I think Jan has it.. either a blown head gasket or a stopped up block or
even both. I had a water pump fail and it leaked but still pumped so did not
over heat. The pump bearing was pretty loose and may have been close to a
very bad pump failure at the time but it did not over heat. There could be
other things causing your over heating besides a blown head gasket or
casting sand in the block water passages but none of them would be good, a
cracked block comes to mind. You could try leaving the radiator cap off and
start it up, watch the water in the radiator and see if it dances, jumps
around or pumps out with the engine running. This would be a sign of a blown
head gasket or a cracked block. Water spitting out the tail pipe is another
thing to look for, a white spark plug tip may show up also...maybe. Then you
could get lucky and have a bad radiator cap, but if you replace it stay with
a stock rated cap have heard of bad things happening to heater cores with
higher than stock rated caps. You might also try flushing the block with a
garden hose, engine must be stone cold to do this. Get a hose fitting that
will screw into the end of you hose and install it at one side of the heater
hose connection at the heater control valve, remove the bottom radiator hose
turn the water on full blast, run it until it comes out clear, move the
fitting to the other hose that goes to the heater control valve and repeat.
You will be amazed at what flushes out of the block when you do this and it
can take a good bit for the water to run clear. Hope it helps... Jim E
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-alpines@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-alpines@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of jumpinjan
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 10:09 PM
To: Kurt Eckert
Cc: Alpine folks
Subject: Re: What temp should I expect
Kurt Eckert wrote:
>
> I have been having a problem with my 3GT overheating and attributed it to
> the 40 year old radiator. Well I got my radiator back from being re-cored
> with a modern 3 core setup and I am still getting steam coming out from
> under the hood after a few minutes of driving. What sort of temp should I
> expect?
If you get steam after a few minutes of driving, then it's not the
radiator. I have never seen any problems with the water pump overheating
the engine. I suspect some deeper problems like head gasket failure
and/or sediment build up in the block. How long has it been since the
last engine rebuild?
Jan
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