So my engine overheated tonight. Enough to send steam tendrils out from the hood. Nothing major but a few wisps.

I helped a friend jump his car this evening. The only thing I can think is that he did not ground his end of the cable to his car, but to his battery instead. This then fried the fuse to my fans... Maybe?

I drove home on the highway and kept 3 bars the whole way when I came to a stop at lights it went up to 4 but stayed put. When I pulled into the garage I let it idle for a short while to see if I could ID any problems. Nothing stood out but the car was spilling coolant onto the floor of the garage after it had idled a bit.

Any comments at this point I didnt get to look at the car closely tonight because I was in "work clothes". I will head out first thing tomorrow morning to try and solve the problem.

Any suggestions on what I should look for? I will check fuses and the fan relay, what else could I check and where is the spill over for the coolant?

Thanks folks

 

Where was the coolant spilling from? The steam might have been from the overflowing coolant splashing on the block or manifold. Let it run and watch for the fan to kick on.

 

Yes, see where the steam is coming from. You may have a bad rad cap - not holding the pressure.
Hooking the cables to the battery instead of an engine ground on the "boosted" car should not have created a problem. If you mixed up the cables even for an instant, then you could have shorted something out. You would have gotten huge sparks.
In the chance that your fans are toasted, turn on your A/C switch and at least one interior fan speed. Go and see if the rad fans are running. You can confirm that at least they function. Next, you need to see if the thermoswitch for the rad fans are making the fans come on when the engine gets up to temp. For this, turn OFF the A/C and idle till a several minutes after you get to 3 bars and watch to see if the fans come on. Keep careful watch if they don't come on and you start to steam. If this happens, shut the engine off till you find out whats wrong. Keep the hood up to let out as much heat as possible. DO NOT open the rad cap when this happens.

 

Thanks guys, the car is at the shop right now. I did what I could and determined that the fans work the fuse and relay are both fine. The coolant leak is coming from somewhere on the shortblock.

The trick was that I couldnt find out where on the short block the leak was coming from so Im having the alternator and water pump pulled to try and figure out if I blew a gasket or line. Hopefully it ends up being something simple like this and the fans not working was just related to the thermostat not getting the proper input.

Ill post when I have a fix.

It's always a bummer when you just want to help someone out and it ends up costing $300.

 

My friend ran over my car in my truck, that I drove 2 hours to put a new motor in, just so he could drive it because he had already wrecked 3 of his own trucks. What's even funnier is that he ran it over when it was parked in front of my house, and I was standing outside.

Anyway, 4 bars on the temp gauge isn't close to overheating - just a bit hotter than normal. I don't see why you would check the fans.

But, did you smell the coolant when you were driving on the freeway, or only once you cam to a stop and/or got out to inspect the car?

 

You have to fix the coolant leak 1st. If the fans aren't running, It's possible to boil over the coolant in the overflow bottle. The Temp gauge would be pegged though.