A few days ago I was riding around with my friend in his 69 Olds Cutlass. He has a pretty hot small block chevy in it. Anyways we were outside of town on a deserted road and he wanted to show me what it had. During the full throttle flogging, it threw the fan belt off. My friend didn't notice right at first, but when he finally noticed the temp guage it was pegged at about 240. (that is where the guage stops) As soon as he noticed, he pulled over and shut the engine off. We got out, let the car cool down, and put the belt back on. He got back in and the car and it started fine and drove to his house with no problems. He replaced the belt and refilled the radiator (looked like it lost about 1/3 of the fluid). Could he have done any damage? It seems like the car is running fine, he was just wondering if there is something else he needs to look for.

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Mark "THE DUDE" Skoch
1971 Malibu
"If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose."
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DUDE, I don't know about a Cutlass motor, but in a bigblock if you do that, you can warp the heads.

Jim

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My 70 Chevelle (http://www.angelfire.com/pa4/jim/)
Best ET 12.82@108.5 (so far)
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That exact same thing happened to my small block 69 Camaro a few years ago, except my belt broke.

As Jim mentioned, you have to be concerned about the heads. In my case I never had a problem after that. However, it may be wise to "retorque" the head bolts if nothing else.



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ACES #4241, TC #947
69 SS Sedan (http://www.angelfire.com/rock/69ss)

Get that oil out of there too. Fresh oil ASAP. If he's wondering, as I certainly would, go a compression test wet/dry.

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Member #62 Gold/ACES 03112
67 SS396(427-3X2) (http://www.chevelles.com/feature/october2000.html)
Be Big, Be a Builder

Thanks for the replies guys! I know he changed his oil the same day, but I will let him know about doing the compression test. (wouldn't the engine act funny if there was a problem?) He is using a new set of Dart iron heads, so hopefully they were strong enough to resist warping.

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Mark "THE DUDE" Skoch
1971 Malibu
"If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose."
THE DUDEMOBILE (http://www.beldarr.com/DUDE/DUDEcar.jpg)
(DUDE POWERED!)

If it got too hot the rings can loose their facing and tensile strength and it will be down on compression. Of course a compression test showing low numbers in a cylinder or two could also be a warped head/blown gasket. I've also had the good fortune of cracking the heads between the intake and exhaust in an over heating situation.

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NCOA member #220
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DUDE, the reason I say you can warp the heads is because that is what happenned to me. It overheated and the next day I had oil seaping out from between the driver side head and the block at the very back of the motor. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/frown.gif

Jim

My .02 is that if the engine wasn't pinging right before he shut it down, he probably just squeeked by and didn't cause any real damage, although all the items listed thus far are real possibilities.

Stuff warps when it gets hot. Maybe his did and maybe it didn't. The oil change was a smart move but I would also do a chemical block check to see if any combustion gasses are entering the coolant system indicating a blown head/intake gasket or even worse a cracked block. Don't want to do that : disconnect the fan belt from the water pump fire it up and if you get surging or bubbles he has a problem. Guess I should have prefaced that with "Remove the radiator cap and look for the surging/bubbling" Also water in the oil would also be an intell indicator that something was amiss.

Now you guys are scaring me. Mine car hit about 235-240 when I threw the belt at the track Thursday night. My Trans Am I used to have did not kick the other fan on until about 225-230 degrees from the factory. 240 is only 10 more degrees from that. If you just ran the car for a few seconds at that temperature I can't see warping heads but if you drove miles then maybe.

The speed shop that does my machine work for me says they rarely get a big block cylinder head in that is warped. Something to do with all the mass there or something.

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69 Malibu 454 10.00 to 1
2400 stall with 3.73
284XE Cam 049 oval heads
2.19 & 1.88 valves 850 dp
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I overheated my 454 once. The temp hit 270 before I knew it. I stopped the car, hosed down the radiator until I could remove the cap. I then topped off the radiator and started the car and continued hosing the radiator until the temp was 200. It sure scared me but the car has been fine ever since. By the way I have those evil Edelbrock aluminum heads on it. I don't know if cast iron would have survived.

Those engines are pretty tough. I would say the oil change was a good idea, and if the engine is running fine, not missing or anything, it is probably okay. I drove my big block ford home from connecticut to new jersey with about a quart of oil in it at highway speeds (what can I say? I was nuts? I wanted to test Castrol Syntec?) I could hear the lifters and rockers clacking for about the last ten miles. I put five quarts of oil in it the next day, and it ran fine, no problems. Those cast iron engines are impressive.

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65 Danube Blue 4 door wagon, 350/330hp crate with 700R4, Factory air, Factory am/fm stereo.

My boy overheated his 350 Camaro on his way over to see his girlfriend. Stuck themostat in the end but he was thinking with the wrong head. Got over there but couldn't make it home. Lost both heads but was running 882 heads on the block. Heard those are not very forgiving.

Jim, As a long engine builder I highly recommend running all Ford engines with only one quart of oil, preferably Warren Oil that can be purchased for squat at any 7-11 store. Get the drift?

Greg, I get your drift, lol but please forgive me, that happened many years back before I discovered the joys of attempting to fry Chevrolet engines.

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65 Danube Blue 4 door wagon, 350/330hp crate with 700R4, Factory air, Factory am/fm stereo.

with respect to overheating if you have a pressure cap on the radiator (lets say 16 lbs) Your boiling point is at approximately 260 deg F. You can figure as a rule of thumb that for every pound of pressure you can raise your cooling system to you gain 3 degrees of boiling point. Therefore 16 lbs cap = 48 deg F + 212 deg F = 260 Deg F new boiling point. At 240 Deg F you haven't done any harm to the system in all probability. Your biggest enemy during an overheat is steam voids in the engine. Steam is an insulator compared to water and won't carry away heat efficiently. @ 240 degrees the water in your engine was probably still water and doing its job. Take a look at the radiator cap and see what you have.

I reread your post and saw that you had pegged the guage and lost maybe a 1/3 if the coolant from the cooling system. I still think you have not damaged the engine. I have seen SB Chevy's recover nicely from worse overheats.


[This message has been edited by charbilly2001 (edited 11-08-2001).]

JimN, I agree with you. Back when the GTOs were tested at the test track for Pontiac they were ran at 250 degrees all day long with no problems. And actually the operating temp for the GTO is 212.

Bill70.........good news for the toughness of the Edelbrock heads, I have them on my goat and have had no problems what so ever.

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Fast Ernie
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