Car almost over heated

[2002 v6 camaro uncharged]

The car has been running a little warmer for the last few days. I know I am a little low on coolant and I was going to add some tommorow morning.
But, this morning I was almost to work and I was monitoring the temp the whole time. Out of no where the temp jumped up almost to the first red line before 260 on the gauge. What does that first red line represent 250?. If so then I shut it down probably in the high 240's low imediately and let it cool down. Dumped a bottle of water in my over flow tank and made it the rest of the way to work.

My questions are could I have done any damage to the engine when it got that high and would the low coolant level cause the thermostat to stick. I have a 180* thermo that is maybe 6 months old.

[black98V6]

I don't know about low coolant level causing it to stick but it's not going to flow properly if it's not full and without air in the system.

On that note you proably want to check your water pump. If you are loosing water that is the most likely culprit.

Also if your engine was low on coolant and got that hot It's more than likely there is already air in your system that you need to beed out, whether you do the water pump or not.

As far as damage to the engine really no way to tell without a compression check and pressure test of your cooling system. Cast iron heads can get pretty hot for a short peroid without any real problems but I don't think anyone on this board can give you any kind of difinitve answer.

[2002 v6 camaro uncharged]

I went and started it up at lunch just to make sure it was running okay and while it was idleing I could smell a slight hint of antifreeze but there is nothing on the ground. I noticed the smell yesterday a little bit to when I got out of the car when I got to work.

[black98V6]

I'll put money it's your pump.
See what happens is it really doesn't get to leaking bad till the car is fully warmed. At that point it drips slowly and usually evaporates. The only way to tell when it's leaking slow like this is to let the car fully warm up, drive it a bit (before you do this make sure it's full of water at least)
then shut the car down immediately reach behind the water pump pulley and check for moisture. The only problem with this approach YOU WILL BURN THE HELL OUT OF YOUR HAND!!! Odds are though if there is water anywhere on the front of your engine or the cross member it's your pump. Look for a little bit of standing water on that cross member or on the steering rack.

When the system isn't pressurized it won't leak but a few drops. This is because the water pump has what they call a weep hole. When the seal and or bearing inside the pump start to fail it allows water to flow out of this hole. That's how you know it's time to change the water pump. You loose a little water instead of running the pump totally into the ground and risk having something seize up or worse fly apart while you engine is crusing along at 2500rpm doing 75 down the interstate.

Don't worry it's insanely easy to change the pump and pretty inexpensive for a new one if you go OEM.

[zymose]

Sounds like my weekend right there. My waterpump just went out on me a couple of hours ago at my parent's house. I have been noticing a slight antifreeze smell for a week whenever my car gets warm, and the temp did rise whenever I was just parked after driving. No leaks anywhere and it was still full of fluid, but I tried to wiggle my water pump and it did have a little play. I was hoping to hold off on actually changing it, but not so lucky. Fortunately I went out to change my oil, so I had the car in our shop and on the auto lift when I noticed it starting to hiss. I opened up the hood, and sure enough it just started to leak while I was standing there. Thank god it didn't decide to go out on the way there. It's about a 45 mile trip and at 75mph, I can just imagine the joy I would have with it happening on the side of the road.

I haven't changed it out yet, but so far I've spent $50 on a new waterpump, $20 on antifreeze and a flushing treatment, $10 on a new 180 degree stat, and a lifetime of abuse from my roomates about driving my mom's minivan home.