Engine overheating

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Joe

Have coolant system pressure tested for a head gasket leak.

What does "in no time" mean? A minute? An hour? Slow, city driving? On the highway? What are the symptoms? Are you simply going by the gauge on the dash or is there something else that tells you the engine is too hot?

When you think the engine is too hot, feel the upper radiator hose near the radiator. It should be too hot to hold onto for very long but it shouldn't burn you. If the hose is relatively cool, suspect the thermostat isn't opening, and that would most commonly be due to a leaking cylinder head gasket. Combustion gases can pool under the thermostat and prevent it from opening. They have to be hit with hot liquid. Hot air won't do it. There's a chemical test your mechanic can perform at the radiator to test for a leaking head gasket. That test just takes a couple of minutes.

When the engine stalls, what do you have to do to get it restarted? Has anyone checked for diagnostic fault codes?

The place to start is by connecting a scanner to view live data and see exactly what the coolant temperature is. If it's normal, around 200 degrees, but the temperature gauge is reading too high, suspect the instrument cluster. The engineers at Ford have turned the really reliable cluster into another computer module, so now we have all kinds of computer-related problems we never used to see.

Your mechanic will also watch that coolant temperature to see if it suddenly jumps up too high. If it does, there could be a problem with the temperature sensor or its wiring, but those should both be down pretty far on the list of suspects.

If we were to assume the misfire and overheating are related, the leaking cylinder head gasket is a good suspect. Your mechanic will perform a test at the radiator with the engine warmed up and running. That involves drawing air from the radiator through a glass cylinder with two chambers partially-filled with a special dark blue liquid. If combustion gases are present, the liquid will turn bright yellow.

What is it doing? Cranking over and w/n start or just won't crank over at all/nothing when you turn key to cranking position?

How quick did it run hot, when you started out?

How long did you run it while OVERHEATED (HONESTLY, not trying to "Impress Me". Mine is running!). We need real honest info, in order to assist you, We do not perform miracles, With "Made Up Stuff".99% say they shut it down immediately, 1% have their head in their hands, cause they know what they done.

Coolant / Antifreeze Correct MIX. Not guessing the ingredients (like you cook), but really installed at minimum, 50% Antifreeze/50 Water? (Before it was poured in)

How much water did I take to refill it, after the "Incident"?

The Medic

The fix is to get a driver who knows better than to seriously abuse an engine like that. What else do you think there is that needs to be diagnosed? Any engine can be expected to run hot after doing that, and even if it runs once it's cooled down, the temper will have been removed from some hardened parts, connecting rod bolts will have been stressed, and things like that.

To get an idea of the effect over-revving an engine has, a $100,000.00 NASCAR engine runs at around 8,000 rpm, and they hope it will hold up for 500 miles. A Chrysler 426 Hemi NHRA dragster engine develops over 3,000 horsepower and runs at 10,000 rpm, and it gets rebuilt after every race that lasts less than four seconds. Diesel engines typically run at very low speeds and in big trucks they last almost forever.

Your engine was designed to haul you around for 200,000 miles, but there's always a trade-off. To achieve the reliability we demand, we have to give up power, high speed, or some other characteristic. You can't run it outside the limits it was designed for for very long.

Chances are no gaskets have been ruined during the process, unless the engine was badly overheated and the headgaskets blew, causing the ruptured hose.

Hi:
Did you replace the thermostat? Also, is the engine running good?

I would have the cylinders compression tested to check the headgasket. Are you getting white smoke from exhaust or OIL in coolant tank? The shaking could be a sign of water on plugs causing slight misfire