Spiziked23

What are some obvious signs of a blown head gasket? What are some common causes of Overheating in these cars?
I just recently purchased a 93 GS300, I drove it maybe 50 miles home and had no problem beside the temp gauge going up and down randomly.
Park d the car. Drove it again around the block and the temp gauge stayed in the middle
Drove the car a couple hours later, and within 10 miles the car overheated. I figured if I put some coolant in;, everything would be fine but that did nothing. Car was already ready to burst. The radiator still had the plier clamps so I replaced that mainly because the hose popped off on me, but is this nessicarilly a head gasket issue? The exhaust dosent smell like coolant, the car dosent run bad. The oil isn't off colored albeit it is a bit dark. What could be the problems?

Mandrake

If your headgasket is blown, you'll usually get white smoke out the exhaust. You might get coolant and oil mixing. The car will overheat. It runs terribly of course.

Don't replace spring clamps with regular hose clamps. They're like that for a reason. As the pressure expands the hose and fitting, the spring clamps flex with it. Regular screw down hose clamps don't flex and wear out the hoses quicker and cause more failures like cracked radiator end tanks. If the hose popped off, you have other problems. That probably means you have a lot of pressure building up in the cooling system which could be a stuck thermostat or a clogged radiator.

If the car is actually 23 years old, has an unknown service record and is overheating, you'd be wise to replace the water pump, thermostat, inspect and replace the hoses and at least flush the radiator. If it sat for a long time, you might have to replace the radiator too because it's likely full of rust and sediment.

skytechja

I second what mandrake says here....

When i bought mine it wasnt overheating until i started running the a/c

after a wile i realized i had coolant leak... so here is a brief synopsis of what i replaced etc...


bought new thermostat (There was NONE there)
removed single core radiator and upgraded to a double core radiator (I flushed system after that tooo)
replaced clutch fan (if ur span spins freely... it means it needs to be replaced asap...... when spining it by hand... it should just make like 2 or so spins n stop)
replaced my water pump and seals.... the back plate of my water pump was the culprit of my leak. The front piece wasnt spinning as it should either
replaced radiator hoses with brand new hoses..
new clamps as well... (though i have the screw down ones on currently...lol)


the lil fan that is beside the clutch fan.. i will be upgrading that lil fan to a bigger electrical fan shortly as well....




my car used to run like crap n giv ewhite smoke and i seriously though it was head gasket.. even went ahead and bout the kit.....
Turn out it was the computer... leaking capacitors...
Please dont take that lightly ....

leaky capacitors can make u replace a whole lot of stuff in car that might not necessarily need to be replaced.....

My advice.... remove and inspect your computer please........

trdori

Leaky ECU capacitors is very common with the JZ motors but also if the temp was fluctuating like that could be a thermostat getting stuck intermittently OR air pockets in the coolant system. Would definitely try checking thermostat (cheap insurance) AND bleeding the coolant system afterwards.

Spiziked23

The starter went out, so zi ended up grabbing that, a failsafe thermo, water pump, and radiator. Will be picking up a Coolant temp sensor as well. My ECU dosent seem to be leaking so it was my Water Pump and HCV leaking coolant which caused the car to dry up and overheat.