Knowing I had a leaky water pump, I still decide to drive my 95 3.4 to work. On the way to work I notice my temp is staying exactly in the middle which isn't normal, but I figured it was just a lil hot that day from the beaming sun. Now on my way home from work there was a lil traffic b4 getting on to the highway and again it stay around middle temp, so after a few minutes after getting closer to the exit its starts to climb again and usually when my car starts to over heat my fan quickly comes on and almost immediatly drop back down to operating temperature, but not this time. Not realizing what was happening I get on the highway and start driving. I drive about a mile then realize that my temp gauge is unusually high. I start panicing, and instead of getting off the next exit I stay on ( from fear that I would get stranded,++ I thought my engine would cool off from the wind). Im driving in steady traffic at around 45 mph and my engines hott. I drove for maybe another 15 min at around 45 mph. But my temp gauge never really went all the way up, the hottest it got was a lil over 3/4.

I tried turning my car off ASAP but it was only for a minute b4 I had to keep it moving. I manage to make it to my house, I park pop the hood and see my engine steaming. Not really smoking a lot i could stick my hand over it without it burning me ( my bro said that that's a good sign) . I go to it the next morninng and open my rad cap and start pouring water into it. I see it pouring out of my water pump area. Which hadn't happened b4 this.

Did I fak my motor up ?? Are there any tests I could run to check my block?

I know I have an aluminum block which i know is pretty weak, so I would hate to have trashed it at such a young age ( only 80k)

 

Your block should be iron as well as your heads.

 

Never drive a car if the coolant system will not hold pressure. Coolant without pressure will boil at a little over 212 degs. There are hots spots in your motor that are over the 212 degs most of the time. That means inside your motor the coolant is boiling. That gases get trapped in the engine and now there is no way for coolant to get to the area that have trapped gases from the boiling coolant.

Coolant under pressure requires a very hot motor before it will boil. You boil coolant at 15 PSI your motor is already toast.

You should replace your water pump then pressure test the coolant system. There is no way we can tell you if its blown or not.

 

your est bet would be to replace your water pump. Since you say thats pretty much what failed, then that is what needs replaced first. After that, such as gorn said pressure test the system. THere are tools to do this at your local part store.

And might I ask.. WHY did you decide to drive your car knowing your water pump was toast?? Thats like sticking a fork into a electrical socket and expecting to not get electrocuted

 

Always pull over if your car over heats a 100$ tow is always better than a 500$ headgasket job

 

I'm sure your engine was a lot hotter than what you thought the gauge was telling you. I say "thought" because the temperature sending unit reads off of coolant temperature, not air temp. With the water pump leaking, your engine coolant level was way low, and no longer contacting the temperature sending unit. Your gauge reading was inaccurate, hopefully you didn't toast anything. Whenever in doubt, always pull over as soon as you can. A tow home is a lot cheaper than a new engine.

 

Are you saying the 95 3.4 v6 came with iron blocks, not aluminum?

 

Ya iron blocks and heads the lt1 has an iron block and aluminum heads and the ls1 is all aluminum

 

Even the 3800 that replaced in the the 3.4 in 96 was a iron block.