Stuck in Bakersfield - Overheating

[GSequoia]

Alright kids, here's the deal. I'm stuck in Bakersfield right now (re: far away from home) with an overheating problem. I was coming back from the Kern River today and started overheating going up a hill to a litlte day trip we were taking. Anyway, I overheated pretty good and found that my overflow hose was crimped completely, so it wasn't working.

Fixed that, started out again. Overheated. Filled with water, blah blah.

Anyway, went to Lake Isabella and took my thermostat out (it was siezed), unfortunatly I didn't have any silicone on me so I used some GOOP from the gas station, anyway, it leaks. I am still overheating right now, I stopped here and got a tube of Silicone from Wal-Mart, but it takes so long to set that I am staying at the Motel 6 here, grr!

Anyway, if you have any suggestions let me know. If any of you are in the Bakersfield area and want to come laugh at me give me a call at 310.621.1634 (my cell).

Thanks,
Sequoia

[jimmy forbes]

all i can tell u is that mine ovrheated, then i slowly replaced all my cooling system. it works fine now though
good luck,
jimmy

[Backdraft]

Im not near Bakersfield, but can I laugh at you on here?:D

Mike

PS: Only reason im laffin is cause i fought overheating for around a year.

[martin]

Try removing the thermostat and see what happens. You can make it home without a thermostat. If it runs cool then that may indicate you thermostat is bad.

You could have the water pump impeller spinning on the shaft or the radiator is not flowing any coolant.

Try a shake down drive with the thermostat removed, if that works drive it home then try to fix it.

[RichP]

Why are you using silicone to seal the tstat housing, that takes a gasket and I normally carry 2 extras as well as a thermostat and pressure cap under the rear seat.
I'm more curious what the crimped overflow line did, with no place to expand to the next weakest spot is the packing around the water pump shaft, did it blow it out ???

[Karlm]

Sorry man, I can't laugh at you at all. My rig is sitting in my parents driveway right now waiting for parts after overheating something fierce on my way up to Tahoe on the fourth. To make it worse, I locked my keys cell phone and wallet in my car when I got out to see why I was spewing steam. Good luck to you.

[Goatman]

Well, Sequoia hasn't left Bakersfield yet. It looks like the radiator may be partially plugged, it's an 8 month old radiator but it appears that water isn't flowing well through the system. Water pump, radiator and most everything else is new within the last year. No leaking anywhere.

Used a smog sniffer to check for hydrocarbons in the radiator, and it was positive, though very minor. So, it looks like there is a small head gasket problem. This could have occured because it got hot, and not to cause it to get hot. He's waiting for cool evening weather, and taking plenty of water, and limping it home over the mountians to L.A.

Bummer to have trouble out of town. Good luck to him on his trip home tonight.

[Kejtar]

all I can say is ouch..... what really adds in this case is missing a day of work.... :( I know the feeling from when I used to have my 86 2.8 :(

Kejtar

[GSequoia]

So yeah, I'm still here :(

Here's the rundown.

I already removed the thermostat, that was the first thing I did since I heated it up (it was bad, probably the effect of the overheating, not the cause), anyway, still heated up, damn!

As Goatman said I had my coolant sniffed and it had a little bit of HC in it (7ppm), so I've got something not good happening there. Here's the kicker to the evening. I was waiting for the sun to go down (Bakersfield is hot) so I went and saw a movie, anyway, came out after it was sitting for about four hours, nice and stone cold. Anyway, I started it up and it was running rough, missing and all that. Took it for a spin around the parking lot and couldn't get out of my own way. Took a little drive to see if it would clear up and nothing.

Goatman and I looked at it and tried taking it for a drive (maybe a cylindar was wet?) and nothing, there's no way I could possibly do a flat freeway, let alone the grade of the grapevine, so I was left with only one alternative of leaving the car here. So Goatman (MANY, MANY thanks to him!) gave me a ride to Greyhound only to find that the bus to Los Angeles was full, so he then gave me a ride to the motel and here I sit.

On the good side, I just found out that I might have a really, really good connection to use for towing, somebody might give me a free tow home (over a hundred miles), friend of a friend thing. So that will help a lot, I won't have to be chaning a head gasket in the Bakersfield heat!

Sequoia

The morals of the story:
1. Don't let your cooling system start to get bad.
2. Never leave home without a laptop for NAXJA access.
3. Never break down in a place that's far away from a NAXJA member!

RichP I just remembered, when the line was crimped it was blowing the cap up a bit and squirting out the side. At first I thought it was a bad radiator cap so I replaced it (a few days ago), turns out that line was 100% crimped. When I tear down this engine I'm going to be taking a good look at the water pump and doing a very, very thorough flush of the cooling system, it's about time I'm no longer afraid of my AC.

[Casper]

GSequoia
What cooling system are you using. Is it still stock? And is it the closed system with the 2 core radiator, fill bottle on the firewall, etc.? If so I have a radiator, heater valve, and fill bottle. They are all used and off of my 87 XJ. All of the parts are in good conditions and have no leaks. I changed them out because I wanted to upgrade to the 3 core radiator and open system. But if you could use the parts, let me know. You pay the shipping and they are yours my friend.

Casper

[GSequoia]

Casper...Thankis for the offer, but I convereted to GDI 3-Row open awhile back...Now if you want to give me your head gasket then we'll be talking :)

Sequoia

[Backdraft]

Damn, now I feel bad for snickering before. I know overheating is a royal PITA, but man if I had known about the head gasket I belive I would have had a moment of silence and shed a tear. Hope you get it towed back fairly cheaply Sequoia. And also I hope you get it fixed quickly.

Mike

[Kejtar]

Damn... that really sucks..... If I could I'd gladly offer a tow but I'm dealing with couple headaches myself : springs bending the other way (:() and my trailer connector is still not repaired (I got the other one still laying in the garage waiting to be sunk into the bumper...)

Can you rent one of those small flatbet car hauling trucks? I have seen them in the 1 car hauler versions.... or Uhaul and a car trailer...

Kejtar

[GSequoia]

Well, I'm thinking of options on the towing route. The U-Haul idea is going to be an expensive one with mileage I'm sure, but there's a slight possiblity that I might be able to use a friend of a friend to help me out (rumor has it they have a trailer and truck), dunno though...grrr!

[RNMedic]

how far off a tow? if you get AAA rv or gold membership they will give you four free tows, up too a hundred miles each, a year. get it towed a hundred miles drop it and call again, we did this with my brother in laws mini van, but used different AAA cards for each stop, was a 300 mile tow. For my wife and I its about a hunded bucks a year, that can be 8 100 mile tows. Good Luck, John

[GSequoia]

Well, it's time for me to get out of this motel room, so I'm no longer going to have NAXJA access :(

Anyway, if anybody comes up with a brilliant scheme or idea go ahead and give me a call on my cell at 310.621.1634, I'm going to bum it around Bakersfield for a bit until I get my decisions made here.

Sequoia

[Kejtar]

well... try charlie's angels and t3 if you haven't seen either one :D

Kejtar

[Tucker]

No word yet ... anybody else know if he made it home ok?

[Kejtar]

yes and no.... he's back in LA while his XJ is still up in Bakersfield. Now he's working on making arrangements to tow his XJ back to LA so that he can do a head gasket and while at it do some more work on it (since it's gonne be so open... might as well).

Kejtar

[Tucker]

Good to know he's ok, and I am sorry for the xj ... I know how it is to be stranded :(

Thanks for the update.

[GSequoia]

Yup, I'm back. I havne't updated all the posts I was involved in because I've been running around a bit taking care of the stuff I couldn't for the past two days.

I did a writeup in Non Tech on it here: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6745

Been a hell've a weekend, but I'm laughing it off.

Sequoia

[cal]

I'm still itching to know.. did you get your jeep home yet? ;)

[kastein]

I think some rednecks stole some parts off it, then Letterman stole his beer. I won't mention what the bears did because this isn't the Den.

[cal]

I didn't realize bako was that close to chicago.

[scottmcneal]

Cal you are one funny man...LOLOOLOLOLOOLOL

[Carol.92124]

I thought you were busy, Cal!! Is this your lunchtime amusement?

[GSequoia]

I'm still itching to know.. did you get your jeep home yet? ;)

No.

Why do you think I haven't gone wheeling in so long?