Pontiac Repair: my car wont start., pontiac grandam, water coolant

Question
QUESTION: I have a Pontiac grandam and it wont start. It ran hot and died. I put oil in it and 3 gallons of water and it still wont start.

ANSWER: Hi katelin:

first off does it crank over? 3 gallons of water/coolant??? all at one time over the period of some time? was it that low on oil? The cooling system doesn't hold that much coolant so if you keep pouring it in at one time where did it all go? what engine is in this V6 or 4 cylinder what year is this? If it cranks over do you have any kind of warning lighst on or flashing like a security lamp?

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QUESTION: I added water in it before I took off and I went 45 mins down the road and it died. It was clanking so I let it cool off and I added more water to it. I was on my way home and about 10 mins down the road and it died so I coasted off the highway waited about an hour and added more water to it and oil. The change oil light just came on. And now that its not starting the service to engine soon light is on and the change oil light.

ANSWER: Well with out seeing this I can't tell you what happened. But it sounds like a major engine failure. you over heated it and caused some sort of damge to it. why it's loosing coolant??? an extrnal leak like a water pump or an inter nal leak like a head gasket or intake gasket not knowing what engine this has. if you over heated it bad enough that it stalled out chances are it has mechanical damage and a loss of compression. Again with out seeing it I can't tell you what is wrong or why the check engine like is on more them likley a misfire code or a engine over temp code.


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QUESTION: It over heated and there is not compression in it could it be that the head cracked? And if so how do I fix it. The water tank lid was missing a part but then again it never read on the temp. gauge never read that it was hot.

Answer
It may no if there is no water in the engine the temp sensor can't read the temp. it bneeds coolant flowing by it to read the temp. if it lost compression then when your cranking it over it will sound different then it usually does it will either kick back when it's cranking or sound like it cranking over faster than usual. Again I have no I dea what happened I'm just going by what you told me happened. if you put that much coolant in it and you don;t see it running out on the ground it's either going into the engine oil (crank case) or out the tail pipe burning it. If this is a V6 there is a goood chance it could have cracked a head or warped it. if it's a 4 cylinder not so much.