Engine Overheating

[marty]

Hi,

I'm trying to determine the engine in my TE gem is overheating. It overheats when going 90km/h and above on the freeway for 5 mins or more, and/or sitting in traffic on a hot day. Normally the temp gauge sits 1/4 of the way. When overheating it settles at 3/4 of the way up. Upon stopping the car when the temp gauge is at 3/4 the radiator overflow hose pisses out quite a bit of water.

The radiator looks pretty bad has white crusty stuff along the top seams. The water does't have oil in it but is very brown, looks like losts of rust. How do you tell if its just the radiator, and not the head gasket??

Thanks in advance

Marty

[CuGem]

If the head gasket is blown you may see bubbles in the radiator when the engine is running. You might also see whitish emulsified oil on the oil filler cap, excessive steam (would also be using a lot of water)or emulsified oil at the exhaust pipe.
Another thing to look at if the radiator is really old, run your fingers along the fins. I did this when mine was overheating and they just fell away as an oxidised powder! Not much good for heat transfer... Your radiator sounds pretty crook.

Cheers
Michael

[Badger]

if you oil looks like chocolate flavoured milk, you have a blow head gasket. it sounds to me like you have a stuffed rad, and/or the cooling system is full of gunk.
flush it out, recon rad, use demin and good quality coolant in system.

you might find it will fix up a bit with just the flush if your rad is not too far gone

[Gigfus]

I just had to buy a whole new motor because of a similiar problem.........turned out my radiator was blocked, get u're radiator checked out by a specialist place.

[HONES]

mine was overheating after justw arming up the car...
i bought a cheap second hand radiator for 66 dollars and its fine now...flushed the motor out completely and normal temp is on half.
still a bit of a worry but what can u do hey