TMaxxTim

So here's the shortened story. I'm driving home for easter and my car starts to overheat. I don't know how long it was overheating because my needle fell off my temperature gauge, so I have to guess where it is (not that hard though, but you can't just take a look out of the corner of your eye).

So I'm cruising at about 90 on cruise control and all of the sudden i felt the car drop in power and start to fall back. I thought I bumped the brake or hit the cancel button somehow, but I keep on the gas and it doesn't feel right, but the car doesn't feel like its going to die at all, it still has power and is going.

I pull to the gas station and its overflowing with coolant and I can hear it bubbling. Luckily there was a small (when I say small, I mean VERY small) tire shop nextdoor, I wait for my car to cool and pull in there. By some stroke of god he has the thermostat that will fit a SC300. Apparantly the thermostat Lexus uses is used on more than just the 2jz, so I lucked out there.

We filled it back up with coolant, and here's the problem, there was white smoke pouring out of the tailpipe, and moisture all inside the back of the magnaflows. I coulnd't tell if it smelled sweet since I can't smell at all (I can thank my allergies for that). But I let it idle for awhile, drove it up and down the street, give it a good run and the temp gauge stayed at even the whole time.

Basically here's where I'm at. My car drove the rest of the 200miles home without a problem (well there were problems but read below...they weren't coolant or HG related).

Coolant in the engine is BAD, theres no way water/coolant can get to the engine w/o blowing a headgasket (please correct me on this if I'm wrong, but this was my impression up to now). So there has to be a small leak that opened up when it got real hot.

I'm going to change my oil tomorrow, drive it for a little bit and see if I can see any milky stuff/coolant in the oil.

I'd also like to undertake the replacement of the HG. Hopefully somewhere around here can get the part by this weekend. Basically I dont want to drive another 3hrs with a "damaged" engine, whether its damaged a lot or not very much, something is wrong and I dont want to get stranded.

Unless the experts can weigh in with a different opinion then I'm going to attempt to replace the HG. I might as well since I will probably leave my car at home, and not fix the HG or anything until the first week of May when school's over and I can figure out what to do from there (new 2jz-ge, new 2jz-gte, new HG, new car??).

The car ran fine for the 200miles left in my trip. So I dont there there was any other warpage or damage, however I'm not an expert, and I dont have the proper tools to determine if there is warpage if I get the engine apart.

Any input is appreciated, I'm stuck in the middle on this car. I love it, but I really proably need to find a newer/bigger Lexus to put myself in, however I don't have the funds to do that for awhile. I can tell you though that if I have to take the car in...I won't, because I'll use that money for a new car.


Other Problem I mentioned earlier:
I drove about anotehr 130 miles and my radar detector kept telling me low voltage, and I was like wtf? So I just kept driving, sometimes the radar detector is messed up and gives me weird readings like that. But by the time I made it to the exit I got off at the gauge cluster could not be seen and my car sounded like it was about to die. Turns out the guy forgot to plug back in the connector on the back of the alternator!!! I was surprised no lights came on and the car lasted as long as it did though. However it was just another thing on a 8hr journey that should have taken 3!!!

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

If you are blowing smoke out the rear, it's a head gasket. Blue is oil, white is water.

You don't have to have a head gasket blown between the cyls, you could have blown out a water jacket in the head gasket. Sometimes this does not produce water in the oil. When you blow a water jacket you can blow oil into the water instead.

Either way, it wasn't just playing with you..... there's a problem. Either the thermo stuck or the water pump is on the fritz, but the white smoke in the tail pipe indicates water did escape into the exhaust = bad.

TMaxxTim

Okay, I'll definately get a headgasket then tomorrow and attempt a repair. For $100, I can't really justify spending anything else right now. Espeically with a $1500 dent already in my car.

It was the thermometer for sure. When he took it out he said for how hot it was, it needed to be have been opened and it was stuck closed. I just had the waterpump replaced last fall when the timing belt went kaput.

TMaxxTim

Ordered a new HG for Auto-Zone for $75. I also have a valve cover gasket I'm going to replace while I'm in there.

Basically I'm going to go from the step by step instructions from the manual on how to do it. Anybody have any tips while I'm in there? Also, is there anything else (other gaskets, etc.) I should be replacing while I am taking apart the engine and in there. Any cleaning I should do with some kind of a solution to the valves or piston heads?

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

If you wanna clean in there, seafoam the hell out of it before you change the gasket. That way you can change the plugs and oil and start fresh with a clean engine.




.......and if something goes horribly wrong, ..... dibs on your seats

TMaxxTim

We'll see how it goes. I have the engine almost completey apart in my garage right now. Taking a little break. I probalby have an hours worth of work before I get the head off and get to the HG.

And if this project goes terribly wrong...OLT, we'll talk about the seats...they are nice