ok so first off its a 99 sunfire se 2.2 5spd with a cai and thats it 250000kms, going home on the highway and my car started overheating, smelt coolant so pulled over and and is pissing like a race horse from my over flow tank. My upper rad hose is pretty warm but my lower is cold and didn't have a drop run through it, its not leaking ( I know thats a problem ) and I have no heat, earlier in the day I went to a place called daves farm just outside of london ontario and did some jumps, if that helps lol and it pretty much just quit after I was driving on the highway for a bit

Also I think I'm noticing some smoke that wasn't there before ( coming out the tail pipe), not to sure as it was colder out but I'm going to check again once home, I just don't want to replace the thermostat then water pump and find out its my head gasket any help would be greatly appreciated!

White smoke out of the tailpipe when cold often ='s cracked head or bad head gasket.

Dave

well its not when the cars cold just when its hot check it today and I was driving last night it was REALLY hot then went to normal after being REALLY up there for a bit

Themostat is a cheap fix....maybe a coolant flush even? Gotta start somewhere.




Cavalier z24......A poor man's Camaro....close enough, right?

u have a blown head gasket my cavi had the same problem after a race down a highway well lets say my rpms were never that high since the car was made and sure enough my car started overheating and just quit on me well i took the engine apart after i did the thermostat and coolant flush and there it was blown head gasket so i replaced it but dont forget to flush out all the air out the radiador hose or else i wont work and itll keep overheating.

Overheating engines melt puncuation too.

Best to do the easy trouble shooting, It saves u the up front cash, First take out each spark plug see if it has any signs of coolant deposites on them, If not the do a compression test on each cyl, If the compression is low, Then u can start on the next phase, How old is the thermostat, How old is the rad, It could be as simple as a blocked rad, I would flush and replace the thermostat, Easy and cheap fix, Then if it still over heats make sure all the air is out of the system, If the car still over heats More likely youre hd gasket is no good.

Good Luck.

keep us updated.

SounDs like things went bad. Deffinately sounds like you need a new thermostat.


-Chris

Well it runs fine now but I'm just going replace my thermostat I know that's the problem now and my car could use some new coolant since its got the original, when I get the car it also had the same spark plugs for some 230 000 kms lol

how many miles are u suposta change the plugs

if lower hose is cold then your thermostat is not opening up, replace it and flush you radiator and fill with new coolant. make sure there are no air bubbles in the system when you refill it or the will get stuck right at the thermostat and still cause it to not open up