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Overheats at end of 60+ mile trip
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greybeard851
New User
Aug 17, 2012, 10:59 AM
Post #1 of 2
(1868 views)
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Overheats at end of 60+ mile trip
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Hi,
Occasionally I have to make a trip to a VA hospital in another city. This requires a trip down an interstate highway for around 50 miles. Then I have to travel a few miles in typical city traffic to get from the interstate to the hospital. At that time the car movement gets rather slow because the parking lot is always very crowded. The car will start boiling over when I get into the lot and start moving slowly around. This has happened twice now, and each time after I get out, it will get me home without further problems. I don't experience any problems until my next trip.
I am wondering if the problem is in the rad cap, thermostat or,  the water pump.
The car is an '89 Ford Tempo with the smaller engine. I believe it is 1.3L or 1.4L It is an older car but it hasn't been driven much. You know, 'Little Old Lady going to church...'. It only has 97490 actual miles on it. I don't know if this is connected or not, but occasionally, when I start the car, I will get a squealing sound for 10-20 secs. and then when it stops squealing the RPMs go up to normal. I have thought this might be the WP freezing up, but am not sure.
Any help/suggestions would be appreciated and if any further info is needed, let me know.
Thanks,
Grey
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Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Aug 17, 2012, 11:31 AM
Post #2 of 2
(1851 views)
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Re: Overheats at end of 60+ mile trip
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Hmmm? After a good run engine has both a load on it but abundant airflow just from speed you are driving. All things well it should quickly adjust to the new slower speed of course.
For starters you need to know if fan is working. Pressure cap might be 14lbs +/- which raises boiling point to roughly 250F and if system is holding pressure it wont boil over till above that with just plain water - a little more with EG mix antifreeze.
The squeal upon start up could be your belt isn't tight enough or stretched to its limit. Reason is likely the alternator which just unloaded some amps to crank and the idea is for it to quickly put battery back to full charge so it is working hard for a while.
I'll venture the guess it's not thermostat, rad cap if it holds pressure, water pump a maybe but not so common or the dreaded head gasket. All components need to be in good shape and system known staying full at radiator. If, If, If, the cap isn't sealing by its design it would blow out expanded coolant to recovery but may fail to bring it back as it cools down and that is regulated by the little flapper on bottom of the closed system cap.
There is a fair amount of touch and feel where heat is at what times you can do and keep hands away from fan. If no temp gauge (not sure on this) just running heater for a bit you can get the idea of how hot it's running and if it goes cold could be air from boiling which doesn't throw much heat. A weak impeller of water pump might run cooler heat at low RPM than higher RPM -- all clues.
Overheating is a killer so do get on with it to find the cause. IMO if head gasket was really bad it wouldn't wait for a 50 mile run to act up but can't be sure of that,
T
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