New here,Big problem need help.

[Shadowkilla]

Okay so ie had my 1997 grand am looked over at a few diffrent shops and alot of them have said i have a blown head gasket now if this were true wouldnt my car be showing the normal signs of a blow head gasket?

So far this is what i do know is wrong my car overheats and i mean quick sometimes within a min of driving however it will not overheat in idel and while driving if i cut on the heat it will stay at normal op temp i know i have a small vacuum leak and the radiator on my car is from a 98 grand am.

i have done a tune up the whole 9 yards aswell as had a new thermostat, and waterpump put in and it still overheats quickly i have noticed that my cooliant seems to disaper yet when it gets hot and i open the overflow alot of cooliant floods out, i also left out that when i first got the grand am i took it out in a snowstorm got stuck alot by the end of the night i had a hard know in the engine but after a couple of months sitting i took it to a shop and they replace my intake maniflod gasket as it cracked that night

[bricooper78]

eeeh, welcome aboard. i am not real familiar with that 3.1, but check and see if that system can be bled, maybe, and just maybe, there is air in the system, which could cause a little of that mystery with the fluid, but if you catch an air pocket, your temp would read nothing, i highly doubt that is your issue, but it may be worth doing, just to try to help it along a bit. if 3 places tell you almost the exact same story, that is more than likely right tho, imo

[Shadowkilla]

yea i had to bleed the system the hard way but that didnt help i mean do you think my radiator could be bad it was used as well as free and like i said i know the shops said heads but it didnt seem like they really took the time to figure it out also i would like to think id have atleast one sing of my head gasket being bad besides overheating ofc

o and im not sure if this makes a diffrence but my fan used to be wired to a toggle switch but since i had it taken out i havent really seen the fan kick in at all

[99ga]

sounds prtty similar to a problem i had...now im not saying diz is ur problem but there is posibilities it could b...my 99 ga would run fine but then i started noticing that i would run out of coolant very often, more than nomral...i check for any leaks but nothing, replaced alot of stuff even did a tune up on it and the problem was stilll there...if ur coolant seems to dissapear and u dnt have any leaks?then deres a big posibility that that coolant is going INTO ur engine!,... check ur oil constantly loook for any mix of oil n coolant or water...dtas one of the causes why u car overheats too... kuz all the coolatn is going into ur engine n obviously without coolant ur car overheats....if ur lucky u might only gonna have to replace sum head gaskets, but its still a prtty expensive job since u have to prtty much take half of the motor apart...in my kase i had to replace the whole gaskets and the main reason why all this was happening it was because my head was broken...i had to replace that too....my engine was filled in more than 14 quarts of mixed up oil water and coolant....i had to do 3 oil changes the gaskets and the head as well... and since then i havent had no problems with it.....now u have 2 options, if this is the problem n if u like ur car n u think its worth to get it fixed(im talking about over 700dllrs)then go ahead...or jst sell it get rid of it....i luckly had a frien who knows how to do all those kind of stuff and he only charged me 200for the job n i spent 300 on parts...i wish u good luck n make a wise choice bro i feel ya trust me

[Shadowkilla]

yea your problem is sounding a little like mine however my oil is perfect and when the cooliant is there it looks fine
i know i had my intake maniflod done but is it possible it went bad again and im loosing the cooliant there or maybe my heater core? and yes sometime the heat does smell like coolaint

[bricooper78]

if your head is warped, or gasket is out, the coolant can (and will) mix right over in the cylinders and your car will burn the coolant out. if it's REALLY trashed, there is usually white smoke, or a sweet smell with the exhaust.

but, ya man, if it's burning it, it's your heads, and machining them isn't exactly cheap, but it is a lot cheaper than buying a new car


if you don't have a wet floorboard or a puddle, shouldn't be the heater core. disappearing act is usually burning it out through the combustion chamber

[Shadowkilla]

okay well on that note i just rembered that one of the shops i had do work for me told me my heads were leaking air could that be the problem behind all this?

[99ga]

well actually this was the second tyme i had this problem... the fisrt tyme i got it fixed it was sum guy who didnt even do a good job he changed the head gaskets but the head was still broekn idk if he didnt noticed it....if ur oil is fine then dat means that is hasnt gotten that worst yet...as soon as i noticed my oil was all creamy and nasty i got it fixed the next day...try bleeding the system untill there is no air in it....how often do u have to add more coolant?

[Shadowkilla]

i was adding coolaint every two to three days now since its summer and its become so often i switched to water bleeding the system in my car is a pain because from what im aware i do not have a bleeder if i do i have no idea where it is.

[99ga]

let me see if i can find it for u..... its a
1997 grand am 3100 ?
`

[Shadowkilla]

yep 6cly if u need that by the way i forgot to mention this as well when i notice my car overheating and i open the overflow cap while its hot water spews out for quite a while sometimes i even see a little antifreeze from b4 i switched to water and this happens pretty much every time my caroverheats and i open the cap

[99ga]

lemme see if i can find it for u....send me a big clear picture of ur engine or find it online

[99ga]

yeah dat happened to me too... obviously ur car overheats and all the water int there ist prtty much boiling as soon as u ope ur radiator cap dat happens dats normal tho...next tyme dnt open it all the way.. jst open it till all the hot air comes out and close it again before the hot boiling water cums out and repeat it over and over untill ur able to open it completely

[Shadowkilla]

ok and i sent u a pic i found on the web of my engine

[chris_gt_74]

The 3100's and 3400's as far as I know all have a closed coolant system which require bleeder's to get the air out. For sure there is one located over the top of the water pump. It sets on top of the 3 or 4 inch bypass tube standing straight up off the top of the pump. The tiny little bolt on top of it is the bleeder. I can't remember or not but you may also have a second one on the thermostat housing.

[unchained_01]

1. hook that switch back up and use it when the car is running until you find out if the sending unit or the fan relay is bad

2 have a compression test done and you will really know if you have a head gasket leak ( the head can be leaking between the cylinders and not on the outside and youll never see it And look at the plugs and you will tell if there is one also

3 more than likely it is the heads, from what you have posted

and yes the 3100 has 2 bleeders one on the thermo housing and one at the bypass line next to the waterpump

[Shadowkilla]

alright thanks guys ill bleed my system tomorrow as well as go get the compresion test done

[Shadowkilla]

Little update did the bleed on the radiator not much difference im thinkin time to tear apart this car and get the head gasket's replaced but for now its my only car so im gunna be pushin it till i get a new grand am

on a side note wired the toggle switch to my fan and it seems to be keeping my car from overheating.

[99ga]

check ur oil look if its mixing up even a little bit, smell the smoke from the exhaust if it smells sweet dats wat it is...chekc if theres white smoke kuming out too... if ur car starts overheating wen stop ur car on a light or park and it kinda starts coolig off once u take off n drive it nonstop(for example in the expressway).... then go ahead and tear ir apart kuz dats ur problem...wen u change the head gaskets check the head ass well for any break or anything.... good luck

[Shadowkilla]

yea mine dosent have any of what you just posted and my car overheats as it speeds up unless i have her up to 70+mph when i stop at a light it cools off .