It's been running hot-ish for some time. I watch the temp gage constantly but the other day as I was driving down the freeway it started missing then pinging and finally quit just as I got over to the side of the road. The temp gage was not at max and there was no engine lite or AC shutdown as it does when it gets too hot to avoid engine damage (only had that happen once). I let it cool for a while then restarted it trying to get off the side of the freeway. It started hard but ran long enough for me to get to surface streets.

Anyway, the head gasket(s) are done. I added water to the rad the next day and it BLOWs the water out of the rad fill like a pump. I'm weighing a used engine or a teardown and re-doing the heads.

What other damage might I look for in this situation? Heads/block cracking, of course I'll have the heads checked. Other potential damage considering it overheated until stall.

Thx

JohnF

 

Hey johnfl,

Welcome to the Chevy Forums.

Are you sure the cooling jacket wasn't just

purging air? Did you run the car with the overflow

lid on? Had you replaced the overflow lid, at some

time in the past 5 years?

Sometimes you have to fill the overflow a few times,

after it cools, to level it all out, on a refill.

 

Sounds like blown head gaskets. You can buy a kit from NAPA or other auto parts store that test for exhaust leaks into the coolant sys. You could remove the sparkplugs and if you find coolant on them you have blown head gaskets.
Head gaskets may be the only damage but when you get the cylinder heads off look for piston scoring on the cylinder walls and if you have damage then you need to look for a replacement engine or a full engine rebuild.
If you replace the head gaskets you need to replace the cylinder head bolts because they are "One-time-use-only" also called torque-to yield bolts and over stretch if reused. HTH
John

 

OK, "the head gaskets are done", as in bad, or

as in "done", like you replaced them?