The most youve overheated an engine and been ok?

Matt82 · 20 Oct 2012 at 13:56

Just a bit of morbid curiosity really. A guy at work pulled over on the way home because the water temp gauge was in the red. He stopped in a petrol station, opened the water bottle and it volcanoed a little water out.

He waited a few minutes and then drove the rest of the way home, apparently the water temp was fine.

Next day he leaves for work, after tons of advice on FB, gets to the end of the road and the gauge is in the red again. So he stops at the next petrol station (ive no idea how far it is to these petrolstations) and puts cold water in a cherry red engine

He carried on driving to work and about a mile from work the gauge is in the red again. So he drives it slowly to work.

It gets to the work car park and the car is spluttering (on the verge of seizing i guess), he goes into work an not a single F was given that day lol

I posted the other week about buying second hand cars and how they are all trashed, well this one is no exception. He is too tight to get it sorted properly.

We found which water flange was leaking and his mate is changing it. No new stat, no new gasket, just the flange. i doubt itll even get anti freeze. They are not bothering with compression of block test.

Im obviously a little precious over cars but would you realistically see that engine surviving that?

PMKeates · 20 Oct 2012 at 13:58

What engine is it?

Matt82 · 20 Oct 2012 at 13:59

1.6 zetec

i expect its got an alloy head, surely that would warp

Hxc · 20 Oct 2012 at 13:59

I had a mini engine overheat repeatedly and suffer no issues at all.

Maz · 20 Oct 2012 at 14:13

I had a TVR which would overheat because you stopped at traffic lights, and this was normal :eek:

Frozennova · 20 Oct 2012 at 14:16

I forgot to put the rad cap back on mine a fee weeks ago and attempted to drive 135 miles back from Leeds. Made it about 7 before I decided to stop at the services. Oil light came on just as I pulled in. Waited half an hour, refilled with anti freeze and continued my journey.

Edit: boiled off every last drip of coolant in the process too.

Skilid · 20 Oct 2012 at 14:19

My needle was just touching the red when I was parked outside my friends house. I saw smoke coming from the bonnet and immediately turned the car off. Open the bonnet to loads of smoke. The motor that spins the cooling fan had set on fire... Ironic.

Matt82 · 20 Oct 2012 at 14:27

EliotG said:
My needle was just touching the red when I was parked outside my friends house. I saw smoke coming from the bonnet and immediately turned the car off. Open the bonnet to loads of smoke. The motor that spins the cooling fan had set on fire... Ironic.

[like button]

my own experience was at the ring in my mk3 Golf, three consecutive laps, 34*C ambient, oil temp got to 122*C (highest ive ever seen on the road or track) the handbook says back off at 150*C though!

was temp was between 110-115 and it took forever to get the figures back to normal. friggin awesome car that was, i blame that on a non OE radiator

Jono8 · 20 Oct 2012 at 14:30

I had an old 306 which had a leak in the cooling system. A couple of times it went to red and the stop engine light came on. I did turn the engine off straight away after noticing it though. Fixed the leak with some bars leak and the car drove fine after.

I guess it would just depend on how long you left it overheating for.

Matt82 · 20 Oct 2012 at 14:32

ManLoveRulesOK said:
I forgot to put the rad cap back on mine a fee weeks ago and attempted to drive 135 miles back from Leeds. Made it about 7 before I decided to stop at the services. Oil light came on just as I pulled in. Waited half an hour, refilled with anti freeze and continued my journey.

Edit: boiled off every last drip of coolant in the process too.

every last drop is impressive

his must have lost a lot the first time round as when he opened the cap it only volcano'd about a an egg cup worth out the expansion tank

Relentless81 · 20 Oct 2012 at 15:53

Overheated a B18C4 Honda engine due to a failed thermostat for quite a while, it just laughed at the extra heat

Frozennova · 20 Oct 2012 at 15:58

Matt82 said:
every last drop is impressive

his must have lost a lot the first time round as when he opened the cap it only volcano'd about a an egg cup worth out the expansion tank

I'd done about 15 miles with no rad cap on, about 7 on the m1.i initially filled it with a litre of Robinsons blackcurrant and apple to get me to a petrol station.

Steedie · 20 Oct 2012 at 16:13

I love threads like these, Motors needs a "Car Maintenance Horror Stories". Like people who have gone in to complain about their brakes, only to find out that they've literally got barely any brakes left, or people who have driven 200 miles to a friend with absolutely no oil in their car (MonKeE

)

Simon · 20 Oct 2012 at 16:15

I ran my rover turbo hot when the radiator pipe split. It got so hot it warped the head and didn't run anymore. Ignition lights on a engine stopped at 90mph on motorway.

Matt82 · 20 Oct 2012 at 16:22

Steedie said:
I love threads like these, Motors needs a "Car Maintenance Horror Stories". Like people who have gone in to complain about their brakes, only to find out that they've literally got barely any brakes left, or people who have driven 200 miles to a friend with absolutely no oil in their car (MonKeE )

i once left brum to head home, 200 miles, topped up the oil and didnt realise i didnt put the cap back on

30 miles later the head sounds like a machine gun (hydro tappets, dry), i could hear that over my completely non silenced exhaust

got rescued with 5L of old/used engine oil lol

no temp/pressure issues thogh

silversurfer · 20 Oct 2012 at 16:33

I learnt the temp gauge had a hidden light that could flash red one day, never ran the same after that.

The OP needs head gasket or head skim I would guess, Ive run a car where you could hear the water boiling after a few miles and it was that

Bennie-Mac · 20 Oct 2012 at 17:19

I had my Leon overheat after picking it up from the dealer having just had the turbo replaced. About 5 miles away, pulled into Tesco, had a sandwich while it cooled down, drove it back and kicked up a stink.

Edit - Oh yeah I also ruined the head gasket on my first car. No temperature gauge and a leaky radiator pipe = smoke and death.

King Damager · 20 Oct 2012 at 17:26

silversurfer said:
The OP needs head gasket or head skim I would guess, Ive run a car where you could hear the water boiling after a few miles and it was that

Had this issue the other day. Thankfully not the same cause though. That was an interesting one, where you could hear the water boiling. Stuck thermostat -.-

kd

godinman · 20 Oct 2012 at 17:34

I had a rad hose split on my E30 M20, luckily I caught it before it quite got to the red, didn't knacker the head and after cutting the pipe and re-attaching (it was right next to the water pump), waiting a bit and refilling it was fine.

Nomisf · 20 Oct 2012 at 18:12

When the turbo water return split on my S14a , it was sat just outside a mates warehouse for a good 10 mins idling before I noticed it running like crap and steam was flooding out of the wheel arch. Drove around for a week before the replacement hoses came, with bottles of water in the footwell, accidentally overheating now and then - once fixed it still went on to push a healthy compression test and 350bhp!