First of all I left the lights on at a store, killed the battery I got a jump and was gonna drive the car 25 - 30 miles to charge the battery back up, was driving on the freeway, well after about 10 miles the temp was reading hot, then normal then hot again, and then the power dropped, I could not go faster then 50 mph, I was trying to make it to the next exit, then the car just died, pulled off the road lifted the hood, and steam was comming out, had car towed home, I heard that when this car gets hot the computer would shut things down and that could be the cause of power loss, I changed the thermostat, and noticed the radiater cap was rusted up which may be why the resivoir was allways full. Any truth to the computer shuting down componants and caused the power loss, or do you think I blew a gasket, no water in oil.

Today I replaced the thermostat, and radiator cap refilled radiater w/coolant, started car, engine shakes has a tick and the service engine light is on.
engine temperture gauge read hot again, fan's came on but the temperture never went down. replaced water pump a few months ago, its not howling or loosing any water from the drip whole, but, does that mean it's a good water puimp? how hard is it to do the hg on these?
Anyone do one on the 3800 series 2 engine, is it better to buy the head gasket set or just the head gasket?
should I be worried about a cracked head?
allthough there is no water in the oil, no steam coming out the engine or tail pipe.

after filling radiater and resivoir,before it got hot the resivoir started leaking coolant out the overfill whole, is that water pump or head gasket?
Thanks

Welcome to the site first off.

Have you seen leaks on the Ground ?

whats what "SES" light code ? that would be helpful

when it was broke down last night, I tried to fill the radiater, and it just went through and out the bottom of radiater close to lower hose, but today it held coolant, but it backed up through resivoir and out the overfill whole, I don't have a code reader, and afraid to drive it, I emailed a couple mobil mechanics to get a price on reading my codes. Thanks for the welcome.

Getting your DTC codes read shouldn't cost you anything.

Most parts stores will have a scanner and will do it for free.

Has your coolant system been bled properly?

No I just fired it up soon as I filled the radiater and resivoir. One mobil mechanic told me too fill the system back up and let it set overnight with the resivoir cap off, and that should bleed it. is that right? he said just the resivoir cap and not the radiater cap.

hmmm, I never heard of that but if thats true I might try that but I wanna wait till somebody chimes in on that part.

Yea I did a search also on bleeding the system and now I know what that brass bolt is on top of the tstat is for, the mechanic is gonna come by tomorrow with a obd2 reader and hook it up, and also bring buy a bleeding tool, I would take it to autozone but its to far to drive to get the codes read.
also I had to replace the battery, do I have to run the car for a while so the computer relearns all the componants, or would I get the right codes tomorrow for the ses light flashing now, so far I only ran it for about 20-25 min before it got hot again.

You don't need a tool to bleed the coolant, like you said its the screw on top of the tstat. You just open it up and let the car run until coolant comes out the bleeder, then close it off.

You will need to run the car to get the codes to reappear after disconnecting your battery, but you said it started up and the check engine light was already on, so I assume you can just fire her up to get the DTC to be set.

Thanks Gentlemen I will keep you posted.

Well bled the system, ran about a half hour, doesn't over heat, but I think I screwed something up when it got hot before on the road, the engine idles rough, and when I rev the the engine to 3-4000 rpm,'s, it misses heavely, like a air leak somehwere, check engine light still on, the mobil mechanic couldn't make it over tonight with the code reader. don't want to chance driving to autozone, so will wait til tomorrow, when he can make it.

Good luck with it,

just buy a aeroforce scanner and make it 100000x times easier on yourself.

I was hoping someone ran into the same overheating problem and had these symptoms and give me info on what probs had to be fixed,but I know could be a variety of problems so I will get it scanned and go from there.
If it was a head gasket, wouldn't there be coolant in the oil, or steam coming from engine or tail pipe, I have none of those symtoms.

My car was overheating and dropping back down on the highway a week and a half ago. I turned on the heater and no heat came out, so I figured it was low on/out of coolant. I opened it up a few hours after getting it home and, sure enough, I was almost out. I know I have a leak somewhere because it still runs low after about a week. I have reason to believe its somewhere on the Rad or somewhere I can't see because I put baby powder all over my engine and ran it around for a few blocks but I couldn't see any leaks.

If it was leaking into the oil, the oil on the dipstick would come out a milky color.

I got the scaneer, and it read as follows:
1 of 2 -
code P0303, and undernieth code it says Cyldinder #3 Misfire

2 of 2- Same
code P0303, and undernieth code it says Cyldinder #3 Misfire
what is that.
Thanks

You have a misfire in cylinder 3. It isn't igniting when it's supposed to.

Change the wire and plugs.

Thanks for the info.
Could the cylinder #3 missfire be caused by the car over heating, loosing power, and dieing on highwy. Igot the overheating issue fixed so far.

Thanks,
Why did it say the same code twice? Is it because of two different problems that caused the P0303 Code

one was current, one was from a previous drive cycle, i assume.

pull the plugs and see how they look, particularly number 3. as was said, probably want to do the wires along with the plugs.

Checked spark plug it was a little loose, had black soot on it where combustion was leaking out onto it, was wet with gas, checked for spark, had spark, maybe not enough spark do do the job its suppose to, will change plugs and wires soon. and update.

Hey if there was a air leak from the intake or head would there have been a different code other then P0303 also?

Kool changed the oil, while waiting for funds to jump up, and I was under car and thinking, and I brought myself back to when I popped off the #3 plug wire from coil, and remembered the coil prong was rusty collored, so I checked the other coil prongs and they were all shiny, so there's my Cylinder #3 misfire prob. The first P0303 was the loose #3 plug, and the second was the coil.
Then I thought about when I reved the engine and it would bog out, and I thought it was a massive air leak somewhere, I took car for a ride around the block and the power was good and strong, so can't be the head or head gasket, or intake.
so in park I reved it from inside the vehicle, and seen it only bogged at around 4000 rpm's, yes it's suppose to, thats the limiter kicking in, what a relief I will get a new coil and update later, thanks for all the help gentlemen.

Yep I always found it weird that weak coils/worn wires would only act up when the engine was being loaded down. Had a van that needed new wires and the only time I'd have any issues was accellerating to get on the freeway. Never a problem in any other scenario. But eventually it got the point where my four cylinder was only a three cylinder so...

I proceeded to pull wires until I found one that made no differnce while the engine was running. found the bad one right away when it decided to bite me. Nothing like having one hand on the radiator support and having a plug wire arc you your fingers.

well funds are low so was able to at least get a new coil, but prob still exist, rough idle, engine runs rough unless I push the rpms up then it smooths out, so wires and plugs are next, I did notice the #3 plug wire just slips on and off, doesn't pop on and off like the others do.

I bet that's the problem.

I don't have enough to get the plugs and wires, I tried just putting a wire on from a different vehicle, but still ran the same, idle's rough w/service engine light still on, when I shut it off sounded like air was leaking out engine somewhere, loud hiss, now car won't start, Low fuel light was on so hopefully just out of gas.

Well looked at my oil this morning and its cot coolant in it.SOB. could a warped UIM do that or am I looking at head gasket?

Drain the oil and post a pic.

Will do soon as I get my camera back, I just changed the oil last week while waiting for funds to build up to get plugs and wires, oil was fine then, had to move the car to avoid tickets, last thursday, and yesterday morning when I pulled the dipstick it was rusty collored, funny thing is I just flushed all the dex out and pu antifreese in, don't know why its rusty collored. The resivoir and radiator are still full of new prestone antifreese.
Maybe my new waterpump/thermostat is defective and the new antifreeze never entered the engine, and all the water from flush just seeped down through cylinders from warped uim.

Once I change the oil, it should be ok to do a compression check right, no more coolant should get down in the crankcase, or is there a way to get all the coolant out of the engine before compression check, remove thermostat housing or would water pump be better.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk9/mariog207_2008/DSC00018.jpg
Didn't drain oil yet, been raining here, but here is a pic of dipstick, Hope that helps, sorry kind of blurry, just a cell ph. pic, daughters bringing camera over tomorrow will post another.

Here is another shot from cell ph/camera, I hope my eyes were just playin tricks on me,
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk9/mariog207_2008/DSC00023.jpg
I diddn't fully flush the engine when I added prestone antifreese,
when I changed the plastic elbow between alt bracket and block and thermostat I just ran the hose through radiater until water poured out the elbow whole and ts hole for about five min. then I slapped it all together. It has new oil in crankcase.

You guys probobly wouldn't recomend a upper intake manifold from a wrecking yard would ya, A place called southend auto has a couple for $35 If I pull apart.

Dam its looking more like the lim then the uim, hopefully just the gasket. its dry between uim and lim, and wet below lim.

2 question's
I changed the oil to move car, and checked oil again, definate sign's of coolant in oil .Havent done a compression check yet, can that be done with intakes off?
AZ looks to only sell lower or upper intake gaskets, can't find a kit w/both online, does anyone have a link for one.
Thanks

Well havent done anything yet dam funds are too ****ed up, Dam I miss this GP. can't wait to get her back on the road, I was looking over the engine today and once I get the parts, and do a compresion test, doesn't look to be to hard of a job, wether its the lim/uim/or heads.
Thanks for all the help gentlemen.