t1tec

Vegas hit 105 yesterday and the car was running just great. Went to a couple of stores and everything was humming along just fine until the return journey. About 4 miles from home I noticed the temp starting to rise, about 2 miles from home she hit the red and the engine light come on.

I pulled over and waited 25 min for the car to cool a little, now the big mistake. Having two 5 year olds with me I was very eager to get them out of the blistering desert heat so I decided to drive home as slow as possible.

I drive the last 1 & half miles home at 10 miles an hour and by the time I got home smoke was entering the car and she did not sound good.

I'm sure I toasted the bottom end.

I think the water pump died, I have no broken belts, no leaks, no water in the oil, the reservoir was bone dry.

I checked this morning with my breath held and the engine doesn't sound to bad but I know something has to be damaged. I have no water circulation.

I'm puzzled by the smoke coming from the rear of the engine close to the fire wall, any ideas.

I know I'm going to get ridiculed for driving the car when she was in the red but when you got kids you got to make a choice.

Now the search is on for a 951................

Porsh-uh

Kids are more important than the Porsche... barely...

Devia

Thermostat was not allowing the water to circulate, and/or waterpump.

I find I have to drive a certain speed, at least 40 MPH, to help keep my engine below the 1/2 mark. I don't like it if she stays there, like it at 1/3, preferably 1/4!

Anyway, oil could have caught fire, or something else.

DON'T PANIC and look it over carefully.

Z-man

Are you sure it was smoke, and not coolant steam? It could be just coolant that was spewn out of the over-flo valve. OR, you may have a blown head gasket, which although expensive, is still cheaper than a bottom end rebuilt!

You may have been better off going faster, pushing more air through the radiator and over the engine to help cools things down a bit.

When my H2O pump gave up the gusto at Watkins Glen, the driver behind me saw a puff of 'smoke' which in reality was coolant that came out the over-flow valve and hit my hot exhaust. Surprisingly, I made it home from Watkins Glen to NJ (4 hour drive) without any problems. (Overheated only once without doing any further damage to the block) Of course, this was in October, in 40-ish degree temps at night.

Believe it or not, the coolant DOES circulate without an H2O pump - It's called 'thermo-circulation' or something like that. The hot coolant in the bottom end of the block raises, pushing the slightly cooler stuff down into the block. Pretty cool, no? (Pun intended)

Good luck!
-Z.

Matt H

Well, lets address the problem, no coolant in reservoir. Possible reasons.

1) Leak of some sort, have to fill it and pressurize to check

2) HG, which does seem relatively likely, given the circumstances

When you stopped did it spew coolant on the ground, any signs of boiling coolant?

It is these types of problems that keep pushing me to an air cooled car.
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Joe Jackson

Overheating issues are usually pretty easy to diagnose, especially ones where the car was running good and then suddenly doesn't. First, fill the system back up with water and bleed it as best you can. Let the car warm up and check that the thermostat is opening by feeling either the radiator itself or the upper radiator hose to make sure they are hot. If not, you've got a bad thermostat. If they are hot, wait and see if the cooling fans come on. If they don't, your thermoswitch or relay is bad. If they do, do they cool the car down? If not, you've either got a bad pressure cap, a circulation issue or a bad headgasket.

If the car is leaking coolant during these tests, fix the coolant leaks before going any further. If every time you fix a leak, you get another, then most likely you've got a bad headgasket.

This is a quite simplified list but it should get you started.

RMills944

Well, I've been there, and I'd look for anything leaking onto the headers if I were you - thats where my head gasket went out. You would have been better off to drive a normal speed home.

elf89

Right or wrong for the car, you did what you thought was best for your kids, even though you knew it was at the car's expense. You have your priorities straight.

I hope you have minimal damage and can fix it easily. If not, you're getting a 951 you lucky dog. (Make sure your wife knows you sacrificed the car for the kids sake and it should be an easier sell.) Good luck!

Perry 951

Well said.

You said there was smoke or steam coming from the rear of the motor. Perhaps you blew out the hose that runs to/from the heater core? If it is smoke, perhaps the really hot motor made you notice the rear cam seal leak.. the cork one that always seems to fail.

I'll agree with what others said, fill it up, run it, and attempt to find where it's dumping coolant.

Best of luck!

t1tec

Thanks for all your kind words. I don't see any leaks, tried to bleed the system but I'm getting no flow.

The thermostat is only 5 weeks old, I guess it could be a defective dealer part.

I'll check more on Sunday and let you all know the outcome.

Peckster

I doubt it. They don't have taxis or anything else there? What do the peopel without cars do?

Shutemup

Everone that lives outside a major metroplotin area in the US and most that live in 1 have cars.

Taxi's are an in town kinda thing, if he was on his way back from lake mead or something, he would have had to sat for a while.

Broken down in Nevada or Arizona......I'll sacrifice the vehicle, an adult can literally go in a few hours, kids.....not even worth thinkin about it.

My last trip to Pheonix, 142 on the flightline

joseph mitro

hopefully this will make you feel better:

last year while autocrossing i crashed nose first into an embankment, damaging the radiator and losing all the coolant. the car overheated into the red. stupidly, i decided to drive it home, filling it with water and making frequent stops to cool off. it took almost 4 hours to drive 15 miles home, and even though i stopped for 30 minutes at a time, the car remained in the red the entire trip home. stupid, yea. i thought the headgasket and possibly the head or even the block would be warped, but after fixing the cooling system, the car actually ran fine (until it spun a rod bearing last month - doh!!)

anyway, good luck and hopefully it's not as bad as you think

Kevin Baker

If you had lots of steam from the rear of the engine, you may just have a bad heater control valve. It is "right there". Check the easiest first, the radiator cap. Take it to the auto parts store, they should be able to pressure test the cap, if is not holding, the system will not pressurize. Cooling systems are meant to run under about 15-26 psi. Water at pressure has a greater boiling point. If the cap is good, and you want to check for a blown headgasket, just fill it up, run with the cap off, if after a couple of minutes, you see a fountain at the overflow bottle, you know you have cobustion pressure in the cooling system = headgasket. If the car was running good with the new thermostat before this, then I'd kinda rule that one out as a source. If the cap is good, and you don't have a fountain going, then I'd start looking at cooling fans and the like.

Geo

Amen to that.

As others said, don't panic yet. Fill the cooling system and check all the external parts for signs of a problem.

Is the engine making any noise when it's running now? In either event, you may want to change your oil and filter. The oil is probably marginal now anyway if it's been overheated that badly. The main thing you want to do is check the oil and filter (cut it open with a Dremel) for brass - it will look like tiny glitter or gold metalflake in the oil. If the oil looks fine I'd say you're likely to be isolated to a cooling system issue.