Hi,

My parents bought a '92 Olds Bravada with a Vortec V6. It's heating up and we're trying to diagnose it.

It has one of those funky digital dashes and wasn't reading any heat on the heat gauge when we bought it, so it might have had a problem when they bought it, but we don't know. We did put a mechanical gauge on it and the thing will get to 230+ which I think is too much.

I took the thermostat out and tested it. It will open. And we bought a new one as well. I think we've narrowed it down to either the radiator or the water pump. I've read that you should be able to open the radiator cap and see the water circulating. It doesn't appear to be doing that, even when it's heated up. However, when giving it throttle, it sucks the water level down to where it's just out of sight. Would that tell me anything? I think that suggests the water pump is fine and there's a clog in the water system somewhere.

Oh, and a second issue if anyone has any ideas. On steep hills, it will slowly accelerate until it gets to about 3000rpm, then it's done. Maybe the engine is wore more than I think?

 

Is the check engine light on? If so what are the codes?

 

The check engine light is on, but I think that's because we replaced the electronic temp sensor with a mechanical style.

I did get a code reader and run the codes awhile back, but I don't remember for sure what it gave me. I do remember thinking that nothing seemed wrong according to what the reader said.

 

Does it push coolant out of the overflow bottle? Are you sure it is really overheating? Are you having any problem besides the gauge reading high?

 

I don't remember it pushing coolant out although I didn't pay too much attention.

I guess I'm not 100% sure that it's overheating, but I would hope the new gauge is reading correctly.

One thing that we noticed though is that it gets hot fairly quickly. By quick, I mean if I go up a reasonably steep 1/4 mile grade by my parents house and then back down, it's getting to where I think it's overheating. If it were any of our other vehicles, it'd take a lot longer than that to get up to normal operating temp.

I was hoping someone could explain what happened when it sucked the coolant level down under throttle. Not that it's necessarily the problem here, but I'd like to understand where the coolant is going and whether that's a normal thing to have happen.