I have made a terrible mistake. I installed a '95 LT1 (500 original miles) over a year ago. I have the fan wired to a manual switch. Which is fine when driving it. But it has been in storage and I went out to let it run. Forgot I had it running and 45 minutes later I remembered and it was steaming out the hood.

Surprisingly it was still running. The temp gauge was pinned. The voltmeter was completely down. I think the voltmeter was down because the alternator was hot and the internals were wet from the steam.

I immediately shut it down. Then thought it might be better to run it with the fan on and try to get it to cool slowly.

Restarted it within 30secs and it cranked slowly then a mechancial clank. And it started. Shhheeeww. But I wasn't sure how much water was left in it. I shut it back down and let it sit for an hour or so.

Outside temp ~32degF. Had Mobile 1 5W-30 in it when it over heated. Once it cooled I added water and started it. It seems to be ok, idles fine but I shut it back down until I look things over.

It didn't seem to hold water. I put most of a piture of water in it then 3quarts of anti-freeze. At first I thought I was loosing it from a hose or a seal leak. Now I think all the water just boiled off. Because the next day I got under the car while a friend was adding water. No leaks.

Changed the oil and found no water.

I am planning to pull the oil pan and try to look at the cylinder walls.

What are some precautions or steps I should check so that a small problem doesn't become a disaster?

Thank You,
Gus

 

That is a touhg one and deffinately a leeson learned. You could have damage that you can't see until to tear down the motor. It is very easy to warp the aluminum heads if they over heat for a long time. Hoepfull it didn't boil over until a little before you remembered. When it is about 32 degrees out I can let my LT1 idle for 25 minutes and I am rigth at operating temps. About 10 more minutes and I am getting a little higher without the fans coming on. About another 10 is when the fans would kick on. I bet you only overheated for a short bit. Now that doesn't mean you are in the clear but I would change the oil, and maybe rig up a dummy switch for the fan to kick on by itself.

 

It sounds like you may have made out alright with it. When I overheated mine, I did it bad. Blew a head gasket and had water in the oil, thick white smoke out the tail pipes, and would not start at all. If you have no smoke at all, and you don't have any leaks, you should be alright. Usually when you overheat there is a weep hole on the bottom of the waterpump that will blow out and you'll have to replace the pump, but if its not leaking I wouldn't worry about that.

 

The main lesson to take away from that is, screw a manual fan switch. Hook the system up right, so that it doesn't depend on some stupid human to protect it from the things humans do so much more poorly than machines.

 

:hail:

 

Amen.. before i fixed my electric fan electricals, my 350 got pretty warm more than once... not too bad really, but this is the only case I can think of were "To err is human, to really screw things up takes a computer" doesn't apply.

 

Working on the auto fan on right now. I think I've got it but I want to pull of the oil pan before I let it go.

I have hooked an exhaust system in the garage. I can test it out in the garage on jack stands!

BTW I found a engine support at harbor freight for ~$60. Great tool doing entire suspension job. When I drop the engine cradle I can get to the oil pan and bottom end.

Gus

 

or you can wire the fan to a switched source and leave it on all the time. shrug i am lazy