HELP PLEASE! Overheating!

[Taheen]

So I just got back from a normal drive to the store. Not hard driving, just normal good times. I look down at the gauges and notice the temp climbed from the normal steady 210 to halfway to 260. Getting a bit nervous, watch it go up and down but staying right around 240ish. Turn the heater on full blast and roll down my windows (Texas summers, fun). I get NO heat, just luke-warm air.

Awesome! So I baby her home keeping a very close watch on the temp. I was only about 3 blocks away.

So she's in the driveway right now, killed the engine and popped the hood. Fans are still running so I feel the air coming from them. Drivers side = HOT air. Passenger side = Ambient Temp. Fans shut off, I tried it again by touching the hoses. Upper radiator hose = HOT, Lower radiator hose = ambient temp.

I'm letting her cool down right now, but I'm thinking that if it was low coolant, why would one side of the radiator be cold like that while the other is nice and hot? If coolant was low wouldn't it be all hot?

Do I have a blocked radiator? I'm going to wait till she cools then dump the coolant and re-fill. After that I'll fire her back up and watch. I suppose if it still does it then I'll assume radiator blocked?

Thanks!

[mattyacks]

Re: HELP PLEASE! Overheating!

do u have a leak???.....Fluid in radiator?

[Taheen]

Re: HELP PLEASE! Overheating!

Havn't ever seen any pools of coolant from her. A little bit longer and I'll go check the level. Just odd how this came out of nowhere with no signs other than those listed above.

[Taheen]

Re: HELP PLEASE! Overheating!

Well, when all was cooled off I took off the radiator cap. The most foul looking gunk was stuck to the cap and all over inside. Looked alot like clay. Took off the upper and lower hoses, backflushed the radiator untill clean, then flushed out the engine till clean water flowed. Hooked everything back up minus the lower hose and did it again.

Seems to have done the trick. All is well now, guess all that crap just clogged the works. It was really think like clay/mud.

[FirebirdGT]

Re: HELP PLEASE! Overheating!

The Dex-Cool/water mix CAN NOT exceed 50/50. It will create sludge in the cooling system otherwise.

[v6mOtOrhEAdftOp]

Re: HELP PLEASE! Overheating!

I switched mine back to the green stuff, I hate the dexcool

[Taheen]

Re: HELP PLEASE! Overheating!

I've heard about the Dex-cool sludging but I never would have imagined like this. After quite alot of flushing I went ahead and did about 1/2ish jug green antifreeze and the rest water.

[FirebirdGT]

Re: HELP PLEASE! Overheating!

Dex-Cool is better than the green "stuff" IF properly done. It takes less Dex-cool to give the same protection. The more water in the mix the better, as it has a better heat transfer coefficient. I use 50/50 pre-mix which is good for 265F, and add distilled water (NEVER use tap water in your cooling system) to drop it to about 260F (the max on the temp gauge).

http://www.getahelmet.com/jeeps/maint/dexcool/

http://www.theherd.com/articles/dex_cool.html