For the second time in a week I've had to have her towed. Once cause I hydroplaned at 65 and ran off the road, didn't hurt the car though. The car was starting to overheat sometimes. It was weird though because the gauge would go all the way up into the red then fall back to the normal temp. It would stay in the red for more than 5 or so seconds. It did this for about a month but it ran fine and never overheated, or so I thought. One day it finally overheated where it shut the car down. I replaced the thermostat and it ran great for the last two weeks, the gauge was right where it should be, but a light pinging sound developed when I would start it up, it went away after driving it a few miles. I started a new job and havebeen working 70 hours a week and don't have a house yet in the town where I'm working so I'm staying with a friend and it's a 2 hour drive everyday, I can't find the time to get it looked at, I can't take off from work. So tonight all the sudden it overheated again, so I pulled off the road and shut it off. I let it cool and started it back up. It started making this awful noise, it's coming from one of the left cylinders. The oil pressure droped half way down and after having it started for about 30 seconds smoke started coming from the engine. I don't know much about engine internals. I started it a couple more times and the sound didn't start right away, it took it 30 seconds to a minute to start making that sound and smoking. I don't know whats wrong but it's something pretty bad.

 

Sounds like you blew a head gasket.

 

Yeah, I had the same problem with my old grand prix, it would take forever to warm up but the thermostat would be all the way up, then it would go down, then back up. Brought it into the mechanics and it was a blown headgasket, sounds like you have those same symptoms, so have that checked out.

 

Check your oil for white sludge like stuff. If so, your head gasket is blown and what happened is that the antifreeze wiped out your rod bearings. What happens is that the antifreeze washed out all the oil getting to that bearing and you probably spun a bearing. That is if the noise is still there, sounds like a clack,clack,clack noise when you rev your engine? I am in the process of doing my rod an main bearings now, I spun a rod from beating on it.

 

My temp gauge doesnt move at all, unless i let it sit and idle at a drive through or somthing. Do i have a bad sending unit, or does it just not get hot?

 

Normal.

 

Thats what a thought, just curious. Thanks again 02stangGT. I think you have helped with my questions more than anyone else.

 

How is your heat, do you get any? And when you say that your guage doesnt move, you mean at all? If so, thats not normal. Try this, stick a peice of cardboard in front of your radiator, and ride around with it for a few miles. The temp of your car should increase due to the fact that there is no cool air getting to your radiator to cool it down. If it doesnt increase, you may wanna check out your sending unit, if it does, for some reason either your thermostat is staying open, or you are not getting enough pressure built up in your cooling system to produce heat, which would be the symptoms of a bad head gasket.

 

It moves a little when driving around. It will move about a 1/3 of the way up when im in a drivethough or idleing for a long time. It is winter here though.

 

By heat, do you mean like my heater? If so ya, it blows warm/hot air, and everything defrosts and what not. I really dont drive it for long periods of time either, only to school, work, and back home. Only about 5 miles. I have been on the freeway though, and it doesnt really move. It has that air damn that scrapes on everything. Dont know if that just keeps it pretty cold?