Coolant shooting out of overflow reservoir.

[84sithlord]

i've been hearing that some older american made cars have a screw or purge valve somewhere near the manifold. do these buicks have that?

 

[Boost231]

^ that sucks.

 

[Boost231]

i've been hearing that some older american made cars have a screw or purge valve somewhere near the manifold. do these buicks have that?

nope.

 

[Boost231]

im supprised you dont see bubbles when letting it sit at idle in the garage at operating temp. you can get a leak down tester pressurize each cylinder and see when the bubbles start. Then you know what head to pull.

 

[84sithlord]

I only see them when it runs hot. i can see "air pockets" in the tube running from radiator to reservoir. very frustrating.....def getting the leak down tester. might as well know where its coming from...i have a suspect cylinder in mind....

 

[JayC]

Pull the engine. Save yourself the hassle. Its easier to do it right out of the car.

 

[Boost231]

jay, i agree to pull and do the head gaskets out of the car. however would you not run a leak down just to see what head is suspect? to know for sure its a head gasket and what cylinder/cylinders it is?

 

[bison]

jay, i agree to pull and do the head gaskets out of the car. however would you not run a leak down just to see what head is suspect? to know for sure its a head gasket and what cylinder/cylinders it is?

It would need to be a considerable leak for a leak down test to identify it.

 

[charlief1]

stupid car ran cool as a cucumber for 45 min while on the highway. as soon as i pull of the highway, within a half mile, i went from 160-235ish. i turned car off. notice fracking coolant has been overflowing. i opened up reservoir and see nice sized air bubbles coming up out of it.

Here's the clue that everyone seems to be missing. It's very possible that it's a headgasket issue but I had a car that did pretty much the same thing. It was airflow over the radiator and water volume going through the engine that caused it. If I kept the car below 40 it stayed cool but if I got on the highway and then off and parked it it would do the same thing.

If it was a head gasket then it would be driveable at low speed and overheat when it got on the highway. I've also seen this in the quad4 engines. The car would drive around town just fine but once on the highway it would overheat. Since this is the revers of it then I'll honestly say it sounds like not enough air/cooling going on in the system.

 

[84sithlord]

i've had several career "mechanics" tell me that I am getting good fluid flow. I had the system flushed this past sat morning. I put on fresh belts this past sat morning. I currently have a flex fan bolted on. The factory shroud is on. the water pump is brand new ( and once again, i was told i have good fluid flow). no thermostat. one thing i haven't looked at yet, but want to, is the heater core. now since i had the system flushed, would the heater core be flushed as well? this may be a stupid question but i'm trying to make sure i cover everything before ripping into the engine. btw, my passenger floor board looks like its had coolant on it. not sure if it came from heater core or a leaking bottle.

 

[charlief1]

The flex fan is most of the problem then. Put a good electric fan set up on it and I'll bet most of the headaches go away. Been there done that many times with customers. That's what I had to do with mine to stop the overheating issue. Flex fans absolutely suck for cooling no matter what the adds say.

 

[84sithlord]

i think its overheating due to coolant volume. everytime it over heats, there is coolant that has leaked out of resevoir. once i purge the pressure in the radiator and force the coolant back into the radiator from reservoir, it runs cool again. i need to find out why its coming out of the reservoir or what is keeping it from flowing back into the radiator.... does the reservoir need to be mounted above, even, or below the radiator? i currently have it mounted slightly above and it is vertical (instead of horizontal).

 

[84sithlord]

i had a mark viii fan on it but i think the relay blew out or something. the universal thermostat never worked. lol. i had it hardwired into my air conditioner. will a generic electric fan from advance work or do i need to go with the expensive spal fans?

 

[charlief1]

Visit a scrapyard and see what you can find. I got a taurus fan the other day really cheap. I've also got a pusher to go in front as insurance.

 

[84sithlord]

another silly question, but this just popped in my head. if the fan is two speeds (hi n lo) does it need 2 relays for each power wire? i found a website that sells relays n such for the ford fans just curious.

 

[84sithlord]

what n where is the heater water control valve?

 

[charlief1]

another silly question, but this just popped in my head. if the fan is two speeds (hi n lo) does it need 2 relays for each power wire? i found a website that sells relays n such for the ford fans just curious.

You can make it so it only comes on in high speed or get the dual relay set up. That's up to you of course.

what n where is the heater water control valve?

Look at the heater lines going to the core. The valve is in the line going to the inlet of the heater core which should be the bottom one.

 

[JayC]

jay, i agree to pull and do the head gaskets out of the car. however would you not run a leak down just to see what head is suspect? to know for sure its a head gasket and what cylinder/cylinders it is?

I would not. But.. thats because Ive seen so much of this stuff, Im 99% sure thats whats wrong with it. If youre going to go that far, it doesnt make sense not to change them both for something better. A steel shim kit from RJC would be my choice.

Here's the clue that everyone seems to be missing. It's very possible that it's a headgasket issue but I had a car that did pretty much the same thing. It was airflow over the radiator and water volume going through the engine that caused it. If I kept the car below 40 it stayed cool but if I got on the highway and then off and parked it it would do the same thing.

If it was a head gasket then it would be driveable at low speed and overheat when it got on the highway. I've also seen this in the quad4 engines. The car would drive around town just fine but once on the highway it would overheat. Since this is the revers of it then I'll honestly say it sounds like not enough air/cooling going on in the system.

Well.. the thing with that is the radical QUICK temperature changes. Its not a matter of it just getting hot and then cooling down, its a quick swing, like you can watch it go from say 170 to 240 in a second or two and it may stay at 240 for a couple of minutes and them come down just as quick. Its because compression blows the water away from the sensor and once the flow is restored and the sensor is bathed in water again, it comes right back down.

Ive seen this a zillion times and when it first started happening, I tried to convince myself it wasnt a gasket. Its ALWAYS been a gasket.

 

[Boost231]

bison, even if the t stat is removed and pressurize the system. I figured you would still.see bubbles. so how do you know or how do you test before removing the heads?

 

[JayC]

bison, even if the t stat is removed and pressurize the system. I figured you would still.see bubbles. so how do you know or how do you test before removing the heads?

Sometimes you dont. There have been times that all the numbers looked great and when you get in there, there's issues. Im relying on my experience without seeing the car but based off of all the stuff Ive seen, I would lean heavily to head gasket.