97 Cobra OVERHEATING! HELP!

[YUNG VEEZU]

Hey guys, I posted a topic last week about my car not starting, and now it lead to her Overheating. I'm at a loss. I have no idea whats wrong with her. Ill start with the story:

Two weeks ago I put in a brand new radiator, radiator hoses, clamps and thermostat. Properly flushed/ filled and she ran fine for those two weeks. Now recently (twice) she had trouble starting. I had to give it a little gas to start. On Friday she overheated randomly after a 10-minute drive to the grocery store. The coolant spilled from the cap and the cap only. So talked to my old friends work are good techs, they suggested I didn't "burp" the system properly and get a new cap.

So I let her run with the cap off and got the air bubbles out. Replaced the cap. I also took her to a shop and they did a block test and said she has early signs of a blown head gasket (however no milky oil, no smoke). The only symptom is that there's a hint of exhaust fumes in the coolant tank. They also wanted $2500 to do a head gasket repair which I respectfully declined.

Now today, coming home from a 10 minute drive, I saw the gauge go all the way up to HIGH, looked in my side mirror and saw a small trail of coolant. I was already home so I pulled into the driveway, and there was coolant all over the cap AGAIN. So This time I filled her up from the cross over tube (with a funnel taped) and "burped" her again. Using this method: http://reischeperformance.com/refill.html

There were some air bubbles but after 10 minutes I closed her back up again. Waited an hour and drove her to the gas station, she ran fine. Drove her back home in 10 minutes fine. I'm at a loss. Any help/tips is appreciated

Her info: 97 Cobra / 113xxx miles - Short shifter, SLP Mufflers, everything else is bone stock

 

[MustangChris]

so, if you dont fill it from the cross over tube, you're only filling half the system (the over-flow side).

You'd have to wait until your thremostat opened before the fluid would fully circulate the system...

That being said, if you only filled from the overflow tank when you did the flush two weeks ago, you may have overheated the heads or something (I'm not an expert on coolant flow passages) causing the head gasket to come into question.

if you filled (this time) both the cross over tube AND the over flow tank, while squeezing the hoses, with the front end jacked up, etc. etc., you've got a much better shot at removing all the air from the system.

did you replace the cap with an OEM unit. When I did mine I didnt skimp, I went to ford and busted out the extra dough for the OEM unit.

 

[YUNG VEEZU]

so, if you dont fill it from the cross over tube, you're only filling half the system (the over-flow side).

You'd have to wait until your thremostat opened before the fluid would fully circulate the system...

That being said, if you only filled from the overflow tank when you did the flush two weeks ago, you may have overheated the heads or something (I'm not an expert on coolant flow passages) causing the head gasket to come into question.

if you filled (this time) both the cross over tube AND the over flow tank, while squeezing the hoses, with the front end jacked up, etc. etc., you've got a much better shot at removing all the air from the system.

did you replace the cap with an OEM unit. When I did mine I didnt skimp, I went to ford and busted out the extra dough for the OEM unit.

Right now I'm waiting for her to cool down, I'm going to open the cross over tube and fill her to the top. And no....I didn't use an OEM cap, I bought one off the local auto parts....but it says 16 PSI.......

 

[MustangChris]

i'd try and take it back...

let us know if you the problem solved once you check the cross over (and over flow) again after it cools....

i had a similar problem on my cobra before I realized what i had done. lol.

 

[YUNG VEEZU]

Ill update in a few days....or if she overheats again (hope she doesnt). Btw where can I find OEM style caps? Latemodelresto and American Muscle don't have them

 

[Steven]

Head gaskets leaking. Pushing air into the system, and subsequently making it low. Ask me how I know. Go on, ask me!


Okay okay I'll divulge. My beautiful specimen of a vehicle decided to do something eerily similar to your car. It was in it's last death throws of dismantling it's head gasket over a period of about two months. Drove it like that till it finally got to be to bad. Then proceeded to make it rain on it's engine bay like I was Lil Wayne and it was my hoe.

 

[YUNG VEEZU]

Head gaskets leaking. Pushing air into the system, and subsequently making it low. Ask me how I know. Go on, ask me!


Okay okay I'll divulge. My beautiful specimen of a vehicle decided to do something eerily similar to your car. It was in it's last death throws of dismantling it's head gasket over a period of about two months. Drove it like that till it finally got to be to bad. Then proceeded to make it rain on it's engine bay like I was Lil Wayne and it was my hoe.

You didn't have any white smoke/ milky oil/ exhaust smell in the tank?

 

[Steven]

You didn't have any white smoke/ milky oil/ exhaust smell in the tank?

White smoke out the back. After a while when I started it up, it was deadly obvious it was loaded up on coolant in a cylinder. I'd clear the car out, it'd run fine. There was exhaust gas in the cooling system. I had to burp it/fill it every two weeks or so.

 

[atlanticblue98]

Same thing mine did. You could see where the headgasket let go once the heads were off

 

[YUNG VEEZU]

Just an update, drove her this morning and she ran fine but the low coolant sensor light came on, even though shes topped off

 

[YUNG VEEZU]

Another update, shes not overheating, but now I can see the white smoke coming from both tailpipes! Mostly on the left one. Looks like that head gasket change is in order! I have some knowledge but at no means an expert when it comes to taking the intake/heads off. Is this doable with basic hand tools and in my garage at home? Few years ago I paid a friend of mine $600 to do my old Foxbody's head gaskets but right now I don't have the money.

 

[MustangChris]

yes and no.


you can do the dis-assembly at home with hand tools and a floor jack.

you can-not properly deck the heads at home (although some say you can, I wouldnt suggest doing the "at home" way on a set of 32v cobra heads.)

you should also look into pricing out new timing chains and tensioners.

 

[YUNG VEEZU]

yes and no.


you can do the dis-assembly at home with hand tools and a floor jack.

you can-not properly deck the heads at home (although some say you can, I wouldnt suggest doing the "at home" way on a set of 32v cobra heads.)

you should also look into pricing out new timing chains and tensioners.

Damn. My cousin told me this was the perfect time to put mods into her because since she needs to be taken apart. But I don't have the money! Looks like I have to do some shopping around now

 

[MustangChris]

yea. you can mod it out. everything from valve followers to headers to a modified intake manifold could be added during this...

 

[YUNG VEEZU]

It's been a few weeks, my mechanic told me to use "Blue Devil" Head Gasket sealer for a temporary fix. Anyone have any experience with this? I have the bottle ready but it basically says flush cooling system, fill with water/additive, run idle for an hour.