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overheating issue

A

alreadytooken

New member
ok well my 04 grand prix with the 3.8l na seems to be overheating when going up large hills. i got this thing with a ton of problems. so far ive replace the head gasket with rebuilt heads, new radiator, new tranny, new thermostat, new water pump, flushed the cooling system. the radiator fans are working correctly. it not using any water and has no water leaks. the head gasket isn't leaking and it never overheats normal driving, just when you go up a 10 mile hill. im thinking maybe my cats clogged anyone have issues with the cataltic converter my car only has 120k. any input would be helpful. i guess you only pay 1000 buck for a reason. oh by the way i wasn't with the car when my woman was driving and she pulled over when it got to 3/4 of the way up the temp guage. i guess she also said it seems to have a loss of power no check engine light
 
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I would bleed the cooling system and see what you get from that. If all that work was done recently then whoever did it may not have bled it correctly.

Loss of power could be a clogged cat, or tune up related. When was the last time you changed the plugs/wires/fuel and air filter? Cleaned the MAF and TB?
 
i think i figured it out. all that you stated were all ready done and i bleed the cooling system with a vacuum based bleeder that doesn't leave behind any air pockets. well the other night i noticed some antifreeze was leaking out of the housing even though it was a brand new thermostat. so i decided to change it with a gm thermostat. well now its not overheating and the system is building pressure correctly. also instead of the coolant needle running right between the 2nd notch and 3rd notch, its now running right below or right above the 3rd notch. my woman miss took the area above the 3rd notch and the 4th mark as way overheating which it is running too hot but not blowing up overheating. the way they have the red marks is missleading. shes going to drive it 100 miles tomorrow so we will find out. hopefully i just got two crappy thermostats for kragen which wouldn't surprise me.

also i noticed im getting a lot of lifter racket when starting up and it last longer than it should . i know the guy i got it from never changed the oil, literally never, probably changed it once a year with crappy oil. i think im going to throw a new set of main and rod bearings.
 
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Before you "throw in a set of bearings" and waste a bunch of money line boring the block and whatnot to get the bearings right (which you must do to ensure the motor survives more than 25 miles), try putting some seafoam in the crankcase about 100 mi. before your next oil change. Then change it out for some good quality oil and see what you get. These cars aren't known to have quiet lifters all the time, so some clatter is normal.
 
lol already tried the seafoam treatment, unfortuantely didn't help. also tried a little aft and lucus. i run castrol full sytheic but the previous owner never did anything. i was just going to pull the pan, install new rod and main bearings to prevent any previous damage from ruining the motor. it could just be a couple bad lifters, even know its rare, but this car is unique
 
If you pull the bearings ... at all. Have that done at a machine shop and align bored or you'll most likely kill your motor in say 2-200 miles. Our motors are very ....extremely finicky about bearings.
 


BillBoost37 said:
If you pull the bearings ... at all. Have that done at a machine shop and align bored or you'll most likely kill your motor in say 2-200 miles. Our motors are very ....extremely finicky about bearings.
Click to expand...

Interesting. When I changed pistons and bearings I didn't have it bored or anything. Been running strong now for 100k miles. Just dumb luck?
 
From everything I've seen, tried and read about. I'd say yes. Maybe I'm wrong..there's far too many that have failures though.
 
typically unless you roasted the bearings from something else is when you have to align bore it. if your just re ringing the motor because you want to freshen it up you don't need to. i never had and ive done it many of times. i mean you should but not necessary. unless theres something i don't know about these motors but turbo eclipse you have to every 100000k and all my cars are stilling running. heck i did it to a 2002 eclipse gt two weeks ago because they thought it would be a good idea to drop a washer in the cylinder when doing a tune up. all your doing is replacing a slightly worn bearing with one with stock clearences

also were does your guys grand prix with stock thermostat run according to the guage. just making sure it hasn't got hot yet
 
Yeah..there's a couple goofy things about these motors. The bearing caps like to distort. Which then causes bearing issues. If you search around..you'll find an overwhelming amount of guys that say..if you don't machine shop it..don't touch the bearings.
 


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