Heating Problems, very intermittion. LONG

Well first let me start by saying I'm not new to the thunderbird world, and I know the symptoms of bad HG's on 3.8s...shoot my base model blew em so I know what to look for. So with that in mind please help me figure this out.

I to seem to be having heating problems which are very intermittion and tonight has been the only night where I've had no heat what so ever after a period of driving. My car runs great and only twice has my car stalled out at a light ( for what reasons I don't know. maybe you can help, I'm leaning towards my plugs). Anyways tonight was one of those times it stalled out and well after about 5 cranks I was on my way like nothing happened. I had low gas (nothing to bring up a light on my VMM) so I went and filled up. (it was near E both times this happened) So I continue home and I notice my guage is on M so I kept an eye on it to make sure it didn't climb, praying to god also. So I'm on the interstate now and it drops to N and I'm thinking great nothing to worry about. I'd say on the way home my guage went from the C all the way up to O/R range 5 times. Most of the time it was on N tho. Still no continuous heat but it was hot when on N, anything eles was cold. Get home check the exhaust and just smoke from the cold weather nothing to worry about even smelt it to make sure it wasn't somewhat sweet, looked under the hood and I see smoke. Although I have a bad hose that goes from my Resovior to the top of my radiatior and that's where it was leaking and causing the smoke. So nothing that makes me want to lose sleep. Did open the resovior and I noticed steam comming out from it and I heard bubbling, which does scare me.

I've been told on the TCCoA it could be air in my system, but I haven't checked. Does this seem like a valid point? Or something that's not typical for an SC.

Cold it be a heater core about to go? I'm not that mech. inclined so I'm lost.

Also I drove my car 4 hours to make the Mid Atlantic Chapter meet yesterday and had ZERO problems at all! Car ran like a champ, perfect heat, You name it! Was a great trip.

I'm just totally confused, tomorrow I paln on driving the "SC Mock" (my 90 V6) just incase, and wait to see what you guys think.

I'm in the same boat as RedBirdSC, and all the other younger members. I'm 18 and well I'm getting reemed on Gas how it is and besides the heat, my rack an pinion have started to go too.

Please help me out, perhaps it is Head Gasket related but so far I have nothing that makes me lean towards it.

Thanks for reading all of this post.

-Tim

well..

My headgaskets just blew and let me tell you the symptoms,

1. Cold air intermittenly.
2. Radiator fluid coming from the cap.
3. Steaming and bubbling of the resevoir.
4. Most of the time it ran fine.
5. My gauge went back and forth.


Now.........Im gonna say head gaskets because those 5 problems I had are what you just described. You could always change your thermastat but...heres what happens. When you HG's go, you have whats called blowby i do beleive where air gets pushed back through the cooling system into the resevoir causing the bubbles. Pal I think your HG's are gone (ing).

Also, for your sake, do NOT drive you car until you confirm this. I drove mine ( I am 19 years old ) and I bent 2 rods in my engine. Now we had to tear the whole thing apart. Hope the same doesn't happen to you. I was lucky enough to have a dad that knows how to do all this so were getting it done for under 450 bucks with new rings, honing, rods, the works. If you didn't already know a HG replacement at a shop can range from 1100+. Hope it turns out ok for you!

http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16049

This also applies to you.

Jeff

You also need to check that you have enough coolant. Low coolant will cause the temperature to swing up/down and won't circulate through the heater core. Wait for it to cool down and open up the radiator. If the top of the inside of the radiator isn't covered, add antifreeze+water.

Okay well I'm not going to drive it wednesday because my dad is on a business trip so I will go back to my other bird. Unfortunetly this is bad timming for my mom's areostar just blew up after 258,900+ on it so were down to 3 cars how it is. I'm going to purg the system and change the thermostat and see what luck I have.

91BlownSC

My fluid leak is comming from the hose on the top of the radiator...it's been doing it since I got the car 3 months ago. Also when my HG's went on my 90 the heat went from C to H...my car is never reaching H or a problematic heating range but you said they are about to go...perhaps I'm not there yet?

I mean I know it's due time for them to go for I have a 91 with 127,000 on it but this just doesn't seem like on at all. I've probably read over 100 posts about HG's going and none of them

J57ltr!!!! That SOUNDS just like my problem, and well I just did a flush too like this guy with the new Rad. I hope that thread helps, you guys rock.

Thanks so much

-Tim

I'm going to have to reccommend t-stat also. The guage on my mom's explorer does the exact same thing you descrided, and I know that's what it was. Also, when my 91 Base blew it went right on up to H in about 5 mins. Also had no heater. HG failure can happen in a few different places that may or may not let coolent in the cylinders (between the cylinders for instance) so there may be different symptoms in each case.

I'll keep in mind

Tomorrow I'm taking her to the shop for fear something lets go and I'm really out some cash. I will let them know some of the points everyone with SCs has come to conclude on this board. I'll keep everyone posted on the out come.

Please fell free to keep posting thought tho, I will be checking this up until tomorrow morning.

Thanks

-Tim