I have a 95 3.4L. I recently had my head gasket changed. I started to run the car again, but the tamperature gauge wasn't working but the car was over heating. He flushed the the radiator but not the resevoir. I took it back to him so he could empty the resevoir of the sludge. He went to do additional checks, and he noticed the water pump hose wasn't connected to the engine. Should I also have him change the water pump because of the sludge that was in the coolant resevoir? Is a sensor mulfunctioning?

 

water pump hose???? the only hose that goes to the pump is the lower rad hose if it wasnt connected youd be dumping coolant the motor would be dry in minutes as for the sludge thats a common problem with gm cars because of the dexcool pull the stat and reinstall the housing also pull the rad hoses then pump water through the block for like 20 min then through the rad for 20 min then get some prestone flush and follow the directions on that... when you go to put new coolant in dont get dexcool no matter what the autoparts guy says ive owned a lot of gm cars and NEVER run dexcool with out a problem

 

^agreed, flush and use green. I bet the technician didn't hook up a temperator sensor while re-assembling. If he did then you might have a faulty sensor, but seems coincidental that it worked before the service and not after. Just saying.

 

is this the same guy that did the head gasket job? take some pictures and post them up so we can see what hose it is.

 

Yes, it is the same guy. He is not charging me extra for the additional work. Pressure builds in the hose connected to exhuast (the upper hose), with or without the thermostat in. He says that there might be a cracked cylinder, but there are no other fuilds mixing. The car turns over but doesn't after I turn it off because it is overheated. The temperature gauge also isn't work. Is there any thing else to check besides the water pump? Could the sender or a sensor be ineffective? As I stated before, I had the radiator and head gaskets changed.

 

if the temp gauge isn't working, are you sure it's overheated?

 

Pressure is gonna build if its overheated. Thats kinda what water does when it gets hot. Are the lower and upper hoses both hot? If not the system may be clogged somewhere else