270 degree coolant temps- damage?

[turbosam6]

My buddy lost a belt and his coolant got up to 270 -280 before he shut it down. Its a small block, high compression. I found no evidence of damage, but it doesn't idle very well now. Did he hurt it?

 

[Reaper]

i would do a leak down and compression test.. but more so a leak down. you may have hurt the cly. walls

how long was the temp up there?

Dathan

 

[Nick Micale]

Check the vacuum readings. If compression tests ok, check for bent pushrods.

 

[turbosam6]

It was only that hot for a second. He should be watching his gauges a little better. Apparently its been running badly before this incident anyway. I'll tell him to do a compression check anyway, man will he be pissed if its messed up! he's been saving $$$ for like 2 years to get this running, and its only been done for about a month or so. His last motor ran about 600 miles before he detonated the life out of it on nitrous and made the biggest mess I've ever seen. Broke the cam in 3 peices, crank, broke a handful of rods, 2 or 3 pistons, chunked the block all over, and ruined the oil pan. All we could use was the intake and roller rockers.

 

[ijames]

I hope your buddy's motor is okay, but this is an example of why idiot lights are mandatory, even with gauges. It's basically impossible to watch all the gauges all the time and not run over someone, but a big red light coming on will get your attention. I don't know what new cars have for indicators these days, but GM put a red "check gauges now" light on the dash of my 88 pickup truck for just that reason.

 

[smokin'6]

To my knowledge, as far as temp. guages in a TR, you have to replace the sensor to the idiot light with the guage sensor. So no light, right?

 

[Gary Wells]

Not necessarily true. Can't you run both off of the same fitting, one before the sending unit, and one off of the sending unit.
Or so I thought.

 

[smokin'6]

possibly true, I had a mech. on my first GN and was told the sensor had to be directly inserted in the engine, no 't's'.

 

[1badTTA]

I know alot of engines other than the Buicks have more than one port for coolant sensors and the rest are usually just plugged. Just put one gauge sensor in one and an ID10T light sensor in the other. Oil pressure sensor can be Tee'd without a problem.

 

[1badTTA]

Actually there are 3 ports for coolant temp sensors on the crossover of a TR intake.