Headgasket blown?

[Quentin Earl]

I have a 160 tstat. It will sit and idle all day and the temp stays at 160 to 165. When I take it for a ride the temp will creep up and when im hard on it the overflow bottle will overflow and temps get to 190. If I take the cap off the radiator is full but when I crank it with the cap off the rad. drops to about half full. Could this be a sign of a blown head gasket? No white smoke or stumbling.

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[pdzz]

Sounds like it. Phil.

 

[Quentin Earl]

Not what I wanted to hear but thanks. Lol

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[TexasT]

Run a compression and a leakdown test. Then pressurize the cooling system if you don't find anything wrong with the compression. Are you loosing coolant? Does the exhaust smell of coolant? What does the oil look like?

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[Quentin Earl]

Losing coolant out of the overflow only. No water in the oil and exhaust smells normal. I'll do a compression test tomorrow. Also taking the radiator to get it rodded out Monday. I ran it today and didnt let it boost any and coolant came out of the overflow and temp crept up to around 185. Its like any load the temp starts going up and wont come back down. And the upper hose was real tight. After about 2hrs being shut down the radiator still had pressure on it. Is that normal?

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[TexasT]

Thermostat could be sticking. Coolant fresh? Have them (or you could) remove the thermostat and put it in a pot on the stove. See if it opens as the temp rises. Using a candy thermometer note the temp . Or just replace it. If the hose is pressurized it sounds like it isn't letting the coolant flow.

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[Dreamn4GN]

What about a faulty rad cap? I've had this happen on a jeep of mine. Running hot. Look under the hood. Upper and lower rad hoses were sucked in getting no flow. Old man recommended a new cap and problem solved. Turns out old cap fell apart Just a quick suggestion before going to anything serious. Good luck

 

[Quentin Earl]

Update. I installed a rebuild radiator my buddy had and cooling issues went away. Bad part was it leaked around the neck. I ordered and installed an Alradco and no issues at all. My old radiator was completely stopped up on the bottom half causing the top to flow like a pressure washer. I also flushed the block and heater core and installed a new tstat. Thanks for the replies.