Engine gets hot sometimes

[michael evans]

Here is a strange one maybe someone had in the past and can say what fixed it.

Car stays at 160 ish once warmed up and drives well on the road but if I make a long hit or drive it on the freeway, it gets hot.

Today I drove the car on the highway (and it got hot) so I took the exit off the highway and it puked. I let it cool down so I could add some water. Then on the way home, I took the back roads home and a couple times the gauge about maxed out again on the way while I was taken it easy to get home.

All looked well to me on the outside.

New aluminum radiator
Fans (two) worked as the should.
Coolant topped off
new top hose

Any ideas ?

 

[Boost231]

Put a pressure checker on it.

I'm guessing head gasket

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[mr84ss]

Do you think there was air trapped in the system?

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[chris kirk]

How often are you adding coolant and about how much each time? Any white smoke out of the tail pipes? If you keep having to add coolant and it's not leaking then probably a head gasket.

 

[Buckshot G/N]

Michael when it PUKE and max out on Temp ... If your two fans engage and didn't cool it down...Sounds like a head gasket to me as well.

 

[dank GN]

U might get lucky if u just throw some gm seal taps in your radiator . That’s the cheap easy fix . But truthfully it sounds like your head gasket is leaking and there is compression getting into the coolant system

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

If your not loosing coolant, and there is none in the oil, and no steam out of the exhaust, and no external leaks......It may be something simple like a sticking thermostat.

Unless you have other symptoms that suggest otherwise, I would start with this.

 

[michael evans]

No smoke out the pipes or leaking out on the ground will do some other tests.

 

[Nick Micale]

There are 2 areas I would check out.

First I would verify the fans are working properly. We have seen inferior relays and wiring not supplying enough current, or the cheap relays are cutting off when hot?

Second, I have seen and experienced some off-shore alum radiators that would not cool properly at higher HP levels because the tubes are way too small to pass enough fluid. I have scrapped 2 of them lately as they would run well over 200 deg. at operating temp.

 

[6 to go]

Both my T's always ran hot. Champion radiators, 160 T-stats, water wetter, electric 87 fans, etc
I think I have tried everything! New rebuilt engine in the 84 still runs hot! So it is not blown head gaskets!

 

[earlbrown]

Take the thermostat out and redo the test.

Sounds like you have flow issues. My car acted like that when I had a clogged up original radiator. Fine around town with the fan running, but hot in the interstate. Once it got hot, that was it. Couldn't reject enough heat to cool it down.

 

[michael evans]

I messed with the Regal today.

I opened the radiator and saw that it was low on water and went and rented a pressure tool at Advance Auto. I pumped the pressure up to 12 PSI and watched it. It dropped 1 PSI in five minuets.

Next, I will pull spark plugs to see if water is in the cylinder.

Oil is fine (checked good)
No external water leak found
No smoke out of the tail pipes

 

[No disintegrations]

If you idle it does it have continuous small bubbles rising into the coolant bottle? If so there's a very good chance of poor head gasket sealing. It's good enough to run but not good enough to keep cylinder pressure out of the water jacket. Under higher demand the bottle will fill and barf.

 

[No disintegrations]

Both my T's always ran hot. Champion radiators, 160 T-stats, water wetter, electric 87 fans, etc
I think I have tried everything! New rebuilt engine in the 84 still runs hot! So it is not blown head gaskets!

A good radiator would prob fix it. The heats gotta go somewhere.

 

[turbojay]

Few years ago I had this issue after an engine rebuild with used heads installed that were not resurfaced correctly. A slight amount of air was getting into the coolant whenever I had the car in boost and it would eventually overheat. Resurfacing the heads and installing new head gaskets was the solution for me. Good luck.

 

[michael evans]

The kick is I just replaced the head gaskets at $94.00 a piece.

 

[mikestertwo]

The kick is I just replaced the head gaskets at $94.00 a piece.

What head gaskets did you use?

 

[michael evans]

Not my first rodeo with a boosted buick (just the V6).

I used Cometic gaskets.

 

[TurboBuRick]

Getting hot after a hit is not good. That leans toward a head gasket issue. Did you install cometic's dry?

You can try a pressure test on the cooling system. And try a re-torque.

 

[No disintegrations]

Also, does it have a quality radiator cap? No name on cap means poor.