You can get a head gasket tester loaned from autozone. its a turkey baster with a siphon pump and fluid. If the fluid turns yellow-thats bad.

 

I have the OEM replacement thermostat sitting on the shelf in my garage, was in the car 2 months, give or take a week, and no difference with the bigger one installed. I just did an ac bypass pulley, because I found out my ac compressor was half seized when I heard it grinding, system has been empty since I bought it, so no harm there.


I asked if AutoZone had the chem to put in rad to check for exhaust gasses and they thought me crazy, gonna order some online, even though no air bubbles coming out rad. I am thinking i might have gotten a defective water pump. I ran car at idle today and after about 45 minutes or so, the needle moved up to high, with primary fan cycling and secondary running non-stop off battery. I left in park whole time, and when i pick rpm up over 2k the needle went back down. Drop the rpm and gets hot again. Thinking the water pump might be defective, but doesn't sound like its shot.


I do appreciate all the help here, you guys are awesome. It might be a while before i get the time and money to tear out the water pump, so any suggestions in the mean time are appreciated. I hope it aint the pump, but wouldn't be the first time I've gotten defective parts from stores.

 

Do you happen to know the name of the tool or a part number? Is it used on rad fluid or somewhere else? Might be worth a shot.

 

Don't mess with those chemical based testers. Just get a compression tester and get real cylinder-wise results. Just make sure to disconnect the distributor connectors before cranking to disable spark.

 

X2. Books have been written (Hi howdy, um, trying to decide if I should pull the head) and the bottom line is that chemical block tests aren't conclusive and even a compression test might not pinpoint the problem. A leak down test is the only dead-reliable way to diagnose a leaking HG.

 

HALF PAST
When you asked him if the temp hand rose slowly or if it rose steadily then went to red instantly what would that be an indication of? I have a post on the forum about my car doing this and I cant for the LIFE Of me figure out what it is

 

It's hard to go through all the options, but if it overheats in traffic, but cools down then moving, usually I've seen it be a bad fan sensor. That temp increase is a steady rise when stopped. Thermostat failures cause overheat regardless of wether you are driving or stopped.

Rapid sudden temp rise could point to a gauge issue, a shorted temp sensor or bad gauge.

When in the business we had a lot of people come into the shop with a "high", but still in the normal range temp, usually in the spring when windows are down and a/c was off. No issue here, but folks weren't use to seeing temp at the top of normal range because in the cold weather it stayed down near the lower part I normal.

 

I ended up breaking the motor down, and found a problem. One of the head bolts was loose and part of the head gasket in that same area was shot. Guess whoever torqued the head didn't oil the head bolts and washers, lol. It is back together with a few mods and been running great. I don't know why it passed the tester when the radiator was bubbling bad, maybe because super lean, also fixed... But it is running great, and this weekend addressing the other issues I'm having. Thanks a lot guys.

 

Head bolt internal threads should be chased, cleaned w/ air blast into each hole, and bolt threads lubed w/ light coating of oil.

Hard to understand how someone would go to the trouble of performing a head gasket and not tighten the bolts in sequence carefully.

good luck

 

Update, sry took so long to get back and thank each of you for your help.

Ok, I had a referral from a friend to have this guy fix my head and they fixed the overheating problem, but something is still not right. Before the R & R of the head, the engine was strong, but overheating. After the head replacement, the car is not overheating, but has no power, as if its limited or held-back. Its a compression issue combined with a timing issue I believe. The timing was off by 6 degrees and got readjusted at the Distributor.
Anyone on here near Camarillo?