overheating and burning fluid

Papa Rad17 · 03-09-2012, 06:35 PM

on my way home last night I was driving, not very conservatively... when I noticed my engine temp started rising a bit. I kept it at cruse speed and just drove chill and it leveled off for a bit but then started going back up. when I noticed there was a lot of steam coming from around the coolant tank I immediately pulled over and let it cool off. once I opened it up the tank had hardly anything in it. I got a cup and starting getting some water put in, it drank 2 or 3 before it finally started filling the tank. I took it super easy on the way home and would ya know, as I started getting close it started spitting out more steam as the temp went up. at this point I slowed down even more and popped my hood to get more air flow. that helped a lot and dropped the temp a bit, but then right as I was pulling it started going back up again. I checked everything thoroughly for leaks and cant find crap. I refilled everything and check it again this morning and levels were still good, but when I got home today and checked everything the tank was about 3/4 empty. there was no signs of it coming from the overflow and still no signs of leaks which leads me to believe its eating it. it has been burning a little oil for time now to, not much though. I just have to add a drop every 700 miles or so, but it burnt though it like crazy today. I had it back up to level this morning then when I got home it was barely getting the bottom of the dip stick. any ideas where I need to start? the engine is about to roll over to 200000 miles...

sleepyalero · 03-09-2012, 07:49 PM

it could be a problem and possibly could not..... how high up did the temp gauge go?

zzyzzx · 03-09-2012, 11:03 PM

Was the engine running when you checked for leaks?

Redog · 03-09-2012, 11:06 PM

What does your oil look like?

This is EXACTLY what happened to my Nova, when the head gasket blew

billytheman1188 · 03-09-2012, 11:51 PM

Sounds like the head gasket (then again idk too much about engines...but i am on my second HG leak

)

When i was driving home yesterday the needle kept going up....i pulled over...filled up the reservoir and that didn't help AT ALL...tried to go some more but it kept going up...i was only a couple miles from home so iwanted to try and make it but she didn't cooperate so i had to call AAA to tow her back. The first 3 miles are free and luckily i was 3.2 miles from home so he let me off for free. Now she's sitting in the driveway for the rest of the week until i pick up my 3500 on wed. Swap gets done next weekend! woo woo!

200k is a lot of miles though. Start searching for a new engine!

Papa Rad17 · 03-10-2012, 01:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sleepyalero

it could be a problem and possibly could not..... how high up did the temp gauge go?

it sayed between half and 3/4 most of the time but up just over 3/4 the 2 times it got the hottest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zzyzzx

Was the engine running when you checked for leaks?

I checked running and not running. I started it cold earlier and just sat there reving and checking till it got to running temp. then just let it sit there for a while and kept checking. nothing.