My cooling problem

Aug 12th, 2003, 10:49 PM

Ok, To start with, I'm cheap and I don't care care of my '94 altima like I should...

A few months back (january) my radiator developed a crack in the top to the passenger side of the cap... the crack was where the radiator top was molded together. Instead of having it repaired right then, I just put water in it when it was needed. The crack didn't seem to get any bigger. One fillup would last me about a week before it was noticeably low...

3 weeks ago, I forgot my routine and the car over heated. I noticed smoke coming out (I had just replaced the front brakes, thought it was brakefluid burning off because the master cyl overflowed when I compressed the pistons.) I looked at the temp gauge and I was pegged at "H."

I pulled over and let her cool. Ever since I have been FILLING up the radiator for even a 2 mile trip.

Here's my simptoms.
1. JB Welded old crack. New crack appeared on other side. This leads me to believe there's a pressure problem.
2. WHen I turn the heater on high, I expect to get hot air. I get none...
3. Temp gauge never gets past half way no matter how hot I think the engine is getting.
4. If I start the car with the cap off the radiator it SPEWS water out. Not pretty.
5. Runs rough a idle while still cold, almost cuts off. This may be due to the overheating, not my current problem.
6. I took the return hose off after running the car, looked at the water on the sides of the mount (engine side, not radiator) and it appears the water wasn't even reaching half way. I'm not sure what the normal flow through this should be but I always assumed it would pump a full hose worth. This may not mean anything though.

So... my thinking right now is that the overheating may have screwed the thermostat and it's not allowing water to flow. I don't know much about the plumbing here, but this doesn't completely make since to me. I thought the water was pulled through the thermostat, not pulled through it... What do you guys think?

nissannut · Aug 13th, 2003, 12:43 AM

Its not the thermostat... If it was water would not be moving and the engine just gets hotter.

You have a blown head gasket or cracked head or block. Sounds like water is getting into the combustion and is blown out the cap.. I have done this on my old L18.

Sounds like the engine got too hot too often.

If you have engine compression tester you can confirm this. remove all spark plugs and put in the compression tester, if you see bubbles in the radiator.. bingo blown head gasket... You can find out which cylinder is bad at the same time..

Aug 13th, 2003, 08:22 AM

In other words, it's time to take it to the scap yard and go buy a frontier? Head gasket I could probably afford, and may be able to do that myself but the other thing you mentioned would probably mean a trip to the junkyard, which sucks because it still has good cold air and never been wrecked.

Well, maybe I'm exaturating a bit... On a scale of 1-10, 1 being putting air in the tires and 10 being replacing the engine, what would you say replacing a head gasket would be?

Thanks for the help.

nissannut · Aug 13th, 2003, 08:31 AM

Rate 4

Its not that bad, if you head and block are ok. Minor cracks can be fixed in alum heads. Ususally what I do is swap the head for reburbished one with a machine shop for a flt fee. Around $200 worst case.

Just pull the head off have it inspected by a local machine shop for warpage and cracks.

Buy all new gaskets, head, intake exhaust, do not disconnect any ac lines. Should cost around $100 for oils and gaskets if head is ok. Worst case $300.

This is what i have paid for a few engines I have done.

Try the compression test, and surf for net for rebuilt heads.

Just found one price of 289 for 7year warranty head..

Never used this company yet though...

Aug 13th, 2003, 08:40 AM

I think I found the same one you found... I may try them out if it comes down to it. At least their website looks more professional than most. (It matters to me, I'm a web developer)

nissannut · Aug 13th, 2003, 09:52 AM

its an awesome website for parts... new used rebuilt...