i'm having trouble with my 90 firebird, i've just got a 3.1 v6 in it, its a daily driver, and since summer, it's started to loose water, not a lot, about a quart every couple of weeks, well at the beging of october it started running hot, it always ran about 220, now its up to 240 before it will open up and cool off, i've changed the water pump under two years ago, and the berrings seem to be good in it, I changed both the temperture sending unit for the guage, as well as the fan sensor, i put a new 195 thermostat in it, then i tried a 180. and it still looses a little water, and still runs hot. it isn't leaking any water, so all i can think of is boiling.

here's the kicker it does not show any symptoms of running hot, the radiator cap has never blown, the engin does not miss or spike. my next step is head seals, so if any of you out there think it may be something else, or have had this before, any help would be great (trying to get it ready before it too cold to work on it.)

sorry about the book i wrote.

Flames

 

You can't tell if the radiator cap has failed by looking at it, or from where coolant escapes on the Camaro system , but it sounds like yours has. Try a new one, its the cheapest fix.

If the car cools down once the thermostat opens, it sounds like there is air in the system. That plus loosing coolant sounds like the radiator cap is failed.

 

the coolant has to go somewhere!!

it might just leak and then burn off, which it was doing to me..


searching all available hoses and make sure nothing is leaking..

mine was leaking from the heater core hoses and burning off the exhaust manifold..

 

If there is a leak, you could try a leak detector fluid and UV light.