EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

Got a 94 Chevy that don't wanna stay cool. Replaced the water pump(it had a bad crack in it) and yesterday I replaced the radiator(it cracked yesterday on the way to Huntsville) and took the thermostat out so it'd have a constant flow from the radiator but its still not stayin where it used to at about 190ish its up 240-250 now just seein if ya'll know of somethin I'm missin?

Next things to look for would be a cracked head or block, or head gasket. Can't remember what year the vortec motors started, but the vortec heads do not tolerate heat very well. Are you losing coolant? If so, I'd get a pressure tester and check your oil for coolant which would tell you there is a crack somewhere. Or pull plugs and look for water and a blown head gasket.

The vortec didn't start till 96. And it ain't drippin or nothin

U may have installed a reverse rotation water pump on it???? Is your waterpump pulley slick or does it have grooves for the belt. I have had the parts house give me the wrong pump before and the motor will fry, good luck

Did you remove the thermostat after replacing the radiator or during the replacement process of the radiator? Removing the thermostat is worse than having a plugged up radiator. A properly rated and working thermostat, "IF"all other cooling components functioning as they were designed will keep the coolant from reaching its boiling point. The cooling system is just like a pressure cooker or putting a lid on a pot of hot water, the rad cap helps build pressure, while the thermostat acts as a popet valve, allowing a lil hot (near boiling) coolant from boiling over. Another thing could be the radiator is to small of a core to hdndle the tcks engine coolant needs, cores to small, not enough core or a couple rows of cores crimped off, not letting the fluids circulate efficiently. If you have no boil overs, no oil in water or water in oil, your heads and gaskets are fine, but there may also be debri from yrs of chemical electrolosis build up or from the previously damaged pump or gasketing material clogging the cooling system.

Removed the thermostat. Took it around the loop here in crockett stopped by oreillys to get the rad then back to the house and it was at about 240. Installed the new rad took around the loop stayed about 160 till I pulled onto my road then it got to about 230-240 pretty quick. It doesn't have a fan cowling but I've had the truck since November and ain't effected it none guess ill put the thermostat back tomorrow and see if that helps any. I just always heard it runs cooler that way

its the right pump. I put it on about 3 weeks ago and its been coolin fine till now

It has been my experience that a small block chevy will run cooler without a t stat. U might check your radiator hoses. I had a lower hose one time that got flimsy and would suck shut. Usually the upper hoses dont collapse due to the direction of the flow.

Alright ill check on that tomorrow. I appreciate yalls help

im having the same problems with my wifes impala right now, new thermostat new water pump took the radiator out and flushed it real good put all new hoses on, all about 3-4 weeks ago then yesterday it got hot

    easiest thing to do at this point is have the cooling system pressure tested . a cracked head depending on where it is cracked . you could be loosing water as steam out the tail pipe .

I have seen the water pump be an issue more than once... The parts house guys give the wrong pump. A wrong rotation pump will half ars cool the motor

There is a lot of problems with cross contamination with coolant. Such as using green instead of dexcool. Vice versa. When dex cool mixes with regular coolant it can and will sludge up your coolant passages over time. So if you haven't crossed coolants then don't. If you had that stuff is almost impossible ti clean out of engIne. Lots of coolant flushes pulling radiator and pump off to hand clean them and try to clean engine out as much as possible. Collapsed hoses are a big problem on that year. Just a Little advise.

Started it up this mornin let it run for a little bit never got over 150-160 but was blowin some real rich smellin white exhaust tool it around the loop stayed around 140ish got back to the house no more rich smell and no more white exhaust so maybe it fixed itself? lol hell I dunno Ill find out Monday when I make that 45 minute drive

If it smells sweet its burnin antifreeze, cracked head or blown hg.

There's no antifreeze in the system. Its all water

It needs anti-freeze in it, even in summer time. It raises the boiling point of the water. Strait water will work in a pinch, but it helps to have antifreeze. Run u some bars leak in it, it helps with leaks, but also helps lube the cooling system, extending water pump and thermostat life.

will do. Thanks Charles

White smoke is burning coolant no ifs ands or buts. Most likely a cracked head. Then as it warms up the metal expands and pushes the crack together and slows the leak. Check online for new heads. The cracked head will not be taken for a core. Be sure to use your VIN and any numbers off the block to be sure you get the correct heads the first time.

Like Charles said you never use just water. Anti freeze is also coolant. Water boils before the coolant will. It also lubricates as it goes so your pumps and seals last as well as prevents corrosion.

Well ill probably change out the gaskets first considerin there 30-50 a peice and I did a quick search on oreilly auto and it was 1,400 for a new head. Ill spend a couple hundred bucks and drop a 350 in the truck before I spend that much on somethin I'm gettin rid of in a couple months

I just got a chance to look at this post. How well is your fan working? Have you recently changed it? Look at the clutch on the fan and spin the fan by hand with the engine off if it spins freely with little resistance your fan clutch probably bit the dust and is not pulling enough air through the radiator. The shrouding around it helps direct the airflow and allows it to pull air through the radiator fins properly. May have already caused more problems with the head gaskets but you still need to find the root cause.

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well I think what started it all is when my water pump went out 30-45 minutes from the house and I kinda babied it back then my radiator cracked bout an hour from the house which I'm sure didn't help things to much. But the fan is good it takes a little bit of oomph to move it so the clutch is still good. I put 15,000 miles on this truck since November and this is the first trouble I've had from it

While its running is there a lot of bubbles coming out of the radiator

No just looks like the water is kinda rollin

x2 on the fan clutch...I had lots of problems and finally found it to be the fan clutch...the engine usually heats up more when driving slow or when at a red light and when you kill the engine the fan keeps turning a few rounds is another way to find out if it is the fan clutch...also...the transmission could go out if the engine continues to run hot so need to find your problem asap...

Just went to try and crank it. Was hydro locked the water ain't rollin no more its bubblin and there's water comin out the tail pipe. Pulled the plugs to start it and it spewed some water out.

Think I'm bout done with Chevy with all the trouble I've had out of em recently. Always heard the 4.3 was bullet proof and until now I believed it ha I put my old 5.7 Chevy and 4.9 Ford through a lot more hell than this one

Put a builet in it and be done with it, go buy ya a goat but get the 5.9L. It'll out pull a chevy anyday ;D

Man I already know lol I wish I had an '01-'02 with the 6 speed 4x4 sittin in my driveway right now. But life gets in the way and workin for the state don't help much haha

here is the thing...lots of times it starts out as a small problem and making the wrong desision or not catching it can cause cracked blocks, warped heads or burned head gaskets...and sometimes it started out as a frozen 8 dollar thermostat or a fan clutch...

yes, i like my HEMI

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think he's talkin bout the cummins haha

That i be.
 My ole' stock 06 6spd manual 5.9 smoked an 05 auto durajunk. In all seriousness though, ALL auto builders SUCK now days. Over priced piles of junk, that probly didnt cost half what they charge to build them.

Musta been somethin wrong with that dirtymax cause there pretty darn quick just ain't as reliable as the older goats. Did have a old boss that had 375,000 on his dirtymax tho. That's about the highest I've seen on em. But I've personally driven a 12v that showed 670,000ish and still ran great same with the 24v with 400,000ish I drove. Both flatbeds that hardly went anywhere without a good load on em

X2. He probably didnt want to hurt your feeling feelings charles.  O0

It wasnt me runnin the tcks. I was in iraq, it was 2 brothers and both them drive like they just commited murder and tryn to run from the cops. the brother in my tck drives, well drove it like he stole it everytime he got behind the wheel and the other brother swears up n down he didnt let up, so NO, it wasnt he wasnt tryn to hurt my feelings, u cant hirt somethn that aint there. Its just the/that durajunk was exactly that, junk. Now i did get my butt spanked by a ford twin turbo, and he wasnt fully in it and still waxed my a$$.

4.3's had intake issues. Then they over heat and cause head issues.

its big, black,dirty,fast and yes got a HEMI(http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/25/y8edy2eg.jpg)

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No no no. Do not go buy a head from O'Rielly or any other auto part store. Call auto salvage yards and find your engine. If you have the room I would buy the whole engine even if it does not run. Junk yard pull engines are cheap because they are just dirty cores. Then just take the head or heads you need and sell the rest online. Or just get the head and get it tested and rebuilt at a machine shop.

First step is to take the heads off and look. It could just be a gasket. But when the head is off take it to a machine shop NOT A MECHANIC. A mechanic will just take it to a machine shop and charge you more. If they find a head is bad ask them the best place to find a head cheap. They might just have one laying around. Then check junk yards. But if the heads are good then just go get top of the line gaskets and put them back on. Cheap gaskets can end up costing you an engine. I go cheap on lots of things but not gaskets.

Also with havin the heads rebuilt, hav the machine shop resurface and machine the heads flat.

Be careful having the heads machined it changes the compression ratio and depending on how much they have to take off could cause you more problems typically on those it shouldn't be an issue but I know on fords modular engines if they need machining they need to be replaced decreases clearance to much and will cause interference issues

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Clean the heads surface area with a flat piece of steel. Only resurface if they are warped. Over heating an engine can cause warping but simply resurfacing them makes them usable. If they take so much off the compression is changed then they don't know what they are doing. Any real machine shop will check the surface and resurface if needed. It is checking for cracks that can't be seen that is really important because they can detect stuff you can't. I can get some angle iron, vice grips, and some cleaner then they will look brand new. But they could be cracked. I bet you can a youtube showing you how to clean the surface of a head like I was shown. I did not come up with it that is the way shops do it. Make sure the angle iron is longer than the head is wide. As you clean the gasket material off you will see any warping. Or just take it to a shop and they can do it.

I always get parts from the junkyard. Just get what looks the best. Sometimes you can take it back and exchange it if it is bad even at a junkyard. Check return policies posted at the junkyard. As long as you aren't trying to cheat them they are cool. But remeber they deal with crooks everyday so they try to be careful.

I'm gonna start tearin into it tomorrow to see what there us to see. I've been drivin it from crockett to madisonville since monday and hadn't added water but once. Still havin water comin out the exhaust all the time though.. kinda hopin its just a gasket. Doesn't seem to have the power it did before. Guess ill find out tomorrow

Got the drivers side mostly tore apart didn't really get to it till about 2 but there's a real thick cream colored sludge all over everything. Ain't got the head off yet tryin to figure out the easiest way to do it.. bout all I can tell now is that whoever had the truck before me didn't take very good care of it.. but then again its dang near 20 years old..

 that thick creamy sludge is water and oil mixed. I had a 6.9 international that the head gasket blew, nvr overheated but would deff was allowing a lil water into the oil system once it was shut off. when I tore it down, there was a thick creamy sludge in the valve covers. unless you know deff which side is leaking, it would b best to pull both sides down, replace all gaskets of course and also drain the oil and coolant, flush both and then reservice.

That's mainly where the sludge is.. this thing is bein a b*&$@. Only truck I've pulled the head on was a 98 cummins and that was gravy compared to this. Definitely know what I'm shoppin for next

The sludge is on both sides. Can kinda see maybe where the gaskets gone on the passenger side ill find out tomorrow when I get the rest of it apart

Keep us posted. Im curious which cylinder blew out the gasket. If i was closer n wasnt getn a headache from this dang flight trip planing crap i would giv ya hand. Fixn to eat 4 or 5 hydros to ease the headache. Good luck man

Got the passenger side pulled right before it started sprinklin. That sob did NOT wanna come off! When I pulled the plugs on the #2 cylinder it looked red and kinda rusty when I pulled the head that one was out all the way. But the #6 was compressed with water standin in the cylinder gasket looks intact but there's a cardboard feelin gasket that was all torn that goes to the plate that the throttle body sits on. Could that make it get water to the cylinders?
Waitin on abuddy now to take me to go get some degreaser to clean up thehead to check for visible cracks

Its sittin as a bare block now. All the plugs on the drivers side had that rust color to em and the number 5 cylinder has standin water in it also its half compressed. #4 is compressed all the way with no water

The carboard gasket under the throttle body being torn wont allow water, it wont allow the correct air/fuel mixture into the cylinders. There will b more air than fuel. Where there any head bolts with more corrosion than than others? If so, thats where the gasket blew out, allown for more than normal high temp to the bolt, compression blow by carboning up the bolt and water movin around the bolt, causing it to rust faster than others

Just surface rust. No deep corrosion

My old 6.9 int blew its head gasket n the last head bolt on the left was siezed so bad in the head from carbon buil up, cooked onto the shank so thick, i had to take a hack saw n cut the bolt in half, hand screwed outa the block and had to beet the bolt outa the head.

This ain't anywhere near that bad lol

Just some redneck inginuity a couple beat up knuckles and a few words my momma used to bring out the switch for lol

A trip to a machine shop to sheck the heads is money well spent IMO. Nothing worse than putting it together and have to take it apart again.