Stupid car... some diagnostic help?

[Safir]

1994 9C1 Caprice, LT1 - ~213K miles two issues, may or may not be related...

tuesday night we drove from exton to King of prussia, and as we pulled into the lot the power steering cut out. Park the car, go into best buy, when we come out it works fine.

wednesday afternoon SL1girl calls me and tells me that the car started to get warm and then started leaking LOTS of coolant. she pulled into a lot and shut it off immediately. she reports the power stering cut out again as she was pulling into the lot. I brought her some water and filled it back up (took a gallon + of water) she drove it home while i followed her, with the power steering working. as we approached our complex LOTS of steam came from under the hood, and a big puddle of water formed under the car. P/S cut out again, and she pulled it into the complex' lot and shut it down. I popped the hood, and the top and front of the engine are dry, the radiator is dry, but the passenger side of the block, and all the hoses down there are dripping water. driver's side fo the engine bay is clean and dry.

the coolant issue is obviously #1 priority to me, and i think that the P/S may be linked to any extra heat buildup due to the coolant issue, so it may go away on it's own if we fix that. The two best theories i've heard so far are a toasted rad cap, or a plugged radiator. it seems that it dumps coolant when it gets warm enough to open the thermostat, but I haven't actually been in teh car when it's happened. I'm assuming it is nto the radiator hoses, as it has "lifetime" silicon hoses as part of the 9C1 package.

with a new rad running $300, i'm open to any other ideas that make sense, or any personal experience with LT1 coolant leaks of this magnatude.

[2point4DSM]

How about a thermostat that gets stuck half way.

[the mike]

Leaking heater hose perhaps? I know the Caprice hoses run along the passenger side of the engine bay.
Maybe snap a quick phone pic(or camera:)) of the general area where it is leaking. I would hate to think that a freeze plug popped.

You might only be leaking when the pressure is great enough to push coolant through a hole in something, thus it only doing it when it is hot.

[Safir]

the heater hoses run on the top side of the engine on the passenger side, and ar aslo silicon, and dry.

it better not be a borked freeze plug or else i'll be pissed.. don't feel like taking the motor out unless i've got new heads/cam to put in it already ;)

[Twincharged]

Alot of times as the engine looses power or running low RPMs the PS will cut out.

[blkbomber01]

check underneath the waterpump... theres a little "seep" or "weep" hole and when the pump goes bad it will start coming out of there. then as you get hotter the waterpump starts to expand and the gasket cant hold the coolant back. that might be part of the ps problem too, coolant leaking onto the belt will make it slip like crazy

[Safir]

the water pump is dry - the weep holes wer the first thing i checked... the entire front of the motor is dry, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you look at it, i guess)

I fixed the saturn, so she has somethign to drive, and i haven't looked at teh caprice in a few days... I don't have the money to fix it anyway right now, especially if i have to guess what's wrong.

[teh DIRT]

headgasket? if the fluid is coming out the side of the engine that would be my bet

[Safir]

i hope not - i reall don't have the time or money to pull ANOTHER motor...

why is it i'm always pulling motors out in the winter? GRR

lets see... headwork/cam - $1600

T56 kit $1,495
clutch $500
flywheel $225
T56 $2000

"extras" $500-ish

may as well only pull it once 'eh? ;)

now anyone wanna give me $6500? ;)

for serious though - i might have to recind my offer to borrow my engine stand ;) Ill check the oil the next time i'm out there to see if there's any coolant in it.. it did seem to be smoking an awful lot from that bank while i was following her (horay for true dual exhaust - w00t)

[On Sale]

im learning about steering and suspension right now at school, i just finished my class on it this week. Here is , from what i learned, could be ur PS problem.

When the PS cuts out, obviously your losing pressure. Loosing pressure is cause by a few things. One, leaking seals in the pump. Two, The Fluid return/suction hose is kinked, when you turn the wheel, maybe it gets stuck on something? although the lines arnt near any suspension or parts that are involved in turning. Remember, a PS pump delivers anywhere from 150psi, to almost 1400psi. and some put out even more then that (mostly light/heavy trucks, but some cars).

Do these following tests.

Squeeze both the return hose's (High and low Pressure). The low pressure house should feel a little bit softer then the High pressure hose. But neither of them should feel "spongy". If they squeeze "too much", use common judgement, they need to be replaced, as they cant produce enough pressure because basically in a sense, they have "expanded" . So check them, and make sure they are nice and stiff.

Re-bleed the PS lines, trapped air pockets , could be the cause. When the wheel is turned, all the way, it produces more pressure (almost 1400 psi), thus moving those air bubbles through the lines, and cutting out the PS.

The "Pinky" Test , which is taking the cap off the PS Fluid resoviour and sticking ur pinky in there. Look at the fluid on your finger. If it is a grayish , that means that the grooves inside the housing by the teflon sealing rings of the spool (control) valve are worn down. When it wears down, the seals go bad, and aluminum particles become suspended in the PS fluid and give it a "grayish" color. This would cause the seals to leak, dropping pressure, maybe not alot, but when u turn, and hit the stops (full lock of the wheel), or come close to it... the pressure shoots up, and the seals could start to leak, and cause it to not have enough pressure to complete the turn.

Good clean PS fluid should be a clearish/ red color.

FYI:I also reccommend Dexron III PS Fluid for your car. If you use normal, or every day PS fluid that isnt Dexron III, it will harm the seals and rings set inside the PS pump to work only with the dexron PS fluid.

[Safir]

On a whim, i pulled the thermostat today and threw it in a pot of boiling water - guess what.. it didn't open.

I wonder if a replacement thermostat is all I need to get back on the road - I doubt it'd be that easy.

[1988 Olds]

Its worth a shot. I know a thermo for my car is like 10 bucks.

[2point4DSM]

Unfortunately, I have a feeling the power steering cut out cause the motor was losing compression due to overheating.

Hopefully, the headgasket sealed back up again but if that is the case then you can never push this motor again without thinking about a new gasket in the near future. Otherwise, it will just keep losing power.

[Safir]

Don't worry - if the car keeps running new headgaskets are in it's future wether or not they're bad :wink: :devil: :banana: :drag:

[05OCsrt-4]

go to a shop and have them pressure test the cooling system to find the exact leak, so u don't waste money on the wrong parts