help my relative out

hourang

hourang

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vehicle: 98 chevy venture
engine: 3400 v6

symptoms: van sat for a while because they think it needs a thermostat. they drove it because the other car died. she reported to me that she drove it and the heat would go to the red then go back down, then in the red again. pulled over and saw the coolant res. empty, tried to add coolant and then drove home.

her husband had a hard time trying to replace the thermostat himself so i came over to help. could not get one of the thermostat bolts off as it is stripped and can only get a box wrench on it since the exhaust crossover is right against the bolt. didnt have time to pull the whole exhaust tube off as it was midnight on a work day so we put it back together so i could check it out. heres what i found:

zero coolant in radiator, filled it up and started it. warmed up to 210-230degrees and stayed there, maybe slowly rising above that, didnt want it to go any higher so shut it off. ZERO heat from the vents when set to hot. electric fans didnt come on at all. manually hooked up one of the fans to the battery and it kicked right on no problem. could be that they just dont turn on until its really hot? i figured at least one would kick on by 230 degrees.

is the thermostat the culprit? or is it a head gasket issue? heater core? with the empty radiator the coolant went somewhere, wasnt any puddles in the garage where it sat or any signs of leaks that they knew of. didnt notice any smoke out the exhaust. motor runs like total crap and makes a whiny noise almost like a bad power steering pump which it could be. im guessing that letting it get to the red a few times probably killed the head gaskets already. advise?
 
hourang said:
vehicle: 98 chevy venture
engine: 3400 v6

symptoms: van sat for a while because they think it needs a thermostat. they drove it because the other car died. she reported to me that she drove it and the heat would go to the red then go back down, then in the red again. pulled over and saw the coolant res. empty, tried to add coolant and then drove home.

her husband had a hard time trying to replace the thermostat himself so i came over to help. could not get one of the thermostat bolts off as it is stripped and can only get a box wrench on it since the exhaust crossover is right against the bolt. didnt have time to pull the whole exhaust tube off as it was midnight on a work day so we put it back together so i could check it out. heres what i found:

zero coolant in radiator, filled it up and started it. warmed up to 210-230degrees and stayed there, maybe slowly rising above that, didnt want it to go any higher so shut it off. ZERO heat from the vents when set to hot. electric fans didnt come on at all. manually hooked up one of the fans to the battery and it kicked right on no problem. could be that they just dont turn on until its really hot? i figured at least one would kick on by 230 degrees.

is the thermostat the culprit? or is it a head gasket issue? heater core? with the empty radiator the coolant went somewhere, wasnt any puddles in the garage where it sat or any signs of leaks that they knew of. didnt notice any smoke out the exhaust. motor runs like total crap and makes a whiny noise almost like a bad power steering pump which it could be. im guessing that letting it get to the red a few times probably killed the head gaskets already. advise?
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Feel the hoses and make sure it's circulating, if not either pump or stat. Get a pressure tester and pressurinze the cooling system. Coolant had to go somewhere. i'm guessing head gaskets.
 
rear head gasket and probably a cracked head. Pull motor and swap in a known good one. Cheaper if you are going to be doing the work.
 
Every 3.4 in our work fleet has had the lower intake manifold gaskets replaced. I think it's a $600 job depending on where you go.
 
But with the intake gasket you can see the water trail, and the oil gets overfull. If he has no visible place to see where teh water has gone, it might be the head gasket. But only a coolant pressure, compression test will tell you. Each item can be rented/borrowed from most autoparts stores.

And with basic mechanical skills you can do the intake gaskets. IT's time consuming, but can be done pretty easily.
 
Billydroveit said:
Feel the hoses and make sure it's circulating, if not either pump or stat. Get a pressure tester and pressurinze the cooling system. Coolant had to go somewhere. i'm guessing head gaskets.
Click to expand...

top hose that goes to the tstat was burning hot. im guessing tstat is not the issue since the radiator wouldnt be burning hot to the touch right? unless its stuck open in which the coolant wouldnt have enough time to heat up that much anyway so it still should have been that hot.

intake gasket does sound likely. didnt even think of that. ill let them know pending a compression and pressure test that they most likely need a new motor, AGAIN since this is the second motor, they put 100k on this one (not sure what the mileage was on it when installed), 100k on first one. 200k+ miles on van.

anyone know what the deal is with the electric fans not turning on? wondering if that could have caused the problem in the first place or if i just didnt wait until the van reached 250 degrees or something. he didnt have a working volt meter to test the wiring/relays. thanks for everyones help! i feel so bad for them because this ones dead, the other car is dead, and now their only car left just died now too.
 
hourang said:
top hose that goes to the tstat was burning hot. im guessing tstat is not the issue since the radiator wouldnt be burning hot to the touch right? unless its stuck open in which the coolant wouldnt have enough time to heat up that much anyway so it still should have been that hot.

intake gasket does sound likely. didnt even think of that. ill let them know pending a compression and pressure test that they most likely need a new motor, AGAIN since this is the second motor, they put 100k on this one (not sure what the mileage was on it when installed), 100k on first one. 200k+ miles on van.

anyone know what the deal is with the electric fans not turning on? wondering if that could have caused the problem in the first place or if i just didnt wait until the van reached 250 degrees or something. he didnt have a working volt meter to test the wiring/relays. thanks for everyones help! i feel so bad for them because this ones dead, the other car is dead, and now their only car left just died now too.
Click to expand...

There is a seperate switch that turns the fans seperate from teh gauge sensor. If the rad is smoking hot i would guess the stat and pump are working. Just sounds like the fan switch isn't. If she boiled it over i would guess head gaskets are hurt. If the intake gasket let loose, and it's been filling the oil with water, chances are it's still ok. My buddies wife drove hers for a few months letting the oil injest all teh water, and never bothered to tell him about the puddles under the car. We out intake gaskets in it and it lived till she sold it, and ran/sounded fine. These motos are hard to destroy. Call Reiko at the 8 MIle store for prices. He was best price on my last head gasket change kit.
 
Billydroveit said:
There is a seperate switch that turns the fans seperate from teh gauge sensor. If the rad is smoking hot i would guess the stat and pump are working. Just sounds like the fan switch isn't. If she boiled it over i would guess head gaskets are hurt. If the intake gasket let loose, and it's been filling the oil with water, chances are it's still ok. My buddies wife drove hers for a few months letting the oil injest all teh water, and never bothered to tell him about the puddles under the car. We out intake gaskets in it and it lived till she sold it, and ran/sounded fine. These motos are hard to destroy. Call Reiko at the 8 MIle store for prices. He was best price on my last head gasket change kit.
Click to expand...

lastest update from them:
"The Van is definitely at least a head gasket and probably more as the antifreeze is definitely going into the oil and causing a gooey mess."

thanks so much for the help. was hoping we could just do the gaskets or thermo but dont want to touch that thing for head gaskets, specially if its the rear one.
 
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