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sputtering at speed

Okay, I swapped out the t-sat back to my old one (lucky I kept it). Temp is still a bit higher than normal but no more spiking to the red. Leak returned after I topped it off with coolant/water. Called myself bleeding it but no coolant ever came out only steam. (maybe it got too hot too fast) Fans came on and couple of minutes later went into overdrive, ran so fast I could hear them in side the car. Drove it around a bit but it didn't go into the red. I read somewhere on here what the lines are on the temp gauge so the temp was a bit to halfway between the last long line and the beginning of the red. (whatever that temp is) The 304 code came back with the 1518. Now what oh GM guru?
 


I also located the coolant temp sensor but couldn't get it out. Don't have the right size wrench. Looked in the t-sat housing and it didn't look any messier than everything around it. Ran some pure water thru it just in case but I'm not sure if that did any good or made it worse.
 
Oh the heater seems to work just fine so I don't think its clogged or the core is bad. Then again, I could be wrong. Everything seems to come back to the 1518, the leak and the 304.
 
heater worked for a couple of days. temp spiked, so I parked it. feels like the radiator may be clogged but I don't know what the issue is. I took the hoses off the heater, don't have a water hose so I had to jury rigged it and poured water thru the hoses both ways till a moderate amount of water came thru. Now no heat, still goes to the red but I'm lost as to what is the problem. same 1518/0304 codes. I wonder if the sensor is bad cause the car isn't losing coolant that I can see. Soooo, any ideas oh car gurus?
 
Okay, took my car to the stealership. After keeping it for two days they told me that the cause of all my problems was either a cracked head or a cracked block. From what I have experienced with those two issues, I don't see ANY of the symptoms. Can anyone give me any advice on these issues? I don't have any loss of oil, coolant leaks but it leaks from the rad which I already knew about. I don't have any excessive white smoke out my tailpipes, so I need a second opinion. Of course the quote to fix it is well above the value of the car so even if I had the funds, I can't see spending 5k on a 2004 that I only paid 4500 for.
 




I could probably get it done if I had that kind of time. Plus this is my only vehicle, so I'd be pushing the rented hoist down the street. LOL Then, knowing me, I'd miss a crucial bolt or hose and the car would explode like in the movies. If I had a garage and a second vehicle, I'd be on it simply for something to do but I'm a bit more pressed for time.
 
find a local shop then. look for that shop with old engines piled up on the side of the garage. those guys do engine swaps.

some shops will just toss out a high number to get rid of you, cause they dont want to do a swap.

the shops that will, charge about 500 or so with new fluids.
 
went got my car from the dealership this morning. they seem to think that its either a cracked head or cracked block. I asked him how he came up with that, said the tech did a block chem test that showed exhaust gas in the coolant. Now I'm confused, everything I read on here as well as other places tell me that a cracked head/bad head gasket should show symptoms. I have no bubbling in the rad while revving. No smoke out the back. No milkshake in the oil, coolant level seems to stay steady in the overflow bottle. May be loosing some somewhere as the rad is always taking more. I'm stumped. Oh, and no obvious signs of leakage on the ground of either oil or coolant other than the leak in the rad that I already know about. Priced some new engines but I really would like to poke around it and see if I can figure it out. I would feel extremely stupid if I swapped out an engine instead of changing say a coolant elbow or a heater core. Scotty, where you at bro. LOL
 


Just did an inspection. Took off the oil cap and I do have a bit of milky white milkshake on the oil cap. Nothing on the dipstick just the cap.
 
if there was exhaust gas in the coolant, thats a blown head gasket. they sell a tester you can buy to test it yourself.

hell try some blue devil.

you'll get some snot and some moisture under the cap in the winter time. we all get it to some degree.
 
This is what it looks like, this is the only symptom I can find of a head problem. I'll go get a tester tomorrow. I tried to send it earlier and it took me this long to figure out the original pic was too big so wouldn't upload. Milkshake or snot?
 

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