So I have a 2000 sedan with the 2200 and it's been having a bit of an overheating issue. It's typically goes just above mid temp so I normally don't worry about it. Today, the check engine light turned on and the engine's temp. kept going much higher than normal.
It seems that when i'm on the gas a little bit, the meter will run lower and say that it's not as hot, but when i'm at a steady speed, fast or slow, it will climb higher and higher. It even hit the red mark a few times tonight.
I'm not noticing anything else other than the sweet smell of coolant when I get out of the car after driving it. I check all over and I can't seem to find any leaks anywhere and there certainly isn't any evidence on my garage floor. Is the coolant burning somewhere in the engine??
-Markus
2002 Yellow Cavalier LS Sport *SOLD*
2000 White Cavalier Sedan
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If you can't find any leaks on the outside, it might be the dreaded head gasket causing the engine to burn coolant, pull your dipstick and see if there is coolant in it.....will be milky foamy substance on the oil. These engines are great but if they overheat, the head gaskets will go out.
So the overheating feels random, but I have no way of really knowing. I took some photos and it appears as though I may be having a head gasket issue.
Engine
Closer look
Sure looks like something's leaking to me!
I pulled out the dipstick for a closer look and something's odd. Is there too much oil in the car?? That and why is it so clear? I had to really look up close to see it.
Couple more shots of the engine.
-Markus
2002 Yellow Cavalier LS Sport *SOLD*
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Look at the corner of the engine where the head and the block mates up below where the upper radiator hose connects to the cross over tube. Is there any pinkish or tan-ish to almost while crusties there on that corner? If so, replace your head gasket. That is a common failure spot on that engine. Again, when standing in front of the car, it would be the corner of the head closest to you on the right. I couldn't tell by your pictures, so I cannot help you there. Maybe if you put a couple more pictures up, I would be able to get a better look. As far as your oil is concerned, it looks good to me. On that specific engine though, I would be more concerned with an external leak than internal. The problem is, until it gets really bad, the coolant will burn off before it hits the ground.
Some people have brain storms, others light drizzles. And then there are those that have droughts.
The pics you have around the head look like and oil leak from the valve cover gasket there. oil in the spark plug wells is a common ordeal for these motor I have noticed.
With the level on the dipstick being so over the max mark it would lead me to think that the headgasket is gone. As confirmation I would do a compression test.
Get the felpro kit along with the head bolt set. You will have to get the intake rubber seal seperate, valve cover rubber seal and the coolant o ring for the crossover pipe since neither comes in the kit. The coolant oring will need to come from the dealer. The felpro kit is a mls headgasket so thats nice. Also do not take off the mounting plate for the coil packs. I could not find that gasket to save my life locally and had to resort to using copper spray and reusing the old gasket. Also get some copper spray to use as you can never be to safe when doing projects like this.
If you do tear into yourself make sure to mark your pushrods and rockers so you dont put them into another spot. Nothing major should happen if you dont but its just something I do since I am a bit anal about that type of stuff. Rather be safe than sorry.
I'd say head gasket just because of the dipstick. It's clear because the water from the coolant/water mixed in with the oil causing it to rise and clear out(guessing there is more water then coolant in the mix). Change your oil right away if you plan on driving it still, although I wouldn't recommend it.
The oil all over your engine from the pics seems like you also have a valve cover gasket also which is really not a big deal besides the leaking oil.
Thanks for the advice! Should i be more concerned about the oil in the spark plug wells?
-Markus
2002 Yellow Cavalier LS Sport *SOLD*
2000 White Cavalier Sedan
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If there was coolant in your oil, regardless of what type, your oil would look like a thick chocolate milk. It looks to me as if you either checked the oil while the car was running or right after you shut it off. That is either extremely clean oil, or you have nothing but coolant in the crank case. The third option would be htat you just plain overfilled the crank case when you changed the oil.
Are you getting any white smoke out the tail pipe? I have only seen one time in my entire career as a GM tech where the head gasket on a 2200 let go internally. Nut that one let go into the combustion chamber and not the crank case. Not to say it's not impossible, but I personally have never seen it. All the other head gaskets I have seen let go where I described yesterday. However, after looking at you pics again, it looks to me as if someone has done some work on this engine before. The gasket mating surface where I described is clean and the exhaust manifold gasket looks fairly new and not stock.
Stick the oil after the car has been off for about 10 minutes. Wipe the stick clean and stick again. This will give you a true leve reading. If it looks like chocolate milk, then you have a problem. If it is a normal level, then I would recommend doing a compression check and a cylinder leakdown test.
One question no one has even asked, and maybe I missed it somewhere, but are you even losing coolant?
Some people have brain storms, others light drizzles. And then there are those that have droughts.
I'm not sure if I'm losing coolant or not, how would I be able to tell? If someone were to overfill the crank case, would it really be causing these issues, though? I looked at that corner and couldn't tell if there was any substance there. I want to say no, but I'll check again.
-Markus
2002 Yellow Cavalier LS Sport *SOLD*
2000 White Cavalier Sedan
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I will also add you should check the water pump,if it is leaking or almost shot it will not flow water as it should be,Also could be a cloged rad..To check the water pump just look down past your alternater and see if it looks wet around it,you may need a flash light to see it..And to check the rad with the car running make sure when the car is running at the proper temp check both rad hoses and make sure they are hot,if they are you should be ok,If not it could be rad or thermostat...Just throwing it out there,But I know the head gasket is a issue on these motors.
If he oil were over filled, it wouldn't cause an over heating issue. However, it doesn't look like you have coolant in your oil or your oil would look like thick chocolate milk. I looked at your pictures again and didn't see any kind of external head gasket leak. To tell if your losing coolant or not would be easy, Do you have to keep filling it up? If so, you're losing it somewhere. And if so, are you seeing any pink-ish orange puddles under the car when it sits for a bit? If so, what part of the engine is the puddle under? Do you see a white smoke coming out the tail pipe, especially when driving and the engine is under load? Have you purged all the air out of the cooling system? For the amature tech, it is a bit of a difficult task. Not because you don't know how, that is the easy part. The hard part is knowing when the cooling system is completely purged of air. I recommend going to a GM dealership and aking them to print off the proper cooling system bleed procedures for your engine. Let me know your answers to the questions I asked. I can help you better from there than I can taking wild guesses on every possibility imaginable.
Some people have brain storms, others light drizzles. And then there are those that have droughts.
I boobooed. Apparently that's not the oil, it's the trans fluid. Looked like the right piece to me.
The shop (where we bought the car) will no longer work on it, they're crooks and as soon as the @!#$ OWNER said "Oh you just gotta put water in it if it's overheating", i demanded my keys and stormed out.
-Markus
2002 Yellow Cavalier LS Sport *SOLD*
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Make sure the fan comes on. What's the cel on for?
If your not loosing coolant the thermostat can stick. Even new thermostats.
One way to check if its burning coolant is to pull the plugs and check for a wet cylinder, it's easier if you can pressurize the system also.
13.3 @ 106 mph Cammed
I decided to recheck the fluids and was astonished. One, there was NO oil showing up on the dipstick and two, the cap for the coolant was loose, so I know it was having trouble pressurizing. So I went to good ole Pepboys, got some orange coolant and a few quarts of Mobil 1 High Mileage Synthetic oil. Added a couple quarts of oil and made sure the coolant levels were good. Tested it out and still no dice. I broke down and had a complete inspection at the dealer. Of course by then the CEL turned off. They checked everything and they did a block test and found out that it was in fact the head gasket. Then as soon as I get home, the CEL turns back on. Lovely.
I'm going to call around tomorrow to see who has the best prices for a head gasket. Are there any good ones online? Is the physical gasket all I need or are there more parts I should replace along with it?
-Markus
2002 Yellow Cavalier LS Sport *SOLD*
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If your car was running on mineral oil and you added synthetic you may end up with a sludge. Most synthetics are not compatible with mineral oil. When a cilinder head has overheated it often bends a litle so it is convenient to have it checked to be level at a machine shop if it isnīt they can fix it shaving a mm of it. Then you can put it back with the new gasket FYI if they shave more than 1 mm you may need a thiker gasket.
Good luck.
That's what they were saying at the dealership. It was $150 to shave it, $300+ to replace it. I'm not even driving it anymore, I have it sitting in my garage.
-Markus
2002 Yellow Cavalier LS Sport *SOLD*
2000 White Cavalier Sedan
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So I took the car in today to pick up parts for this. As soon as I got it back in my garage, the oil light blinked a few times. Any ideas? It barely overheated when I drove it.
-Markus
2002 Yellow Cavalier LS Sport *SOLD*
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Try rockauto.com
Checkthe oil level.
What's barely overheated? In the Red?
13.3 @ 106 mph Cammed
"Barely overheated" meant when I last drove it, it barely went over the halfway point. It stayed about where it should be.
-Markus
2002 Yellow Cavalier LS Sport *SOLD*
2000 White Cavalier Sedan
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Sucks that the shop did you that way especially if they knew it was overheating [im guessing they did because they said you just had to add water] sounds like a bunch of idiots and your better off getting your cars worked on some other place. im just curious tho how many mile is on the motor?
So I got everything apart and I figured out why the car was overheating. The head gasket that was in there was fairly new and it was a Fel-pro, but, someone had punched holes in it with a phillips heads screwdriver and the entire gasket was wet. On top of that, literally everything was finger @!#$ tight. Looks like my case against this shop is becoming more and more solid. Now they've committed fraud and possible harm and danger towards us. I'll post pics later. You guys HAVE to see this.
-Markus
2002 Yellow Cavalier LS Sport *SOLD*
2000 White Cavalier Sedan
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*UPDATE*
Got to the head gasket. Fairly new fel-pro gasket was there with a couple of the water port holes punched in with a philips heads. Yeah not too bright. The entire gasket was wet.
Took all the necessary steps to replace the gasket. Head was fine, no warping or cracks. Everything is tight and torqued correctly. Put it all back together. New oil, oil filter, and coolant. Bled the coolant system.
Still overheating. @!#$.
So now I'm down to thermostat, radiator, and why the hell not? coolant reservoir cap. The fan seems to kick on at about 205*-210*. Is it possible that the wrong or a faulty thermostat is in place? Nothing kicks on at 195* like it's suppose to. Could the cap for the coolant just not be pressurizing properly? There's LOTS of reason to believe that this thing was in a big accident at one point in time. Could the radiator be messed up? Maybe theres a clog to the radiator core or something?
I'm open to suggestions, guys. A part of me would just rather burn this turd to the ground.
-Markus
2002 Yellow Cavalier LS Sport *SOLD*
2000 White Cavalier Sedan
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Check the thermostat, easy cheap fix, same with the cap too
