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  Feb. 15, 2009 10:15 a.m. patgizz Dork

  my fiancee's 02 cavalier with the 2.2 (non ecotec) engine started overheating friday. car has around 110k miles

  symptoms friday: car runs just under the red on the gauge, turning the heat to hot makes it worse, turning the heat to cold makes it better.

  changed the thermostat in the parking lot she was stuck in and got near a friend's house before it got up towards the red again and parked for the night.

  yesterday i towed it home and did some checking. the coolant tubes for the heater(which have the system air bleeder valve in them) were cold to the touch with the car at operating temp.
  

  pulled the water pump to inspect, did not look bad but tossed in a new one while it was out since they are so incredibly cheap. started and ran car, kept bleeding the system and keep getting air out. bled it over an hour and over a gallon of coolant later i still get air. if it runs too long without bleeding the heater lines get cold again.
  

  current symptoms:
  

  runs at just over 195 just sitting there cooling fan works constant air in system steam out the radiator tank cap(up on the fender) as soon as it goes out on the road(ie a load condition) the temps climb rapidly. same deal as friday - heater on hot makes it worse, heater on cold makes it cool off a touch. small sputter out the exhaust that was not there before zero visible leaks in the system

  the heater cold/hot thing is throwing me off but everything else is pointing me to head gasket breach between a cylinder and a coolant passage???

  what do you geniuses think? will i find evidence on a plug? good reason to buy a leakdown tester?

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  Feb. 15, 2009 10:33 a.m. mad_machine SuperDork

  the whole heater thing is weird.. but yes, sounds like either a leak or a headgasket

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  Feb. 15, 2009 2:07 p.m. Travis_K Reader

  Id suggest a compression test, pressure testing the cooling system, and checking for water in the oil as well.

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  Feb. 15, 2009 4:06 p.m. patgizz Dork

  will the compression test show a leak or do i need a leakdown tester, or both?

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  Feb. 15, 2009 4:13 p.m. skruffy Dork

  Headgasket

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  Feb. 15, 2009 4:41 p.m. Travis_K Reader

  A compression test may show a leak, but if it doesnt it doesnt mean nothing is wrong. Id do a compression test first, but maybe do both.

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  Feb. 16, 2009 12:11 p.m. patgizz Dork

  no coolant in the oil and no coolant in the bottle either.

  maybe i'll get lucky and find a non headgasket leak somewhere. i'm going to fill the system and park it on clean cardboard and see if anything comes out.

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  Feb. 16, 2009 12:29 p.m. skruffy Dork

  You can do a headgasket on a 2.2 in about 4 hours if you drink LOTS of beer. Drink less beer to speed up the process.

  A friend of mine did one on his cav without draining the coolant or oil. In a pretty bad snowstorm. He just topped off all the fluids when he was done. He didn't torque/clean anything either, those motors are bulletproof. That car had over 250k on it and he hadn't changed the oil in at least 100k miles. The only thing that killed it was getting towed, the impound fee was vastly more than the car was worth.

  The head gasket is $16.99 from autozone. Just do it.

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  Feb. 16, 2009 12:41 p.m. patgizz Dork

  autozone says $109.96 for the head gasket set.

  i did look up their repair guide and it looks pretty straightforward, i do like that the newer gm stuff uses torqued rocker nuts or bolts instead of having to adjust things, makes life simple when putting stuff back together.

  i told her if it was a small block it'd be done in under an hour.

  i've always meant to get a leakdown and compression tester so i'll get those and check it just to be sure, don't want to tear into something that isn't needing replaced.

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  Feb. 16, 2009 2:36 p.m. John Brown SuperDork

  Leakdown tester is best for you.

  These are notorious for terrible heads.

  Install a 3400 V6 and giggle all the way home ;)

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  Feb. 16, 2009 3:27 p.m. skruffy Dork

  patgizz wrote:

  autozone says $109.96 for the head gasket set.

  Yeah, but you probably won't need the whole set. The price I posted was for just the headgasket.

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  Feb. 17, 2009 11:43 a.m. patgizz Dork

  cylinder #4 (or is it #1?) - closest to the bellhousing/left side of the car - is leaking down 25% more than the other 3. and the plug is very clean and the rest have typical 30k miles on your plugs black porcelain.
  

  just ordered the head gasket set and new bolts from rockauto, i wont have time to do the job until this weekend nor the garage available until i finish getting the 40 rolling enough to get it outside. not doing this job outside without heat, last year i realized i had hit the age that "i'm too old for that crap" and prefer to do stuff inside with heat instead of out in the cold.

  i hosed the exhaust manifold nuts with pb blaster and will do so every day until the parts arrive.

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  Feb. 17, 2009 11:49 a.m. mad_machine SuperDork

  good luck.. and honestly, it should not take that long. If you get a warm day (and they seem to be coming along nicely) outside might not be too bad

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  Feb. 22, 2009 8:06 p.m. patgizz Dork

  buttoned it up this afternoon. didn't take long at all. supporting the motor was the worst part because cavaliers are stupid and don't have a real engine cradle.

  i'm filling it up(i was out of antifreeze) tomorrow and testing it, but it does run fine as it did before, a little smoother it feels. i found evidence of leak between coolant passage and the cylinder that leaked down 25% more than the others - nothing glaring but there was evidence.

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  Feb. 22, 2009 8:47 p.m. kingofkrunk New Reader

  my did the same thing at the same rtime

  its the only dependable thing about that car lol

  head gasket every 110-120 kms ... like clockwork lol

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  Feb. 22, 2009 9:48 p.m. patgizz Dork

  meh she bought it new and this is the first non maintenance issue. brakes/tune up/tires/oil change are all it gets. i think it has 110k miles on it, the cluster is acting up in the odometer dept and it only displays all the numbers sometimes. i want it to make 200k but at this rate it'll take 10 more years and cavaliers are a little too disposable to last that long in her "care" - add to the fact that it's going to start getting ugly fast with rust. she wants to keep the P71 but doesn't want the gas mileage that goes with a big boat with a v8.

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  Feb. 23, 2009 1:12 p.m. patgizz Dork

  the little econobox is fixed, just got back from a 25+ minute ride and it did great(as great as a cavalier can be expected to do). putting out good heat as well, and the cooling system bleed was successful.

  hooray, i get the P71 back tonight!

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