jras312 Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 A little back story since I'm new, I bought this 02 LGT limited about a month ago and I pulled the engine about a week after buying it to fix oil leaks and put new head gaskets on, as well as new timing belt and pulleys. I had the heads machined flat and checked the valve guides, put new VSS and cam seals. Now before I tore the engine out and did all this work I did notice on the drive home from buying the car the temp gauge started acting goofy and varying a lot, it wouldn't really creep towards the red, but the needle would not be real steady and would drop below the normal operating temp range. It's got a new temp sender and I have already checked the gauge itself by grounding a test lamp to the 12v reference wire at the sensor harness. When I ground the bulb the gauge reads all the way hot. And I'm assuming the ground is good because it shares a ground with the wire that feeds the ECU if I'm not mistaken. Right now 99% of the time the gauge is showing a MAX of right above 1/4 the way up to red. However, I was driving around town for about an hour the other night and all of the sudden the needle started to creep up and settle into normal operating range at just above the 1/2 mark. It stays that way and I pull into the garage and as soon as I turn the car off I hear the bubbling sound or whatever in the engine bay, pop the hood and the the overflow tank was overflowing and spilling out from the cap. There was coolant pretty much everywhere so I'm not sure if it may have been leaking from anywhere else but it looked like it was all from the overflow bottle spilling out. Did I put too much coolant in the system? Not sure if this incident is related to the gauge not working properly, but either way I need to get the cooling system working flawlessly so it can be a reliable car. Any help is greatly appreciated! EDIT: a couple of things to note about the condition of the car when I got it. -the radiator cap looks like it has been ground down on the underside of it, not sure if it wasn't the right cap and they tried to make it fit or what -the LID on the coolant overflow bottle had a hole punched in the middle of it, looked like to relieve pressure or something? -there were two resistors wire inline with the reference wire going from the temp sensor to the gauge, not sure if whoever put those in were trying to manipulate the gauge reading or what I have fixed all three of those issues, new rad cap and overflow lid and removed the resistors. Trying to get it back to stock as close as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RumbleRumble Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Air in the system from when you took the engine out? Did you get a new oem thermostat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jras312 Posted January 3, 2017 Author Share Posted January 3, 2017 Air in the system from when you took the engine out? Did you get a new oem thermostat? I just really think it has something to do with the gauge. The rad fans come on so that leads me to believe the thermostat is NOT stuck open. I have not replaced the thermostat yet, but went ahead and just ordered a new OEM unit to be safe since it was only $18. I bled the system pretty well for about 15 minutes when I got everything back together, I think if there was air in the system it would be running hot or am I mistaken on that? EDIT: Forgot to add that I'm smelling coolant every once in a while, but no signs of leaking (aside from when the overflow spilled out) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyRuu Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 have you replaced the temperature sensor on your coolant cross over yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jras312 Posted January 3, 2017 Author Share Posted January 3, 2017 Well I was just driving home on my lunch and the heater started not blowing as hot at idle so put some coolant in the overflow when I got home(there were only a couple inches of fluid already in the overflow) and the heater was blowing hot again at idle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyRuu Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 what does your coolant smell like, any chance you did any machine work to your deck before you put the new head gaskets on, or just the heads. most part stores have test strips that detect exhaust in the coolant. how do the hoses feel, top/bottom radiator hoses. there could be a clog in the system somewhere, most likely clog is the heater core, you can try bypassing it and see how it acts, but you wont have heat. are you running your heater while you are burping the system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jras312 Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 what does your coolant smell like, any chance you did any machine work to your deck before you put the new head gaskets on, or just the heads. most part stores have test strips that detect exhaust in the coolant. how do the hoses feel, top/bottom radiator hoses. there could be a clog in the system somewhere, most likely clog is the heater core, you can try bypassing it and see how it acts, but you wont have heat. are you running your heater while you are burping the system? coolant smells normal from what I can tell, the classic 'sweet' smell. no work was done to the block. just the heads. was that a mistake? the upper rad hose is hot and the lower is cold, at least last time I checked. EDIT: I don't know if it's relevant or not, but the engine seems to have pretty bad piston slap. It gets MUCH quieter after the engine has been running for a long time and is hot, but still noticeable. Could this be a sign the engine was severely overheated and distorted the cylinders causing excessive play in the pistons? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jras312 Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 have you replaced the temperature sensor on your coolant cross over yet? sorry I didn't see this post! I did, in fact, replace the sensor in the crossover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RumbleRumble Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Get a code reader that can read live data. What temp is the coolant? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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