xsaint53

First a little background on my 95 SC 400. Bought vehicle in July 08 with 183K on it. Vehicle now has 197K on it. At 190K replace timing belt and water pump. Also have done other regular maintenence--oil changes, brakes, etc. NEVER has car run hot. Obviously I don't do a lot of driving--I have a work at home job--consulting. Here's the issue. Last night about 7 PM with the temp outside about 70--I live in Phoenix, AZ-- I was running some errands---had driven maybe 12 miles, when all of the sudden I noticed a strong smell of anti-freeze and noticed that my inside temp gauge--which since I owned the car I had NEVER seen go past the half-way point, was almost in the red. I immediately pulled over and let the car cool down and put water in. First thing this morning, I drove the car to Pep Boys had had them test the cooling system. They told me they found that I had a crack in my radiator on the top, they also said my radiator cap was not holding pressure. They also "Block tested the engine, and found a presence of combustible gasses detected." I have had a noticable--but not overwhelming--smell of gas for quite some time. I also get pretty bad mileage--I probably get 14 miles or so a gallon, and my acceleration is not what it should be. BUT Pep Boys, and subsequently another shop told me what that I need a new motor-since mine has a little over 197K and it would not be worth fixing i.e. doing the head gaskets and pulling the motor apart. They said replacing the cracked radiator and possibly a new thermostat would do no good without doing something about the engine--replacing it. I do not have $6-7 K for a new motor. Also, last night was the very first time I had overheating problems of ANY kind. I can afford $500-700 for a new radiator and thermostat, but $5-6-7 K is out of the question. And for that matter, if doing the head gaskets are in the $2-3 K range, I can't really do that either. I have NO mechanical aptitude, so a "do-it-yourself" fix is out of the question. I have to take it to a shop. I replaced the radiator cap this morning, and the car is still overheating even during my drive this afternoon from my home to my gym and to run errands----about 5-6 miles each way. So I know I have to do something. Any advice. Please help!!!!

ZPEED

take out the thermostat if u live in the desert, i got this advices from my friend in Asia, i dunno if this gonna work..

BAD BRIAN

iTrader: (1)

You have a blown head gasket, nothing you do will stop it from overheating. If anything you'll just warp the head more and more making the fix more complicated. All this is true if indeed combustible gasses are entering your cooling system. Sorry man

willhickey

iTrader: (1)

nah dont take out the thermostat on a sc4 that plastic thermostat housing will leak . DONT DO IT. man screw pepboys throw the radiator 200 on ebay and thermostat 10 advance ( dont forget the new gasket as they dont come with it in the box you have to buy seperate). I hope they found something combustible in your engine haha. I would worry about it unless if when they did they did the coolant test the coolant was leaking into the cylinder and then you did a compression test and matched the results to a blown hg. What caused it to overheat in the first place? It wasnt the headgasket..... the only way i could see you warping a headgasket on a sc is if you added cool water or coolant while the engine was still hot. It needs a tuneup man im sure it does with those kind of miles on it. and also if you got those injectors cleaned im sure you will get around 18mpg maybe better city driving if you keep your foot out of it.

ZPEED

it will not leak if you put a water pump liquid sealant but u should dry it up before u put a coolant..

XxGoKoUxX

replacing your engine is cheap, you're driving a 1uz?

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=1uz....c0.m270.l1313

as you can see, they range from $500-$1600 for a new engine, someone swapping you in a new engine should cost no more than $3-400, a radiator replacement is extremely simple, i can get my 5-year old sister to do it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/91-92...Q5fAccessories

there's a source for your radiator, any will do, you're not using it for performance. As for the thermostat, that's 5-25$ depending on where and what brand you buy. For people who have had bad experiences with heat on their radiator, an alternative the Subaru fanboys (and some miata fanboys) use is 100% distilled water (the one that you can buy by the gallons for $1-2) + Redline water wetter (you can purchase this at your local autozone, pepboys, or discount auto) whichever your preference.

ALSO, don't forget you need automatic transmission fluid (your radiator has two sides, one is for radiator fluid, the other is for automatic transmission fluid). If you have a manual transmission forget i mentioned this, and forget the link above because that link is for automatic transmissions, if you're 5-sp then you need to look for a manual radiator (because the radiator does NOT split up into two sections for manual transmission applications)

if you're very mechanically inclined, i suggest the simplest duty, drain your radiator fluid, add water wetter+100% distilled water, to the top (DO NOT FILL UP WITH YOUR TYPICAL HOUSE WATER, they have contaminants that are corrosive to your engine and also they keep your radiator from dissipating heat as well as it should)

One of my last suggestions I should of put first: Check your radiator fluid reservoir. If you can, tell me what is in there, and while the car is on, does that radiator fluid reservoir overflow? if it doesn't, then your car's head gasket is not blown, it sounds like something is malfunctioning in the cooling system instead. if it DOES overflow, then it sounds like a symptom of blown head gasket. Another symptom is the sweet smell of radiator fluid, a 3rd symptom is the smoke, and the final symptom is for you to check your engine oil, if it's muddy (http://home.comcast.net/~cyberkill51/radiator.jpg) in either the radiator fluid reservoir, or in the engine's oil when you check it with the dipstick, most likely your engine's gonna go soon, so, like someone suggested, you should get off the car until it's ready for repairs.

xsaint53

Thanks everybody for your advice..... I resolved the situation. Basically Pep Boys called it all wrong. While it might not be a bad idea to have my head gasket changed, the "you'll blow up a new radiator immediately without changing your head gasket or getting a new motor" doom-and gloom they told me turned out to be all wrong. I went to another shop yesterday. The installed a new radiator and thermostat and flushed the cooling system. They also road tested the car. And they checked the engine. I told them what Pep Boys said, they laughed and said that it would not be a bad idea to change the head gasket, but I do not have a blown head gasket or anything close to blown. The oil was fine--no milky appearance or burning --it was last changed about 1800 miles ago, but I changed it again yesterday. Also there is NO smoking of any kind--either from the exhaust or in the engine. There are NO leaks in the engine. I also found a place in Phoenix--Akina Motorsportz-- that installs JDM engines (with about 30-40K on it) for about $1200-1500 INSTALLED, which is way cheaper than doing a head gasket. I've driven the vehicle more than usual yesterday and today---I normally drive around 12 miles a day, the last couple of days I drove about 30-40 miles each day in stop and go traffic. And NO overheating, no antifreeze coming out, no leakage. So it looks like the new radiator, thermostat, and cooling system flush did the trick. Thanks again for everybody's feedback.

Tabaka

iTrader: (8)

Glad to hear things are working out for you. Keep an eye on things and bring you vehicle back to the same shop that diagnosed this correctly. Keeping a good relationship with an independent mechanic has saved my @ss tons of times. Best of luck

XxGoKoUxX

see? i had a strong feeling it wasn't going to be all that bad, at worse an engine swap would be CHEAAAAAAAAP, and i had a stronger feeling there was no milky milky from all your descriptions, so whoever told you to swap the engine was jumping too fast to conclusions, glad everything worked out for you =]

BostonSC4

iTrader: (2)

This is why I hate Pep Boys and all other "universal" repair shop companies such as that. They hire people who can't tell wtf is going on.

*NO OFFENSE TO ANY CL MEMBERS WHO WORK THERE* This is just a generalization but I hear stories like this all the time.

OP, very glad you got it all resolved. I had similar problems and a radiator did the trick.

Klaus

iTrader: (1)

If you ever do this, the JDM engines have less power than the US motors and the US motors are a dime a dozen- maybe even cheaper than the JDM. There's plenty of them around pheonix

Pspice

lol i work there

BostonSC4

iTrader: (2)

Yes I know haha I had you in mind when I put the NO OFFENSE TO ANYONE CL MEMBERS cause they aren't all the same. I'm talking about the managers that just assume the worst to try to get some extra $

ZPEED

overheating solution : replaces thermostat , radiator cap, coolant flush
heater core solution : pull out the in /out hose to heater core and flush it with water, check this out >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72PRJ...eature=related