4G64 Galant - Overheating

[BigMike4G64]

My wife was driving yesterday and the car shut off on her...the temp gauge was on H, now i find that odd, since the temp gauge has been on C for almost 2 years...(stuck down there after I put s7 gauges in). She said the car was burning antifreeze up like no tomorrow....now i have gotten a few ideas of what this could be..water pump or thermostat. she told me that the fans still runs, but the reservoir cap was completed melted away. I'm hoping to GOD that it's not the water pump, but it might be because the mechanic DIDN'T change it when i got my timing belt changed. If that is the case, my car will be sitting in NJ until I can get it fixed....and bring it back to NY..

Any suggestions guys....i need some help please!

[2point4DSM]

Sorry about the bad news. Although I'm sure you won't like what I have to say either.

There are several reasons why the car could have overheated. 99% of the time it is because one of the coolant hoses sprung a leak or the thermostat was stuck close due to age or whatever.

Once the motor over-heated the head warped and the headgasket blew. A blown headgasket lets coolant into the combustion chamber and is then blown out the exhaust as white smoke. Can you confirm the car was blowing white smoke out the exhaust at one point?

After the motor shut off it more than likely started to smoke from around the engine bay as well.

When a car shuts off because it overheated you can pretty much bet the headgasket is gone. And also very likely the head and maybe the block is warped beyond repair. At this point you need to look into the possibility of swapping out the motor which will be the quick way to fix this problem.

Or let a shop take the head off, get it checked at a machine shop which can take up to a month depending on the quality of the machine shop, check the block and then replace the headgasket if all else is fine. After they put the motor back together they will then need to figure out what caused the failure to begin with if they haven't already figured it out already.

Make sure to take it to a good shop you trust for this one.

Good luck with everything.

[2point4DSM]

Btw, I've seen this happen plenty of times.

This also happened to my in-laws car on their way to the Jersey shore when I still lived up in the Boston area.

They brought it to a shop at the shore that proceeded to replace all hoses, a waterpump, and radiator, filled it up with coolant and sent them on their way.

The motor subsequently died a short time later.

Why? Because the shop didn't fix the problem.

Sometimes when a motor blows a headgasket it tries to seal back up after it cools down. Sometimes it will have no compression left at all. Problem is for cars that don't show any obvious signs of a blown headgasket is that it will continue to leak coolant slowly till it loses enough of it again to overheat. In the meantime coolant is usually mixing with engine oil which subsequently is really good at eating bearings.

So the possibility that your car didn't blow a headgasket is very unlikely.

[BigMike4G64]

Thanks for the advice...here is my post from anther board showing the melted reservoir and the final solution

My wife went to jersey thursday, and the car shut off on her...so i got some insightd from fellow members and come to find out, it was the thermostat. **** was stuck shut...but here are some pics of the resevoir, after the car melted it

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v174/GreenEyes711/TGC/IMG_1423.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v174/GreenEyes711/TGC/IMG_1424.jpg

So my boys came out to jersey to help me and my wife out on friday...but due to lack of daylight and not the right tools, we ended up only takin the battery off...

Today, My boy Jaydee came back out and helped me replace the thermostat...here is the new reservoir and the zip tied hose to fix the problem

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v174/GreenEyes711/TGC/IMG_1422.jpg

And yes, I know my car is dirty....inside and out...