Probably been covered, but any direction would be appreciated.

Driving to work on Monday the Journey suddenly overheated. Pulled off the road within seconds and noted a lot of steam and dripping. Was towed back to our work area (I do side work on our own family cars as a hobby) Used a pressure tester the next day and discovered the rear "T" for the heater core to rear HVAC was leaking. It has no visible cracks-but under pressure it was hissing and spiting coolant.

Obtained a repair kit and installed it yesterday. (Also replaced the upper radiator hose, as it was getting weak) Refilled the system with the correct 50/50 mixture. Noted it only took a gallon. (figured it should be more considering how much it left on the highway). Started it up and did the usual purge procedure.

The ol' girl did send some air bubbles up and out. The temp on the gauge was dead center. So I stopped when it hit the normal operating mark. Added a bit more coolant so the level was correct. Then I noticed zero heat in the Journey. Both front and rear units blowing ice cold air. Figured it probably had a large air pocket, so I drove it a short distance so the nose of the ol' girl was pointed upwards more. (My family lives on a hilly road) Still no heat. I then noticed the temp gauge was starting to creep up to the 3/4 mark and about to trigger the overheat warning. Parked it and shut it down.

The entire system then started to act like one of the old school coffee pots (and pretty violent with the steam blowing into the overflow jug.) I then reached my hand to the rear heat pipes- Stone cold. Same for the front heat pipes. The upper radiator hose was extremely hot, as well the lower hose at the "t" junction where it puts the overflow hose into the lower radiator hose. So one would think it has circulation. But judging my how much steam pressure that was being generated- I have a feeling that's what I was feeling at the hoses.

Part of me thinks it's air locked and didn't purge correctly. The other part of me is thinking the part that failed was just a symptom and the water pump failed. (pump fails=rapid increase in pressure while at highway speeds=boom)

Would there be any quick and dirty methods to check for a potential bad water pump? I'm thinking pulling the heater hose under the intake and pointing it into a bucket. If the water pump is functional- It should purge any air in the block and spew out. (Thought process: Water pump will always circulate to the heater core during engine warm up. If the system is air locked to the heater cores, a wide open path at the source should pump freely.)

Thought it might be a stuck thermostat, but that should still allow coolant to circulate to the heater cores. If it turns out to be a dead water pump- I'll probably do a trifecta (timing belt, water pump, and thermostat at the same time)

Any ideas are welcome as mentioned. This is our daily driver, and I'm using the wife's "summer fun car" for the next few days.

S-

 

Have you found anything on your overheating issue? I didn't notice my water pump leaking until I removed the timing cover, then I realized the orange streak down the passenger side of the oil pan as well as rust on the timing cover by the lower bolt and nut holding it on should have let me know it was bad sooner.

I also replaced a broken hose clamp on the T adapter, thermostat, fan relays, the fan, radiator had already been replaced so I used a garden hose to run water through the radiator OK both forward and upside down. It still overheats every two weeks, only when the wife is driving it

Wondering what yours ended up being caused by.

 

We're not quite finished with this old beast. I wish that was the case.

Needless to say before it goes back on the road, I'm spending the $$ for AAA towing service (platinum so the tow truck will take it within a 200 mile radius)

We did the heater 't', didn't note any coolant flow to the heater cores.....etc..

Here's what we wound up doing:

Timing belt with water pump. Water pump was 100% okay, no reason to change it- But it came with the kit so we put it in.

Timing belt: NOT a fan of how the rear cam alignment went. That took about 5 tries before getting all 3 alignment marks correct.

Swapped out the thermostat. Beware of youtube vid's showing the thermostat on the lower hose. Managed to remove it (thankfully didn't wreck the gasket/o-ring). And promptly figured out the 3.5's are on the top of the engine. (lesson learned) The dingdongs posting videos are of a 3.6 and they claim they are 'all on the lower hose'.

All that work and the stink weed still didn't want to flow or purge any air out of the engine block. We pulled (again) the heater hose from the back of the upper (yup) thermostat housing and slowly refilled it until it flowed out the top. Kinda like a 'super bleed out'. Now it's got flow to both heater cores in the front and rear.

Old thermostat: Tossed it into a pan of boiling water. We're talking a 'rolling boil'. It cracked open maybe a mm. That sucker should have gone wide open!

We drove it around the block for about 8 miles and it stayed in the middle for temps and seems to be fine. One issue I did note is the upper hose has very little pressure in it. So I think the radiator cap's going to get replaced, as that hose should have had a bit of pressure behind it. Soft and squishy didn't seem right. But it didn't overheat and doesn't appear to be leaking.

Reason it's not on the road yet: The front engine cradle/k-frame is 100% rotted out. We noted that after we checked for leaks and re-torquing fasteners. I started poking at some of the paint, and my finger went through the frame in about 5 places. The part was replaced over my last 2 days off (found a used one that looks like it's NOS. Zero rust and excellent shape!) Need to replace a ball joint that got the boot nailed by the control arm (I hate doing ball joints on this thing...this will be the 3rd one...)

Once that's done I'll re-tighten the body bolts and control arm bolts again and drive it around for a while on the back roads. The inspection ran out for the state, so back roads for test driving it would be safe.

S-