2000 Montana Overheating?

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Slicer89

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Yesterday my wife went to drive our 2000 Montana and said she heard a loud pop, and it felt like it was stumbling... after driving not even a mile she said the temperature shot up and there was NO heat coming from the vents, cold air.

I met up with her and saw that the overflow tank was completely full with dirty, foul smelling anti-freeze, and it was gushing out - I removed the radiator cap and tried to add fluid (With the engine running) and it just started gushing out, the (Once again) foul smelling fluid, AND the Check engine light was flashing.

If I put the cap back on, the overflow tank was getting filled with more air / fluid.... We parked it and haven't driven it since... And when I say over heat, it got to the last tick mark before the red and was pulled over - There was no evidence of water / coolant in the oil.

Any ideas?
 
Blown head gasket or cracked cylinder head or both.
Water does not have to get into the oil for the gasket to blow.
to know for sure complete a cooling system pressure test with the engine cold and all the air bled from the system, the system should hold pressure, if not then pull the spark plugs and perform a compression test.
one or more of your cylinders will have low to no compression most likely.

The loud pop may have been a hose bursting or the pressure overcoming the pressure cap allowing the coolant to escape who knows for sure just check the basics for now.
 
EaOutlaw said:
Blown head gasket or cracked cylinder head or both.
Water does not have to get into the oil for the gasket to blow.
to know for sure complete a cooling system pressure test with the engine cold and all the air bled from the system, the system should hold pressure, if not then pull the spark plugs and perform a compression test.
one or more of your cylinders will have low to no compression most likely.

The loud pop may have been a hose bursting or the pressure overcoming the pressure cap allowing the coolant to escape who knows for sure just check the basics for now.
Click to expand...

I checked all the hoses I could see and didn't see any leaks, or cracks.

Wasn't leaking from the cap, either. Once I drove it for a sec to park it somewhere better, the light stopped flashing and it was running better.

Is it possible the thermostat got stuck closed and that's why the fluid was coming back out of the overflow and cap?
 
anything is possible, this is why you need to do these basic test, you have to find the original cause of the overheating.

Until you do a pressure test you do not know anything for sure. once you do the pressure test and the system holds pressure it becomes less likely, but not impossible for the engine to have suffered damage.

This is why you should pull a compression test on each cylinder.

A head job would necessitate removing the heads and thermostat.and would suck if your engine needs this work yet it will get much more costly if you wreck the engine.

all the tools you need can be obtained at Auto zone or Napa with their tool loaner program. so your not out anything but some time and money for a service manual.
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It's definitely the head gaskets, Because we started it up to move it yesterday and not only did it struggle to start, When it finally did start it was running really rough and smoking white smoke bad - And it smelled like anti-freeze coming out of the exhaust, So if that isn't a clear cut case of some sort of gasket failure, I don't know what is.

Thankfully the engine WAS NOT overheated (It never really reached the red marks completely, but came close) so replacing the gaskets should fix the issue.. and flushing the cooling system

Should we just use straight water? or is there some form of stuff out there that will clean the gunk out too?
 
I like using this stuff to flush a cooling system,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...olant flush&qid=1452382583&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

You will want to send you heads out to the machine shop to check for warped or cracked heads. normally I have them checked machine and rebuilt including a valve job.

You will also want a new thermostat and to pressure test the cooling system when your done to insure you have no other leaks present.

make sure to flush the cooling system good and get all the flush chemical and tap water out of the engine, then fill with the correct mixture of coolant and distilled water.
 
Any brand of gasket we should get? Like the best brand? Ones that are gonna last a while
 
Felpro is the brand that comes to mind.
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melsg5 said:
Felpro is the brand that comes to mind.
Click to expand...

Best ones we can get? Seems fair enough. Going to do the intake gaskets while we are at (Have to anyways) because those are another problem.
 
plus one to Felpro, check with the machine shop or service manual to see if you need to replace the head bolts. Some cars have torque to yield bolts that are intended to be used only once. I am not sure about your vehicle.
Also drain the coolant and oil right away. run some cheap oil through the engine while your draining it to kind of flush the oil pan while your at it. But only use oil nothing else to flush the pan.

before draining and flushing the oil, drain the coolant, pull the spark plugs and crank the engine over to pump out the coolant, then pour a little oil in the cylinder or cylinders that had water in them then pump out the oil by cranking the engine over until most of the oil has escaped. make sure to have a oil towel over the plug holes to catch the water and oil while your cranking so you do not make too much of a mess.

Once the car is back together clean the engine with some gunk engine cleaner of formula 88 and plenty of water just keep the cleaner and water off any sensitive electronics. ( try to keep the mess to a minimum )

You may want to run your shop vac in reverse as a blower once you have the exhaust manifolds off to push any water-coolant back out the exhaust the way the water came in. set the vac-blower up in a way where you can let it run and dry things out. same thing goes for your 02 sensors try and dry them out to help preserve them. you will have enough expense without having to replace o2 sensors and a catalytic converter.

if your having the heads rebuilt make sure to take the valve seals to the machine shop with your heads or buy a gasket set from the machine shop and pickup the kit with the heads minus the seals. While you have the engine apart you may want to replace any expansion plugs you can get to while it is easy to do. same thing with the heads have the machine shop change out any on the heads.
 
I did this job last summer and used the fel pro severe duty set P/N HST9071PT . It's a little more expensive. The intake mainifold gasket in this set is supposed to be better than the standard duty set. And the bolts are torque to yield. I haven't added a drop of coolant sence installing this kit last summer.
I also highly recommend leslie's spill free funnel for refilling the coolant on this van. It really makes refilling it correctly the first time a lot easier. Greg
 
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