QuestionI have a 1993 Plymouth Laser with about 158,100 miles on it that keeps overheating. About a week ago I changed the water pump as the outer seal was busted and I changed the thermostat and did make sure that it was in there correctly. The car is a 1.8L 4 cylinder. The other day I reset the tach and test drove it after letting it cool and filling it with water and it went 9 miles before starting to redline. Well, today I made sure that the thermostat was in right, reversed my radiator hose to where the weaker part was on the radiator not the thermostat housing, drained the radiator(did not flush it),tightened up the two bolts on the valve cover and filled it back up with coolant 50/50. Then I drove it and it went 28 miles before overheating. When I pull over and pop the hood, the overflow is boiling over, but there is no white smoke, nor oil burning, nor water in the oil nor any signs of a blown or leaking head gasket, which I am hoping that its not cuz i priced it and it will cost about $400 for me to do it myself. Can you help me with this? Also, my right bigger cooling fan works, but the left smaller one has a wire hanging out under the fender that goes to it and I cant figure out where it plugs back in. I am hoping that all I need to do is plug it back in and flush the radiator. Is the anyway I can tell definately if its the head gasket or not and/or for sure whats wrong? Please help, Thanks.
AnswerI'm not at the point where I can pull up diagrams right now but if you respond with a follow-up questions then you'll be able to get back in touch when me when I have a better connection.
You've got two fans. One is a/c and the other is typical cooling.
There's something else I'm curious about. If a cooling fan is not working properly and you're doing all of your test driving in stop and go or slow speeds then you'll definitely overheat as there's no airflow of significance.
I'm suspicious of the radiator flow and coolant fan operation. It should be hot throughout the whole face of the radiator. If you've only got heat in the top, the bottom or only down one side then your radiator is clogged up causing your overheating condition. Also, car starts warming up then the low speed fan should come on from time to time to help cool down the coolant. No fan, and the coolant temp will never drop.
If you've got a blown headgasket then you may have driveability problems, external leakage or even white smoke out of the exhaust.
You've replaced the t-stat and water pump. I'm very suspicious of the coolant fan and radiator flow. I'll check my questions tomorrow and will have more info for you.
Doug
