Hey everyone,

Car overheated in a bad spot while on the freeway. No where to pull over right away, blasted the heater on high and drove for about a min. or so with temp gauge on high.

As I pulled over to shut her down the cars restricted performance light came on and engine died. Seems I drove it too far while it was overheating.

I'm having it towed back to my garage to investigate. Appears another coolant hose blew out as I was on the way to pick up the suspected worn coolant hose to boot.

Hoping I didn't do damage to the engine driving it as far as I did after it started overheating. How will I know?

Thanks guys

 

check the oil on the dipstick. If it's milky you could have done the engine in. If it's normal odds are you bit the bullet.

I'm hoping for normal looking oil... I think you'll be fine.

 

Thanks abonano. I am going to let it sit overnight then say a prayer before I pull the dip stick. Cheers for the fast response

 

If it overheated because you lost most of the coolant, I would expect a "low coolant" warning before it overheated. Unless, of course it was a catastrophic loss, (i.e. dumped very quickly). Motoring at speed for a minute or two means it should be OK if its only a coolant loss problem, but as an all-alloy engine, these can suffer badly from overheating.

 

Thanks for your input! Unfortunately it seemed to be a sudden loss of coolant as no low coolant warning went off. I suspect a blown coolant hose caused this. The oil looks to be nornal so I may have gotten lucky. I assume the only way to know for sure if I damaged it severely would be to put replace blown hose and fill her back up, burp system and pray it operates normally.

Hoping I dodged a bullet on this one!

 

Best to get the hose replaced and then go down to a Jaguar specialist to get the fault codes read that are causing the fault message to display. It'll probably be the high temperature recorded in the engine.

 

So I took off the radiator hoses and thermostat housing cap and not liking what I see so far.... Pictures attached. The oil on the dipstick looks completely normal but I can see a milky white substance (coolant/oil mix sludge, I assume) in the left side port that leads from radiator to port near thermostat housing)

I don't see any white sludge on the on the big drivers side radiator hose but I do see white milky substance on the port on the passenger side of engine bay that leads to/from the radiator to a port just to the left of the thermostat housing. Also see milky substance in the thermostat housing once I removed the thermostat.

I am thinking maybe the plastic thermostat housing cracked out of no where or perhaps the water pump went out as there was no "low coolant" warning, it just went from normal operating temperature to totally overheating, not a gradual rise in temp then overheating like I experienced when a coolant hose blew out. Also the steam was coming from the thermostat area when I stopped the car and the engine died.

Am I potentially screwed in light of the milky substance in the thermostat and on the passenger side port that the big hose from the radiator connects to?

Any input greatly appreciated

 

If it was mine I would repair the water leak and fill the cooling system with water only and run the engine up and bleed the system then let it run up to temp and take it for a test drive before going any further

 

Don't get carried away, Hawaiianjag.


Fix your cooling system, or have it done. Get the fault codes read. Fill it up, leave the cap open. When you start her, look for bubbles in your filler tank. If not, go drive.
When a cooling hose really blows it can go all to quickly.
Not from experience, but I've heard that the kevlar ones, when they go, will split wide open.
If it drives ok, replace all of them hoses, one fails, the others are prone to.


Bit jealous, Hawaiian weather would suit me, but what it does to your hoses?


I'm a fan of the old cars, when gauges were gauges. Even I can understand them.
But I've read many tales about canbus related gauges that were not actually showing the temp but just showing wether it was ok or not, if you catch my drift.
However, the 350 has a great engine (if you like V8's), so take it from there.

 

I think your in the clear based on the oil. Replace all the faulty broken parts and hoses and your off to the races.

Regarding the water pump, I'd replace with one with metal impeller (aftermarket)

 

All of the hoses seem to be fine though, some look like they should be replaced and I will certainly replace any that dont look new but the cause of this sudden overheating/coolant loss seems not related to hoses. Something that happened around the thermostat housing area based on that being where the steam came from and also when I squeeze the hose I hear air escaping from the thermostat housing area. I'm thinking this damn plastic thermostat housing may have cracked under pressure. Anyone have that happen before?

Luckily I have a mechanic that lives on my property so we will be doing all the work here in my garage. Seems like the intake manifold needs to be taken off to remove the thermostat housing. Air escaping from somewhere in that area which I assume is not normal. Going to investigate further. Keep the forums posted on what we find.

If the thermostat housing looks okay and dont see any cracks in it my next guess is the water pump if all the hoses check out okay after we double check them. I don't see what else it could be? If it ain't the hoses or thermostat housing it would have to be water pump right? Not very familiar with this cooling system but I can't think of what other part could leak

 

Cheers Abonano,

Glad to hear that. Hope that you are right and once I figure out where this coolant leak is from she's back on the road!

Thanks for the water pump tip