Help in/near Savannah, Ga?

My brother is having some "issues" with a '97 Caddy sts he picked up recently. He is in (on) Tybee Island and I am here in picturesque NW Arkansas! Not much help. From what I gather from the phone conversation he has the dreaded stripped head bolt / blown head gasket problem.
When he said he had a car problem I answered "MIATA!" and he didn't get it! Be patient, he's learning. He truly is one of us though, His DD is a '65Dodge van that I gave him(and made 2 trips from AR to Ga) and his wife DD's his '74 Cuda!(that he bought in high school in '86) If anyone nearby can help a brother(litterally) out, he is a great guy and a good time for all is gaurenteed!

dang, I would try, but its a 6 hour drive for me...

Thanks for the offer. Be careful, he probably would trade you for the Bad Ass Perspire that you have, that I JUST VOTED UP! Sweet car! (my son wants it)

lol, not many people have said that.

We are a very twisted family.

sorry to hear that, I stripped the bolts out of the front head on my 98 Eldo, had to put timeserts in. There are many symptoms of other items on these engines which appears to be a HG when it's not, but there are a few ways to make 'sure' he actually has a head seal issue. The most sure signs are loosing coolant with no visible external leak, whisps of white smoke out the tailpipe in weather you should see no condensation, and when the engine is cold, you may experience a bit of a rough idle until it warms up and 'seals' itself. Methods to accurately diagnose are as follows:

1) Cheap and easy is to go to NAPA and get a headgasket exhaust gas test kit ~$50, put in surge tank opening, fill with blue fluid, watch for bubbles, if it turns from blue to yellow you have a problem captain.

2) More thorough is a full on leak down test, remove one spark plug at a time, turn engine by hand to TDC for that piston, pressurize, listen for leaks, keep radiator cap off, check coolant for bubbles, listen for exhaust leaks. Obviously you need an air compressor for this and it takes some time to complete but tells you the most.

If you have overheating issues thermostat and radiator pressure cap are common failure items, also, if the air dam connector piece from the bumper to the radiator support mount is missing and there are temp issues you MUST replace this piece, just go to the junkyard and get a new one for $5. Also, radiator fans go bad, weak electrical system can cause the fans to not run at full power which in hot weather climates can cause all kinds of problems when moving at low speeds.

Has he pulled the codes on the car? He can do so by pushing the AC button and the passenger temp 'hotter' button simultaneously to access the on-board OBD functions from the Driver's Info Center.

WOW! thanks for the info, I'll pass it along. All he told me on the phone was he couldn't see any white smoke(steam) out the exhaust , and the oil looked good. Doesn't seem to be leaking anywhere but starts to get hot after about 10min. Thanks again!

I don't want to be too obvious here, but is it possible that the radiator fan is not doing it's job?

I had an electrical connection go bad to the fan on the Aspire, and I had to hot wire it to a switch in the dash. Now, whenever the needle heads toward the red, I flip a switch and it cools down.

oops, Raze already touched on that. I guess I should read long posts after all.

TOO LONG DID NOT READ