Thank you for all the replys on the first two installments. Vehicle is a 1982 AMC Concord,60,000 miles 258 c.i.d. 6 cylinder. Engine behaved fine until last week when the gauge skyrocketed and antifreeze started spurting into the factory installed coolant recovery tank.I responded to most of the responses below if they asked a question.Neighbor put a radiator pressure tester on cold car and brought it up to 14lbs.As the car warmed up the pressure began to rise.when the needle was getting into the red zone the pressure got to 20 psi.and we shut the car down.On one hand, I'd like to agree with the neighbor that a blown head gasket is making the pressure rise but on the other hand my thought of a bad water pump allowing the coolant in the block to overheat and expand enough to over pressurise the system.Thanks, Bill
- Thread starter bill mart
- Start date
JOHNNYfromMI
Member
There is a test to see if the exaust is getting into the cooling system. Don't remember the name, but have used it on a car that did have a blown headgasket. Any good auto parts store will help you on this.
RandyB(MI)
Well-known Member
Just my opinion but the pump impeller would have to be completely freewheeling on shaft to cause that much of a overheat problem. Never have seen that ever. Doesn't nessessarily have to be a head gasket either. Could be a cracked head. Use an exaust gas detector to check for gasses in rad.
Michael Soldan
Well-known Member
My son had an '80 Jeep built by American motors..so virtually the same engine. I had the head off in a little over an hour,took it to a shop that dig heads and valves,the guy looked at it and said..oh,blown headgasket huh? I asked how he knew..he said he could tell by the colour on the surface of the head.He had to take 5 thousandths off the head to plane it right. I had it back on in a little over an hour,prestone back in and never had a problem since.
Another test I use is fill radiator completely to the top, remove belt from water pump.
Cold engine. Start engine and if coolant rises you have combustion leak. Don't look for bubbles as so many say as the leak may be way back in system and a bubble will take a long time to reach radiator. If pump is hooked up you can tell nothing unless leak is huge. The test is only good for about one minute as normal warming will cause coolant to rise. Rev the engine to get quicker results. An air test on each individual cylinder is also a very good test to pin down which cyl causing problem. Little harder to do but more conclusive test. I always hate tearing an engine down with out some confirmation as to what the problem actually is.
Cold engine. Start engine and if coolant rises you have combustion leak. Don't look for bubbles as so many say as the leak may be way back in system and a bubble will take a long time to reach radiator. If pump is hooked up you can tell nothing unless leak is huge. The test is only good for about one minute as normal warming will cause coolant to rise. Rev the engine to get quicker results. An air test on each individual cylinder is also a very good test to pin down which cyl causing problem. Little harder to do but more conclusive test. I always hate tearing an engine down with out some confirmation as to what the problem actually is.
M-MAN
Well-known Member
- Location
- Bostic, NC
The 5 minute overheating is the puzzle. Thermostat won't do it. Clogged radiator won't do it. I doubt that a waterpump with the impeller worn off would do it.(BTW - Tauruses have a bad habbit of this.) Even a blown head gasket shoulden't overheat that fast. The only thing i've ever seen overheat that fast had a stopped up exhaust pipe. Course you probably still have a circulation problem if no heat is getting to the radiator.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Should notice an exhaust smell if you put your nose over the recovery tank or radiator cap also..... Sounding more and more like the HG tho...
MarkB_MI
Well-known Member
- Location
- Motown USA
Here's how to test for a blown head gasket with a cooling system pressure tester: Put the tester on the vehicle, but do not pump it up. Close off the pressure release and have someone start the vehicle. If the head gasket is blown, the pressure will start to rise rapidly in a few seconds. If you don't see any pressure increase until the vehicle has started to warm up (say in a minute or two), it's probably not the head gasket.
On that year did they go to the serpentine belt yet or is it the individual belts? The 258 is the same as head and water pump as the 199 and 232 engines. Had the 199 in a American, 2 of the 258 in Hornets and a 232 in Concord. With the individual belts the hardest part to get the water pump off is the air conditioner pump if so equiped.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Don't think it's related, but had a 91 wrangler with 2.5 4cyl. New water pump came in for V belt and I had serpentine (or vice versa it was a long time ago) and no pumpy pumpy GI. Turned the wrong direction... That was a real headscratcher/hairpuller for a guy like me.....
Local farmer had that......Chevy WT pickup. Was the cross over year for the serpentine belt. Put on a new water pump (old one was leaking) and started having temp problems. He brought it into the shop I worked in at that time. They had sold him the water pump for the v belt, sepentine pump turned in the other direction.
AS far as this guys problem. If you do a leak down test on both the cooling system and each cylender you can pin point a bad gasket/possible cracked head. With the temp rising like you are saying I would think that you have a flow problem. I've seen water pumps with the impeller rusted away cause that. I also worked on one that ingested a mouse nest (truck had sat in a shed for years without a rad cap, mice had built a nice nest completely blocking the rad.) While it's running and the temp hits the point that the stat should open is there any flow in the rad? Upper hose get hot on the rad end? I'd check the simple stuff first.
Rick
I found a split plastic impeller on a 64 Rambler water pump.It took about 5 minutes to boil.Another Rambler, a 61 6 cy had to have the head milled to keep a gasket in it.Stuck thermostats are common.Test them on the stove in a tuna can.Use a meat thermometer to read opening temp.
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