Another person with a heat problem - 93GP

[Kyrael]

I posted this once in [H]ardForum's car forum, but I figured a w-body site would be a better place to post this. I've searched and read a few topics that were close to this, but not quite. Sorry if this is the wrong forum.

Hey everyone... So the other day, I traded off my baby, a 1991 Maxima SE for this pile... a 1993 Grand Prix SE. Seemed like it might have been a good deal, its in awesome condition, a beautiful blue car, seemed to run fine, the replaced the water pump for us before we got it. My maxima was falling apart in the front end and the seals were shot and I was tired of messing with it, so I had to get rid of it. Now I have a dilemma. My stepdad, being a mechanic, has been working on this car for a few days, and still nothing... When its going down the road, it runs cool for a while. Then it gets hotter. If you run it 60ish, it will stay around 220, but then if you slow down or stop, it hits redline temperatures... Then you start moving and it works again. The fans seem to work, although the right side fan only comes on when it starts running really hot. We've flushed the coolants, and the water pump does indeed work. We've put two different thermostats through it, and no help came from that either. The car acts like its gonna work fine until about 10 minutes into a drive... so it's practically useless to me atm. Any ideas what's up with this thing? Thanks for the help if you can.

[solid_raiden223]

Is your Cooling system getting pressure?... like when its hot do the hoses feel hard... if not.. then my guess would be that the metel hose under the coolant resiovor is rotted out and corroeded

[Prospeeder]

could be ur rad is clogged up, or one of ur hoses are plugged or somthing

[THe_DeTAiL3R]

Try taking out the t-stat completely and going for a drive to eliminate that as the problem.

[Kyrael]

Well, we bled the system for a while trying to get all the air out, and now the car doesn't do the same thing. It will get hotter trying to go up a hill, but only a little bit, and the moment the ground gets flat, it drops straight back to like 220 or 210, so it's like it doesnt even get hot. It doesn't heat up at idle either, but sometimes it will go to red line outta nowhere... last night I was driving it and it redlined, I pulled over, shut the car off for a second (about 30 seconds) started it again, and it was still at redline. I turned around to go back home and it INSTANTLY dropped back to 180, not 5 foot after turning... And the engine wasn't even hot even though the resevoir was bubbling a little... sound funny?

[Dannymik]

have you looked into the tstat like cbad said?

[digitaloutsider]

Yeah. DEFINITELY sounds like a thermostat. And hey, it might be a first-gen W-body, but isn't too big of a pile.

[mihela816]

Are you sure that the temp guage is functioning properly? Maybe the car isn't overheating at all.

[Kalgorn]

Are you sure that the temp guage is functioning properly? Maybe the car isn't overheating at all.

 

That's what I was wondering. I remember people posting problems like this before. My guess is either the gauge or the t-stat.

[GP1138]

Are you sure that the temp guage is functioning properly? Maybe the car isn't overheating at all.

 

Actually, that's a valid question. My car's thermostat is around ~30* high. I thought it was overheating, but really it was just a little warmer than normal, which is normal for a W-Body at idle.

[Kyrael]

Both thermostats will open up in hot water, and now it's weird... sometimes it will run redline all the way for 10 miles, stop, open the hood, and no bubbling in the resevoir and you can touch the valve cover, other times it will run 230 and when you stop 100 foot later, its bubbling...

[GP1138]

Hmm...

 

Why is this shouting "head gasket" to me?

[mihela816]

Hmm...

 

Why is this shouting "head gasket" to me?

 

Could be. The temp sender is in the head, so if coolant isn't making it to the sender, the temp would fluctuate.

[Kyrael]

Well, we finally decided to bite the bullet and take it to a shop tomorrow, so I'll let you guys know what I find out then.

[Regal_GS_1989]

Its been a long time since i posted on here, but im gonna say CRACKED HEAD(S). I`m guessing that the cooling system wasnt bled properly and the coolant want flowing throughout. This has happened to me once, and it will be pretty costly if you have a garage fix it.

[pwmin]

uh, you didnt drive it to see if it overheated? try taking out the stat, if that doesnt work, pull the radiator and have it tested or get in ir laser thermometer and see if the rad is cooling. if it its, it's probably a head. the shop can test for a head gasket leak or crack. its nice how you ask join here just to ask a question and then say your w-body is junk.

[Kalgorn]

its nice how you ask join here just to ask a question and then say your w-body is junk.

 

Umm, most are junk but we love them anyway?

[Kyrael]

I just looked over my posts and I don't remember stating that my little pontiac is junk... it's just running like it. I did drive it, and it didn't overheat till the day I took it home. We have replaced the T-stat twice, and tested both of them in boiling water before hand, we know they work, and that they aren't the problem anymore. Today it was found that the car is dumping fluids out through the bottom near the engine... I don't think it was doing this before, there was never any traces of fluid under it, but today it did it for sure. I have a feeling we've got a gasket problem... I'm praying anyway. And I do love my pontiac, it's just useless to me atm because of this problem making it immobile... And yeah, I did just join when I finally got my w-body, but I've been browsing this forum a LOT longer than that... I've always loved GP's and Luminas.... and my friend's Regal is pretty nice too...

 

---Edit---

We know what it is now... it has a blown head gasket... We looked at the price of just getting someone else to replace the gasket, 300 in labor for one or 400 in labor for both... plus the price of the gasket... or I can just get a new 3.1 and drop it in for 628 bucks... Guess what I'm doing hahah...

[BlackMagic859]

Sorry about your luck with your GP i have a 93 GP Se and i have had igntion problems like hell so i understand your frustration but when they're running good they are a great car i wouldn't trade mine for almost anything

[Kyrael]

Yeah, it's a beautiful little car... I love this blue color, especially without the pinstripes... but I do miss the acceleration of my Maxima. Next weekend were just gonna tear it down and replace the gaskets ourselves... so I'll learn more about the car that way I guess... I'm just hoping that I get better gas mileage outta it than I did my 91 Maxima SE

[pwmin]

I traded off my baby, a 1991 Maxima SE for this pile

 

just givin ya a hard time. i didnt really know anything about how you tested the car out before you bought it. same thing happened to me actually with the g/a i traded in for my g/p. ran it a lot before i bought it and then like a week or two later, started overheating.

 

all cars are pieces of shit, not just w's.

 

i thought about it after i posted and yeah, it wouldnt be the t-stat, it would be some sort of coolant flow problem. i guess you know what it is now, so it won't matter. if it was the stat, it would overheat a lot quicker.