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engine coolant overflow

airharley

New CEG'er
Joined
Jan 24, 2005
Messages
15
Location
Escondido, CA
My wife is having some issues with her 1999 contour 2.0. I had to replace the thermostat a few weeks back after it was stuck closed. Now every time she drives it 10 or so miles the coolant overflows, like it is boiling, and the engine is stupid hot. I changed the coolant and even went as far so to flush the whole system. I suspect the head gasket has gone out after 120,000 miles. My worst fear is that the head has a crack in it. Before I rip the head off I wanted to check here to see if anyone has some ideas to troubleshoot the cooling system. I have looked for coolant in the oil and under the valve covers. Even pulled and replaced the spark plugs since they were looking crappy. They didn't have a green tint to them so I don't believe the coolant is going in the cylinders. I don't mind tearing the engine down but I would hate to do it for nothing.
 
Check to see your cooling fan is running (turns on with A/C). If that's running correctly, it may be a bad water pump. Have you replaced the water pump and/or the timing belt previously? That's all I can think of for bad cooling.

If you have a warped or cracked headgasket, you'd see white smoke in the exhaust (or blue if oil is seeping in.)
 
Well I do know the cooling fan comes on with the A/C. With the water pump, wouldn't that give me a leak or something on the exterior of the engine? Forgive me but I mainly play with 385 series and Windsors which have the weep hole.
 
I pulled the thermostat out already to make sure it was in right. I even added a "burb" hole to get any trapped air out of the block. The more I do think about it though the more it does sound like a bad pump. I read on another thread that I should have changed the water pump when I did the timing belt. Speaking of which, the timing belt actually lost half the teeth when it went. Now I am starting to wonder if the water pump siezed and caused the timing belt to shred. I hate it when my mind wanders after a long day. Now I want to go rip the engine apart.
 
$30.00 and 2 hours later I now have a driveable tour. Thanks for the sugestions and guidance. 2 hours is a lot easier then a few days of frustration and busted knuckles.
 
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