Truck help

[Twilight]

Okay my silverado has been runnign great until we hit this winter storm. Today i went out to start her up, and it would not blow hot air out the heater and it started to overheat within 15minutes of running. I noticed the coolant was low, so i added more and the same thing happened. the coolant was also getting pushed into the overflow tank.

Any ideas on what may be wrong?

[Gearheadtom]

The themostat may be stuck.

[tanks350x]

I would deffinately say that the thermostat is bad. Do a pressure test to see if there are any leaks also.. make sure there isn't any snow covering up the grill, and make sure the slip clutch on the fan is good..

[Twilight]

Thanks tanks. i found that my GF put WATER ONLY in the damn radiator, so do you think that could have froze it? ugh... this girl is really pissin me off.

How do i do a pressure test? The slip clutch is working.

Thanks to you too Gearhead =)

[tanks350x]

You might be able to go to an Autozone or store like that and rent a pressure tester. Best bet pull off the cap and see if it is froze up. If it is, the freeze plugs would've popped first not to damage the block. The pressure tester goes on the radiator where the cap goes and puts pressure through the system, to check if it holds pressure.. Read the cap, it should tell you how much pressure it's good for, usually aroud 7- 12 pounds ... put that much in and let it sit for a couple of hours and check it. If there isn't any in there after a couple of hours, there's a leak somewhere.. Good luck bud

[DeePa]

well they put freeze plugs in the motors (dont know where) for a reason, so they go first...

[Twilight]

Thanks man, If i can get my other truck outta all this snow I will head up to autozone.

Looked down the cap, had to find water with flashlight and there is some. But this could be what i added with the antifreeze.

can i use a heat gun anywhere to help warm up the hoses and get them unfrozen?

[Howdy]

If there was water only put into the radiator and the motor / water froze then there is a good chance you have some serious repair work needing to be done. I am willing to bet the radiator and heater core will need replaced at the least.

About the only way to know for sure what all might be damaged and to get it fixed is to put it into a heated building and completely thaw everything.

Howdy

[Twilight]

Alright, well my garage is filled with the car and truck, but i checked the radiator and the water wasnt frozen in that atleast. I can only really wait until it gets warmer to help the truck since I have nowhere to drive it to get warm =\

[J.D.]

What year truck is it? I have a 2000 Silverado w/ 5.3 and my thermostat completely quit working, and my truck never once went over 210 degrees. Also helped it was 30 something degrees outside also. If your truck is overheating within 15 minutes and spewing into overflow, sounds more like possibly blown head gaskets.

Also to clear something up..."freeze plugs" are not there in case the block freezes. They are there because of the process of making a block, they use sand....and those holes are left over after they cast the block and wash the sand out, so they have to use something to keep the coolant in the block....not sure how they got the name freeze plugs....but they're not there to stop your block from cracking if it freezes. I have seen blocks crack AND still have the "freeze plugs" pushed out.

[firehart]

Make sure you check the engine oil for water and anti-freeze. If anti-freeze gets into the oil it will ruin the engine bearings.

[factoryX]

do a pressure test, could have cracked heads.

[TrailerRider]

Pushing water out rad over flow tank, sound like head gasket to me. Pull your oil stick and see if any water is in the oil. If there is I would drain the oil immediatly! Do a compression check if when you can. Unhook distrubuter wire and check each cylinder. I am betting your have a blown head gasket. Like stated above Also untill you get it figured out I would not try to drive it because if is leaking water/antifreeze into the motor your done. Time for a rebuild. I would also replace the thermo it may have gone bad but sure sound liek head gasket to me. Good luck. What Model/Year/Motor is the truck?

[Greiver430x]

If its not blowing heat outta the heater and its overheating its definately not your thermostat. Sounds like it froze up, I would say 50/50 at best to whether there is block damage. You probably wont be able to tell if there is any damage till you thaw that sucker out. Look for milky oil, and be sure to mix that coolant 50/50 with water because pure antifreeze will freeze around 0 degrees farenheit. It will also not cool as well by itself and and can gunk up water jackets.

[Twilight]

Oil is clean thank god, trans oil is also good. Radiator is filled with rust (It is my moms truck, so no surprise) I also found she told my GF to just put water in after she and her BF flushed the rad, he told her it will be okay ::rolls_eyes:: Compression is showing equal through all cylinders, so im glad about that.

I didnt start it while doing the compression test, put plugs in all the holes and just went in a circle.

I'll just have to wait. I'm buying a truck soon anyway so it wont be my problem anymore.

[Greiver430x]

sounds like it just needs to thaw out buddy throw a tarp over it out side and hit it with a torpedo heater.

[Vealmonkey]

You know, the one thing I haven't heard mentioned is bad gaskets. Head gaskets yes, but not the intake gaskets. GM products are know for the antifreeze eating the gaskets out of the engine. If first starts by the radiator fluid level starting to go low. This will happen more often to the point where you will be adding a gallon of antifreeze or more a week. Make sure to check your oil for the antifreeze in the oil. The culprit is that orange antifreeze dexcool. GM advertised that this is 100,000 mile antifreeze. It isn't. Hopefully people with GM products are changing their dexcool every 40,000 to 50,000 miles. For some reason the dexcool becomes acidic and tends to eat up the head gaskets and intake gaskets on the v6 and v8 engines and the head gaskets in the inline 4 and 6 cyl engines too. It can also start eating up your interior heater core. And I hope you are not mixing the yellow anti freeze and the dexcool. Also a big no-no. If you mixed anti freezes, you better flush your system big time. That resulting mess will get you your heater core plugged up and help to make your thermostat fail. Mixing of the antifreezes happens more than you realize. And GM either has or had a class action law suit on them over the dexcool antifreeze. My 98 GM truck engine failed after 72,000 miles. The antifreeze became acidic and ate the head and intake base gaskets not only letting antifreeze leak into the cylinders and be burned off, but also let antifreeze get into my oil and the resulting low oil pressure shut the engine down and also the antifreeze did not do my main berings a world of good either. And the worst part was, the truck died on the way to trading it in on my new Nissan Titan. I will not buy another new GM product. It's a shame the government is bailing them out with our tax money. They did nothing for me. Letting GM rot in hell. I enjoy my Nissan Titan immensely. The big 3 need there come-uppance. Also, I don't blame the unions one bit for not backing down on their pay, do you want to back down on your pay and medical benifits? I know I don't and have had to secure a job accordingly for that very reason. Good luck with whatever you have to do to fix your truck. The engine can be fixed if need be, but I would use the highest quality gaskets you can find and remove that orange dexcool poison from your engine and have your engine thoroughly flushed out and the antifreeze replace with the yellow stuff. Unless you just want to replace your anti freeze every 40,000 or so miles.

[Twilight]

Well it has thawed, I added new coolant and water and she ran great UNTIL I turned the heater off, then it started to overheat again. Anyone know what causes this? Im a first timer to trucks, and cars. Know ATV's like the back of my hand, lol

[Nick_R_23]

Is your waterpump working? Have you tested your thermostat yet?

-Nick :TrikesOwn

[Twilight]

Just went out and looked at the thermostat... looks like time to get a new one =\ rusted from all the crap water and rust in the radiator... looks like its time to get a new radiator too.

Gotta love how much 2min of stupidity cost.

[Nick_R_23]

If those are both rusted up and have a bunch of crap on them, I would look into replacing the waterpump and heater core, Im sure both of those are in about the same shape.

-Nick :TrikesOwn

[Twilight]

Yeah, I guess its not too different from a atv, haha. Thanks guy's. I'll order the parts and update you all on the progress.