I noticed the temp gauge was at 235 yesterday on my way home from school. I thought there was something wrong with the gauge and I just drove it home the last few blocks. I forgot to check it today and only came a few blocks and I glansed down on the gauge and saw 230 again. I thought, crap something is really wrong. I opened the hood and spat on the front of the engine, it fried right up. The water tank was empty, and I took it back to a gas station just up the road. I filled up the water tank and restarted it, the water didn't go away into the radiator, and the temp was the same. I then opened the radiator cap, and the radiator was empty. I filled it up and the temp came down to 170. There's a small leak from under the timing cover of water dripping out, and every two weeks I'll have to fill up the water tank. The car had been sitting for four weeks, since I had been back to Sweden, and I didn't think about the water dripping out. I had taken the car to school and back yesterday, and drove it a little bit today before I noticed the temp. What kind of damage can occur from this and is there anything I should check? The car seems to run fine, and the temp has been steady at 170/180 every since I filled it up. ???
As long as it seems to run fine and you don't notice any more leaks or water in the oil or anything you should be fine. Any major damage caused by the overheating such as cracked heads should reveal themselves rather quickly.
If it is still running without cracking the block or anything else Steve mentioned, you probably lucked out. Keep an eye on it, and fix that leak.
I can't believe you still have an engine block after that. Sort of like the fake car care tip I read once that said "Oil is a precious resource, so make sure you have used up every drop in your engine before you add more..." :spank:
The car is still leaking from under the plate that sits in the front on the engine where the rod for the fan sticks out. I'm off to autozone to order a gasket, and then I'll take it apart and see what's going on under there. It seems to be loosing quite a bit of water from under there, so hopefully there's nothing major going on. The oil still looks fine, it just needs a top off.
Someone in the neighborhood is selling a 70' 455 oilpan to aircleaner for 200$. I'll write that number down just in case... Fingers crossed I won't have to use it. o No:
Over Heating Over heating a engine full of coolant no damage, over heating no coolant Very Dangerous!!!! AL.
And don't even think about using that Stop Leak copper stuff as a temporary fix. Do it right and save yourself the headache later. An original :TU: big block Buick engine is a terrible thing to waste.
I went to Autozone to get a new gasket for the plate where the water is coming from. That's where I learned where the water pump is located, the guy in the store took one out and showed me a little hole that sits underneath the shaft for the fan. This was som kind of hole that was normally sealed from the inside and could become a leaking problem. I picked up a new low quality most likely made by Chinese children pump for 12.99$. I'll stick my nose in there today and see what is going on. I only got water in my radiator so the news about having to keep coolant in there in a situation like this wasn't too good.
Thats the weep hole, it allows water that gets behind the shaft seal to drain. Sounds like your pump seal is totally gone if its leaking that much, but I wouldn't expect that cheap pump seal to last too long either.
I got the new pump installed this morning, it's always interesting to try something new, and it wasn't tricky at all. I happened to snap a bolthead on the top left bolt, and it's now stuck, any suggestions? I put everything back together and it was of course leaking from that area. I took it for a spin and the water level seemed to be ok, and with one eye on the temp gauge I even made it to the junk yard. It was half price, but nothing in there except a set of 15*7 rallyes on a wagon. They were 5$ a piece, but they were rusted too bad. Arrrgghhh... I want to get two of those wider ones for the rear some day.
When I've broken a bolt there, I removed the pump (and timing cover if need be) and pulled it out with vice-grips. Then bought a new bolt. Those bolts are easy to break. Also, make sure you seal them well when you put it back together.
Did the Centurians come equipped with the STOP idiot light like the Electras? If they did, and yours is working, then you probably are okay. The STOP light is wired to a temp sensor in the driver side head and only comes on if the the head itself starts to get too hot. At least that is how its supposed to work.
it's connected, but who knows if it works or not? Maybe I should put the tip of the soldering iron on the contact and see if something happens.
If you still have some threads visible on the bolt that broke, you could use a nut that bolts on it and weld (if you have a mig welder) the broken tip of the bolt to the threads of the nut. I did that to 3 bolts that broke on my Wildcat when I replaced the water pump and they went out easily after that without any damage to the aluminium cover. The heat from the weld probably helped too.
All the 1969 to 1974 full size cars with 430-455 engines have a stop light. I ran my 68 Wildcat without water (blown head gasket) on a hot day when I was 16 and it was so hot that it stalled on a stop. I didn't know what happened but I was finally able to restart it after a few minutes of cranking it. It idled poorly and stopped again just a few feet after I engageed it in drive. I was able to restart it, and I floored the accelerator in neutral ou:, then I went back to school (from lunch) with the right foot on the gas and the left foot on the brake when needed! When I left school at 4:00, I looked at the rad and it was empty :eek2:. I went back in the school and had an empty gallon of windshield washer filled with water then I came back home without the radiator cap on it to avoid getting more water in the engine with the pressure. I had the head gaskets replaced and it went fine for a few more years. Eventually, I had to have the bottom end rebuilt and heads repaired as they had small cracks near the rocker shafts but I don't know if it was related to this overheating and coolant in the oil 6 years before or if it was just normal wear. In 1968, engines didn't have a "stop engine" light (they had a cold light instead) but the hot light never came on (because there was no water in the intake or because it simply didn't work). Sine the "stop engine" light measures the heads temperature, having no water wouldn't probably affect it if it still works. The 430 I had in my 68 Wildcat still runs and is curently installed in a 65 Skylark (the high mileage non switch pitch 400 tranny from my Wildcat and the oil pan from my 1976 Electra are in it too!). I heard that the new owner replaced the cam as well as the carb and intake and he does the 1/4 mile in less than 10 seconds with it. I haven't seen it yet!
