My engine overheats and it’s bubbling in the coolant tank

BRIEE RAY

MEMBER
2005 DODGE NEON
197,200 MILES

My engine overheats, and it’s bubbling in the coolant tank. I know that those are signs of a blown head gasket but I don’t experience unexpected coolant loss, I know my coolant is leaking, white smoke hasn’t come out the exhaust pipe, and I don’t have any milky coat on my oil cap. I was wondering if there could be any other reason why my engine overheats beside head blowing gasket?

1 Reply

SQM

MECHANIC
6,383 POSTS

Hello,

There are several factors that can contribute to a overheating engine.
You could have a stuck closed thermostat.
If the thermostat is stuck closed the temperature of the your upper and lower hose will be different.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-an-engine-thermostat-works

Could be faulty / clogged radiator or hoses. The water pump could be bad and not circulating the coolant properly.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/water-pump

It could also be that your radiator fan(s) are not operating as they should.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-an-electric-cooling-fan-works

Is this something that just happened all of a sudden?

You might find this article helpful:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/symptoms-of-an-overheating-engine

You can test to see if you have a blown head gasket. It is a very simple test.
It is a test tool you can get that checks for combustion gases in the coolant to determine if the head gasket is blown.

Here is how to do that test:

https://youtu.be/5zpNjYmmiYY

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/head-gasket-blown-test

Please let me know little more info of what you find out.

Thank you.