greens14

iTrader: (28)

Hey hows it going; i let a friend borrow my car and he overheated it pretty badly.

I'm not sure how long he drove it, or how badly it was overheated outside of the fact that he said he drove it until it shut off.

I've cleaned up the engine bay, got a new radiator (since he cracked that as well),took out thermostat and flushed out a ton of rust, then refilled coolant.

** I've also noticed the waterpump pulley (a crappy ebay waterpump replaced about 11 months ago) wobbles badly and leaks a fair amount of coolant.

car now runs fine, but operates at normal operating temperature without thermostat, and will eventually start to overheat if driven for over 15 minutes.


my question is do you guys think that the bad waterpump is the culprit ? or the overheating is most likely a blown headgasket?

Since a compression test and replacing the timing belt/ water pump both take several hours. i'm trying to narrow out waterpump before checking compression, (in which case id have to continue if the hg is blown with removing the head etc.)

SO ....could the waterpump cause the car to overheat even with no thermostat in?!

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

when you are leaking coolant the system is not pressurized fully, and the car will overheat.
you will need to replace or fix the waterpump if its leaking to figure it out If it is still overheating.

If a bunch of oil/coolant brown milkshake mix came out of the cracked radiator (or is in your new one), that would be a sign of a bhg, there are others but thats the most common. if you have a bunch of sweeet coolant smell coming out your tailpipe, you could be loosing coolant into the compression chamber but really before jumping to that conclusion I would do a test or fix the waterpump and see what happens.

the gaskets can take an occasional mild overheat, but if it gets bad enough its def possibly to mess them up.

greens14

iTrader: (28)

no typical signs of a bhg at all, no milky coolant anywhere, none on dipstick, no white smoke. i guess ill keep fingers crossed on it being just a waterpump!

thanks for the insight

greens14

iTrader: (28)

havent checked compression but its running great again

2jznosht

if the car is easy to start its probably not your hg yet...start the car cold with the overflow cap open and chech for bubling, sometimes exhaust gasses will come out as well. you can check for white smoke from the tail pipes, or pull pplugs and see if there is coolant in the cyinders.

greens14

iTrader: (28)

yea I did the basics outside of a compression test, seems as though shes fine!

edited over a year later: it was the waterpump, i originally went with an ebay kit while doing timing belt and waterpump;i've since went with OEM and have had no issues.