first of all this car has a blown head gasket on the driver side. i have a 1991 camaro 3.1 rs and i was going to take it to have it worked on today and i went out to start it this morning and it cranked but then died about 10 seconds later and then wouldnt start at all every time i tried to start it. so then at 5 oclock i put new plugs and started it and it finally cranked but run really rough. and got really hot very quick it went from 110 to over 260 in less than 3 minuets. what could be causing this?
The blown head gasket could certainly account for the engine running hot–particularly if it is consuming coolant. Did you open the radiator cap to check the coolant level?
yes i checked the coolant and its fine … here’s the thing i have been going outside and starting it up every day this week and its been running fine but it picked this day to run rough the day i was taking it to have the head gasket fixed
Sounds like the breech in your headgasket just got bigger.
The combustion temperature inside of your cylinders can be well over 2000 degrees F. If you have a headgasket breech, that hot combustion gasses are being blown directly into your coolant. And if the coolant level within the block has dropped, which may be the case here, it’s blowing directly into an sirspace inside the water jacket…rapidly heating it up.
i found out it was the thermostat had been locked in the closed position that is why it was running rough.
A closed thermostat will not make it run rough, especially cold. A blown head gasket will. Even a good thermostat is closed when you first start the car. It will not open until the engine gets to operating temperature. A bad thermostat will stay closed even when the temperature gets to too high, causing the overheat. A prolonged overheat will cause severe engine damage, with a blown head gasket being the least of your worries in that case.
Since you already have it out, put it in a pot of cold water and heat it on the stove. Watch for it to open while checking the water temp with a thermometer. That will tell you if the thermostat is working.
If the overheating has been chronic and/or severe and/or if the engine oil has been diluted with coolant you might think twice about a head gasket repair.
Symptoms such as those can lead to oil burning, oil pressure problems, engine knocking, camshaft trashing, etc. Some of this may not show up until after a head gasket change.