tbird down!!!!

My tbird is down. Last night driving home from work i was on the howard franklin when i heard it start knocking real bad. I looked at my guages and all rad normal. Then it fell on its facxe and died. I pop the hood and the damn thin is steaming. it would start back up. I hope that i didnt hurt it to bad. Any idea what this could be. Im not blowing in white smoke so im assuming its not hg's. After i got it home and off of the flatbed it started right up and sounded fine exept for a quite ticking. i only ran it for a few seconds just to park it. Im thinking of a couple of things you guys let me know if im on the right track. 1)waterpump: but not sure how to check it. 2) thermostat: easy enough to change i think. But if yall have had any experiences like this let me know.

Mike

Damn thunderchicken

89importeater said:

...I looked at my guages and all rad normal...

...I pop the hood and the damn thin is steaming...

...Im not blowing in white smoke so im assuming its not hg's...

...Im thinking of a couple of things you guys let me know if im on the right track. 1)waterpump: but not sure how to check it. 2) thermostat: easy enough to change i think.

Click to expand...

Mike,

I find it hard to believe you've got no registry of an over-heat on your temp gauge if it was truly a problem with your water pump or T-stat causing an over-heat. If you've got steam, and it wasn't coming out the rad cap, then you've gotta have a breach in the system somewhere. Where did you see the steam coming from?

Just because you're not blowing white smoke/steam out the tailpipes doesn't necessarily mean that you can rule out HG's. If the HG's fail and bleed coolant across to an oil galley without it entering the combustion chamber, then you could have serious trouble. That's what wrecks bottom ends in a hurry! ...I strongly suggest you check your oil. If it's milky after running a short period, or if you can clearly see coolant separated out from the oil (might be hard to see this on your dipstick, so you may need to drop the oil to be sure. ...Just remember that water is more dense than oil, and will sit at the bottom of the oil pan if it's separated out, so if you drop the oil, watch for water coming out first).

In the event you find coolant in the bottom end, and given that the failure happened while driving at highway speeds, and since you've already mentioned hearing an unusual noise coming from the motor now, I'd suggest you start pricing a complete rebuild. In some cases, you can get lucky and just flush the oil really good, replace the HG's and you're good to go. Sometimes, people try this route only to have the motor spin a bearing or develop rod knock within days of completing the HG replacement.

I don't want to scare you with this stuff, but you need to clearly isolate whether your HG's failed, and if so, then you need to decide what you're going to do about it.

Good luck!

Sean

thanks sean. im gonna go check my oil this afternnon. i will let you know what i find. Is it possible that my temp sensor is just bad?

Mike

dont be hg

did you find out anything yet man? hope it anything bad!

the only thing that i have found out so far is the the car gods hate me!!!!!! I was goin up to discount auto to pic up a thermostat and water pump when my other car(95 sentra) took a dive on me. The ac compresser froze up. I have the worst luck. The bad thing is that i cant really route the belt around the ac because of the stupid idler pulley. I can prob rig sumtin up to get me to monday when i can get a used ac comp. The belt only runs the altenator and ac. i hope that i can find a belt that is tight enough to turn the alt but loose enough so i can get it on cause i cant use the idler. well ne ways. they want 275 for a new pump. Found a used one at barelyusedautoparts.net for 100. but ne ways. cant afford to fix them both right now so i guess the sc has to sit for a bit. Dont suppose ne one has a running car they wanna get rid of pretty cheap???

Mike