Overheating problem with our Grand Am

[02PewterBird]

We have a 94 Grand Am that just sits in our backyard as a beater car in case we need one and so my sister has an easy car to practice with when she starts driving. We haven't driven it in like at least two months. It's the POS quad four OHC engine.

We got it out today and I took it for a drive. I was about to leave a neighborhood after driving like a half mile and looked down and the temperature was shooting up. When I stopped it went up to the line of the red zone, and by the time I turned around and pulled over it was in the red.

I ran home to ask my dad what to do and got a ride back to the car to drive it home. When I got back it was at around 160 degrees, but it started shooting up on the way home with the heater blasting. By the time I got home it was halfway through the red zone, and by the time I turned around to park in about 20 seconds it was at 260 at the end of the red zone.

Any ideas what it could be? If I would slow down to make a turn it would shoot up even faster, but I'm not sure why. We added some water and the temperature would drop as we were adding it, but as soon as we stopped it would start rising again.

[hockeyman]

Is your electric fan working when the temp goes that high?
Even if it isn't and you get it fixed, I'd also replace the thermostat to be on the safe side. It may be a POS, but at least it wont overheat when you need it most.

-Marc

[ka50]

First thing first: check coolant level.

I actually had overheating problems on my GA... it's funny, cuz it never overheated, but on ONE stretch of the road it will try to overheat 90% of the time! I couldn't figure out what it was, then once I was drivin around and see temp near red zone... just like that.... shut it down, restart, rev it (to get water pumpin), temp drops down... couldn't figure out what it was.

My guess would be is that you either have bad thermostat (not fun to change on DOHC, not sure about OHC), bad water pump (see if it's leaking, if it does it's a sure sign it's about to fail), clogged lines or loose or faulty pressure cap on top of the recovery tank (yes it can cause overheating, too).

[ka50]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by hockeyman:
Is your electric fan working when the temp goes that high?
Even if it isn't and you get it fixed, I'd also replace the thermostat to be on the safe side. It may be a POS, but at least it wont overheat when you need it most.

-Marc<hr></blockquote>

I have Grand Am too, and fan only kicks in after you've idled for like 10-15 mins. So when you're just drivin it should never get that high (220 is the temp at which fan kicks in)

[02PewterBird]

The fans are running after I shut off the engine for quite a while until it cools off. We filled the coolant with water. and the temperature still started to skyrocket while sitting still. It's not leaking anything.

[hockeyman]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by 02PewterBird:
The fans are running after I shut off the engine for quite a while until it cools off. We filled the coolant with water. and the temperature still started to skyrocket while sitting still. It's not leaking anything.<hr></blockquote>

stuck thermostat

-Marc

[95Batmobile]

DON'T PUT IN WATER WHILE THE ENGINE IS HOT!!!!
If you put cold water on any extremely hot surface it will crack it.
I don't know if it's a thermostat or not, I had a bad thermo that was stuck open and my car would sit at like 175-180 the whole time.
Maybe you could get it chemical tested? My friend's Jeep would be sitting at 210 and just shoot into the red because of a blown head gasket and bad water pump. The chemical test will tell you if there is exhaust in the water/coolant so you know if the headgasket is blown or head is warped.
Check the water/coolant level and water pump. Heating up like that could be a waterpump that just decayed from all of the rust and stuff in the block and radiator.

[02PewterBird]

I know you aren't supposed to put water in a hot car, but the car isn't that important and we didn't add a lot.

These engines are known for bad headgaskets, and it had it's head crack and had to be replaced completely at 60K miles. The only reason we're keeping it around is because it isn't worth trading in, and unless it's something minor we'll probably just get rid of it.

Anyone have any idea what a transmission with overdrive from the car might be worth? It's a GM rebuilt one and it only has like 25K miles on it.