.

[green-lantern]

getting some sympathy by the wife so good time to "fix" my car

My wife just gets pissed every time I have trouble.....

[green-lantern]

If he wasn't paying attention to the gauge then who knows how long it was in the red.

I'm with you, it blew off when it overheated.

[stealthee]

Luckily my grf lives a few hours away, but anytime she hears of me having trouble with my car she feels bad because I have to work on it no matter if I am tired or sick or whatever since its my only car.

[green-lantern]

Luckily my grf lives a few hours away, but anytime she hears of me having trouble with my car she feels bad because I have to work on it no matter if I am tired or sick or whatever since its my only car.

I've been meaning to ask you, so you didn't sell or trade it right? I thought it was BS but you never know.

[stealthee]

Haha, it was all a big April Fool's joke. I still drive it every day.

[green-lantern]

Haha, it was all a big April Fool's joke. I still drive it every day.

lol I thought so but it went on for a while so I wasn't sure.

[billbrown72]

well just went and played around a little...refilled radiator and tried to crank....turning it over its shooting water 3 feet into air with cap off....don't know of many cars that thats normal....plus its just spinning with a couple of puffs of trying to fire...shit so far not good....not gonna stress, got to much money in her to not fix her, plus love love love her when she's not pms'ing lol...oh well try again tuesday evening

[stealthee]

If its shooting water into the air then yeah it sounds like you are pressurizing the crankcase.

[BaadVR4]

Shooting water while cranking probably means blown head gasket(s) as a minimum. The compression pressure is getting into the coolant system and forcing the water out. You could also have more serious problems (cracked block/warped heads), but you won't know about them until you tear it apart. If I can help with parts, PM me.

[blindmist]

Shooting water while cranking is a blown head gasket. I just got finished deal with a DSM that wasnt running right. He said it had got hot once. I took the radiator cap off, told him to crank it, it shot water about 4ft in the air. Pulled the head, new gasket and decked the head, reinstalled, no longer a problem. The only issue he has is that we are getting ~75psi per cylinder, so the rings are shot, but the water doesn't shoot out anymore.

[Lugnut]

getting some sympathy by the wife so good time to "fix" my car

Score

[green-lantern]

Yeah, at the very least you have a blown head gasket. You might be able to get by with decking/rebuilding the heads. Not sure if the head gasket caused it to over heat or the over heating caused the head gasket to blow. I’d make sure to do the 60K in case the water pump is bad.

[boosted3s]

Good luck Bill. If you need anything give me a call.

[TajMan]

It happens, I think mostly when they get overheated REALLY hot and sometimes just pushed 30 seconds or minutes too long.
That's what happened to my 92 TT, after a recent rebuild. Pushed too long too hot, the ends of my spark plug wires ended up melting over the plugs!, heads were warped AGAIN on the surface and on the cam journals.

I think the engines are resilient to mild-regular overheats, as long as you are watching the gauge and shut the car off soon enough before its too hot.

[billbrown72]

I knew when water shot out last night was a minimum of headgasket....but I'm the type that thinks its pointless to tear into a motor and not do everything....its gonna be pricey and instead of it being down 4-5 days it'll probaly 4-5 months but gonna do everything I've been wanting to do all at once....even thinking about selling 13t's and going bigger once motor is out....started pricing everything last night-pistons-rings-rods is around 1800...bearings=not bad....stage 3 heads from 3sx 2k plus change...spec 3+ clutch....only thing I'm hung up on is rebuilding bottom end or saying f-it and getting a pampena bottom end...
oh well it kind of hit me today....have been reading post after post of people rebuilding their motors for last 2-3 years and thinking I was lucky lol....guess not...!!!!!
Micheal what I need from you is to stay on my ass so I'll stay focused and not say fu$% it!

[3kgt_tt]

i would go stage 4 on the clutch with that much mods

[MrSinister]

Good luck man!

[blindmist]

I did a head job (heh sounds dirty) on a 3s for a total of $150. Gaskets were 90 and it was $30 to deck each head.

[viper_redVR4]

Mine blew due to overheating. ECU was crapping out. The temp sensor started getting lower and lower which was weird because i was florida in the middle of the summer.
Anyway it got so overheated that heads were warped, the knock sensor melted. Had to do a full rebuild.

[CoreyB]

I did a head job (heh sounds dirty) on a 3s for a total of $150. Gaskets were 90 and it was $30 to deck each head.

You didnt replace the water pump or timing components. I could see being in a bind but that would really bother me.

[billbrown72]

You didnt replace the water pump or timing components. I could see being in a bind but that would really bother me.
would bother me to but I guess if you need your car on road fast you can get away with it....gonna do everything while she's down, which means she's gonna be down for a while! :(

[CoreyB]

I hear ya. Just went through the down for lik15 months to get money too, then rebuild my engine. Drove for 290 miles and the ECU to a shit.........again. At least I know when I get the money for a ECU the engine is solid. Just wish I could have put a few thousand miles on the rebuild to know for sure it was good.

[billbrown72]

what sucks is my last rebuild ( engine, tranny) only had 63k miles on it...personally she's run hot a few times after fmic install but I always keep a look out on temp gauge in this hot ass weather....hindsite 20/20 should have told my brother that she was prone to overheating cruising above 80-85 mph with ac on....he was probaly hauling ass with radio blaring and didn't know it was overheating until he saw puff of smoke then had a oh shit moment and had to call me lol

[CoreyB]

Did your front mount restrict air flow that bad ?

[colt45 gto]

read down the 1st page, my last TT bust a top hose 10 ish mile from home, i drove it back non stop, no coolant left at all but i would get up some good speed then kill the engine let the air circulate and cool it back down a bit from it being pegged a good few times that trip. didn't do any damage.

these things are pretty strong where coolant is concerned. my first TT had a blocked rad, that pegged a few times too on the way back from london, that too was fine.

[enollava]

Shocked nobody has suggested it could have been the thermostat that caused this issue. When mine went, it only went partially. It would open up, but not enough to keep the engine cool unless I was just driving softly. As soon as I gave it some spirit, it would start to shoot up and only turning the heat on would reduce the temp back down. Sitting at idle, it would stay at 187 all day long. Finally figured it was the problem when I purchased a new one and put them both in a pot of hot water and saw the new one open up like a guy lost in the dessert who just found a bottle of Poland Spring water., and the other was only opening half way. Unfortunately it sucks you will have to do a rebuild and miss your car for a while. With a little luck, I'll have an extra engine laying around that I will save for a rainy day if I ever run into a problem like this. Anyway, when you rebuild the engine, make sure you replace that since it is such a cheap part.

[TajMan]

^yeah, it just seemed he already knew the headgasket was blown.
At that point, he's at least doing a head rebuild and would run a new thermostat also.

thermostat can definitely be the CAUSE of things though, watch your gauges

[blindmist]

^yeah, it just seemed he already knew the headgasket was blown.
At that point, he's at least doing a head rebuild and would run a new thermostat also.

thermostat can definitely be the CAUSE of things though, watch your gauges

Definitely. If you run hot enough to blow a head gasket, you can damage the thermostat. You should replace it anyways.

[TajMan]

I just overheated a Honda Accord the other day with the 2.2 engine (headgasket was already blown).
It overheated SO hot, it melted the inner plastic timing cover between the head and the cam gear! Lol, damn hot
I already rebuilt the engine, new thermostat, it runs great now. :D

[enollava]

I was thinking more along the lines of a bad thermostat causing it to get too hot that it warped the head and blew the gasket, not a bad gasket caused it to get so hot it ruined the thermostat. Either way, I feel bad about this situation. Hopefully the rebuild will be relatively easy.

[colt45 gto]

make sure you have the heads skimmed (decked) they (could) have warped with heat. be worth regrinding the valves in too and do VSS while your at it.

[billbrown72]

wife went from sweet to sour real fast...told me I have to work overtime to pay for it instead of dipping into our account.... told me only my overtime money can be used 'period..what sucks is work will only let me get 15hours a week overtime so my budget will be $600 a week....guess its gonna take 3-4 months to get everything i want together

[VR-4 0wnz j00]

thermostat stuck?

[TajMan]

lol we've been over the thermostat thing.
Regardless of the cause, heads are warped and will be rebuilt as well as thermostat replaced now.


Hey man, if you're worried about it taking forever to get all the money for a full rebuild, remember you don't HAVE to do all that.
If bad headgasket is all I'm looking at, I feel ok with only milling the heads (and checked for other damage) to install new headgasket only.
Remember, $150 or a little more can fix it back to stock used running condition.