acutee

My cousin's car got overheated by his girlfriend. Amazingly she got it home. Everything is dried, killed radiator, cap popped, reservoir melted. Replaced radiator, and it runs for couple days, and now head gasket is toast. white smoke, and this time overheating shuts down the engine; how it didn't shutdown in the first place was amazing, like driving without coolant for at least 30miles.

The question is what do we need to fix and how soon do we have to fix it (thinking of futher corrosion damage)? will coolant causes corrosion and damage the engine? Will other seals need to be replaced? or should we better off rebuild the whole engine?

Any suggestion is appreciated.

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

Well you can certainly try replacing the head gasket and then doing a compression check, but based on the story you told, that engine is FUBAR.

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

Oh and obviously I wouldn't even try to start the engine again until you replace the head gasket.

Are you planning to do the repairs?

MurdaZ

iTrader: (1)

coolant wont cause corrosion so nothing to worry, i would change the headgasket(s) and just make sure no coolant is in the thread holes if your doing it urself, best way to get rid of all access is with an air hose, if not done, and putting the bolts back on, you risk hydrolocking which can damage the head and bolts more...also do an oil change. coolant went into the oil galleries, and contaminated the oil.

also some good measures is to check the head and block to see if its warped, use a straight flat bar across the block and head, and with a feeler gauge to see if its leveled or not in various areas...service manual would be a help. if its not level, you may have to deck the block or new heads....it sounds like the engine is pretty much done, but if the head/block are in spec, its worth trying to see if a head gasket can fix it.

01tl4tl

you dont say what type engine, but in general-
if you have an engine stop running due to severe overheating- after its had a series of severe overheating and a new radiator...--melting things would indicate severe heat inside and out...

that thing is a 600 pound paperweight!
Dont even bother pulling anything apart

Is there any oil left? or is it way past full and frothy brown?
It will have done triple duty trying to cool the engine and may have glazed itself thruout the system
That would mean burnt everything inside =swollen- siezed parts = engine stops running

If you really want to know how bad it is:
Take a 4 oz oil sample and send to www.blackstone-labs.com
for 25 bucks they will tell you what exactly is in the oil- and what doesnt belong- what indicates failure looming

White smoke from exhaust in this situation is coolant going into the cylinder head thru a head gasket leak, one or more pistons will be shiny clean from the steam cleaning!- and there is often rod bearing damage from the extra combustion pressure in that cylinder with water.
Have to check all the valves carefully- at a machine shop

If this were my car and I really loved it- get a junkyard motor, drop it in and drive.
That will last longer than anything you do to the present motor with its heat damamge
thats IMO based on working on cars a long time,, and not seeing this car in person,,
Perhaps if you moved the modem closer to the car and tried to start it???

totaledTL

How old is it? What is the condition otherwise? Blue book value? $$ still owed on it? Consider this & more before repairs- is it worth it-

01tl4tl

acutee:
Do I understand the radiator cap popped off the radiator? was blown off with force??
The whole attachment sleeve or just the cap or ??
That would indicate huge amount of compression pressure went from the cylinder head back into the coolant lines- from blown head gasket
Figure thats caused some real damage too!!

Any idea what caused the original overheat? water pump failed? wp belt broken?

acutee

Thank you for your suggestions guys. I can only help him with small stuffs, but this task is ways over me. I will take your suggestions and forward it to him to decide. It sounds like a big job to tackle and more likely is this is the tasks for the shop to do.

Rockstar21

iTrader: (1)

buy another engine for 500-700 bucks... probably with much less miles then yours

instead of spending 1k getting this one fixed...

acutee

It was 2003 tl-p 150k. It was just the radiator cap, not the radiator plastic part. the whole radiator is being clog with the white gelly thing. this white thing is every where inside engine block too. Oil looks okay. It looks like it is engine replacement time.

phee

iTrader: (5)

buy another engine from lkq. got mine for 380 bucks w 118k

MurdaZ

iTrader: (1)

like others stated, specially with mileage ur better off buying a new engine...mebbe a swap...what car/engine is it?

twistedwedge

Id just buy another engine...agree with the above posters. Even if you tear it all down and replace every gasket needed, there is no telling if the heads are warped or anything else is toast from the excessive heat.

acutee

It was hard to tell where the root cause started, could be wp, thermostat, clog radiator, the boiling coolant forced the radiator cap to shoot off, some broken part of it left in the radiator, the reservoir melted and fell off its mounted place, I am surprised it was that hot melting the reservoir. I wouldn't blame on the girl, just a normal driver. The strange thing was the overheating did not shutdown the engine. But after replacing the radiator, it ran for two days, got overheating again, but this time it shuts down the engine. I guess looking for an used engine is the best bet since the overheat could lead too many other problems such as seals, pumps, sensors, etc.

smartypants

Hi acutee :

Just as a side note, did you use any additives like seaform or rad treatment ?

I'd be interested to know.

P.S. - Engine swap seems the best option, make sure you get one that has the timing belt etc. done !

smartypants

acutee

No additives were used, just the oem coolant.

fsttyms1

If the radiator and hoses were gooped up with white stuff he had a head gasket leak or something else leaking where oil was getting to it. If it overheated that bad odds are the heads are warped or other damage has occurred internally. His cheapes bet would be to find a low mileage motor and have it swapped in.

01tl4tl

dont expect to find a used motor with timing belt already done-

Do expect to replace all the normal 100k service parts while the engine is on a workstand- not in the car yet

01tl4tl

engines try hard to keep alive- giving a few false days of hope after a partial repair

A radiator fixed a resulting symptom, but did not address the primamry cause of overheating so of course it blew up
If the wp isnt pumping----

seafoam did not cause a wp cooling system failure~

phee

iTrader: (5)

where you located? i have a tl-p engine for sale.