Hey guys, I have a 1995 3.4 manual which recently came into some heating problems.

A little background if you'll allow:

One morning, the car simply just overheated out of control and basically shot most if not all of the radiator fluid out of the reservoir overflow cap. Put fluid in it, but it was losing literally all the radiator fluid from the engine each time I tried. After working on it, I decided to replace the thermostat, check the tubes, and replace the head gaskets (only because I was there anyway). Either way, I got it all put back together, and it was still leaking, so I took it into a shop who replaced a seal behind the timing chain (which fixed the leak) told me everything was okay after a few days.

I took it home and when I drive it my car had a heating problem just not as severe. It will get up to a quarter on the gauge and then it begins to climb to half the gauge in just a few seconds, then a few seconds later it will fall to quarter again rapidly, then a few seconds back to half, so on and so forth.

I talked to someone who felt it might simply be the gauge cluster, but I (and a neighbor who decided to tell me) can clearly smell what appears to be overheating coming from my car when I park it.

Any ideas out there? Anybody with a similar experience? Could it just be clusters? Help me out here!

P.S. Someone told me it's probably fine, and I should just drive the car. I don't think it IS fine, but I might just be crazy.

 

after it cools off open the radiator and make sure its full. low coolant level will do what you are saying. might be a good idea to do a cooling system pressure test.

 

The coolant temp gauge can go up and down for a few minutes as the engine warms up. Block heats up, thermostat opens a bit, block cools down, thermostat closes, block heats up, thermostat opens a bit, etc. My S10 used to do this a few minutes into running time and it was normal. I haven't noticed it on my 94 Camaro V6. what i do notice is that it takes FOREVER for that 3.4 to warm up (and it has a new thermostat).

I do think you have something to worry about and I'd be worried about a cracked head. Did you check for that when you did the head gaskets? The 3.4 tends to blow head gaskets on the RH side and develop cracks between the valve seats on that head as well. Don't know why...

 

Well, it doesn't seem to be losing fluid. I did check for cracked heads while I was in there, because I was worried about that myself. Happened to my mom's Sable once (what a nightmare that was). I haven't done a pressure test yet.