Engine coolant troubleshooting..help please!

[1994]

I am in a pickle right now, I took my 1996 Chevy Silverado C1500 home this weekend for the christmas break, and I did a full oil change while I had the chance. I almost got back home tonight and I noticed my truck wasn't getting ANY heat whatsoever, and soon after my temp. gauge went all the way to the red.

**Now, this has happened to me before, and my truck began smoking. When this happened I used water to fill up my resevoir since it kept leaking out and it always helped to cool it down, I figured my radiator had a leak in it, so I got some stop-leak product and dumped it in the rad and it seemed to stop leaking the coolant.**

Weather up here just got pretty cold over this weekend and when I went to start the truck it seemed to have more trouble than it ever has finally turning over. After my check gauge lights came on I pulled over and checked under the hood. I noticed a small amount of wetness near the rad cap itself and my coolant resevoir was completely overflowed and I could tell by the spillage it was shooting coolant thru the escape tube onto my fender wall, etc.

So obviously my rad must be practically empty for my truck to have NO heat goin thru the cab, but I am stumped as to why my resevoir is overflowing? When I did my oil change a few days prior, I did not see any milky mixture which would point to head gasket, but would it still be a possibility? I didnt even think to check the oil before I went home with someone else and left the truck where it was.
I also couldn't tell if the exhaust was shooting white smoke since it was very cold out and it looked normal to me.
Regardless, if I turned the heat on my temp. gauge would continue to rise to the red while the truck was idling or driving, yet if I kept it off, temp. needle stayed in the middle of the gauge.

What do you guys figure? I know we can't be sure until I get back to it and pull the dipstick to rule out head gasket, but what else seems like a good culprit?

*When I had this truck saftied a few months ago, they said my water pump was leaking slowly, and it should be replaced sometime soon before it blows. I havent ever had a water pump blow on me so I am not sure if these are the symptoms or not!*

Any help would be very much appreciated before I go spend $3000 on new head gasket..Thanks.

 

[df2x4]

My guess would be that your radiator never really had much of a problem and the leak you're talking about was always coming from the water pump. However, now that you've dumped that evil stop leak crap into your cooling system you'll undoubtedly need to replace the water pump, rad, heater core, reservoir and hoses. That crap is soooo bad for your cooling system. I'd say when you dumped it in it clogged up pretty much everything, as it's one to do. Once it's in there it sticks to everything and there's really no getting it out. Unfortunately it sounds like you turned a simple repair into a very costly and time consuming one by using that stuff, it's really a last resort "Oh crap I have to get off the road" type of fix. Personally I'd never even think about using it in a vehicle I care about at all, even if you replace the whole cooling system I bet there's junk in the engine cooling passages that you'll never get out.

 

[mattillac]

....I used water to fill up my resevoir since it kept leaking out.....

....Weather up here just got pretty cold.......

....since it was very cold out.....

Sorry to ask....

Have any antifreeze in the cooling system(not just water) ?



Thought I read that you are somewhere in Alberta.

Isn't it like -10 F there tonight

 

[90halfton]

Sorry to ask....

Have any antifreeze in the cooling system(not just water) ?



Thought I read that you are somewhere in Alberta.

Isn't it like -10 F there tonight

Yeah, that.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

You overheated it badly, it sounds as if you also plugged the heatercore with stop leak. As mentioned, it's designed to clog small holes, it seems as if the holes it clogged for you are the heater core passages.

Head gaskets don't necessarily make milkshake, depending on how they let go. You may get oil into the antifreeze, antifreeze into the oil, neither, both, air bubbles.... It's kinda hard to say at this point.

At this point, try refilling it with 50/50 mix and see what happens, if it continues to overheat with the heat on, but not with it off, you'll be replacing the heater core.

 

[Pampo'sTruck]

I just did the heater core on my truck. It wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. I found a vid on youtube that helped me a lot. This was the day or so before I found this forum. If this newbie could do it, I'm sure you could knock it out just fine.

 

[sewlow]

The heater hoses to & from the core also have a tendency to plug up on these trucks.

 

[1994]

I had antifreeze in the radiator this time, not water. I WAS filling it with water when it was leaking out before,. and prior to using stop leak product.

 

[1994]

Honestly its just a beater DD, I dont plan on putting much more into it after getting it on the road and passing an inspection. I will drive it until it stops working...which may be soon now it seems haha. I just remember checking the water pump and never seeing any moisture around the hole by the fan or anything so I wasn't sure it was the main source of the leak. Also, I added that stop leak like..probably quite a few months ago now, so would it really just have randomly plugged up now? Wouldn't it have flowed around quite a bit by now?

 

[df2x4]

That stuff is nasty. The longer it's in there, the worse off you are. There's no getting it out now.

I have a feeling you'll be replacing a lot more than the heater core with the leaks you're describing.