Just got a quote to fix water pump & try to get car back in time so as to do compression test to see if any damage was done to valves or pistons.Car has 108k overheated & after 6 blocks engine died.What’s the chances this engine will still be good?
Not good, not good at all. I’d be very careful about putting any more money into this motor. I don’t understand how the frozen water pump knocked the motor out of time? Yet, something major failed. Then overheating to the point the motor died means a siezed motor is likely. That spells doom for the motor. I wonder if a reputable mechanic would advise you to attempt to fix the motor given the circumstances you describe?
Your money would be better spent locating a used motor from a salvage yard. Even that would likely exceed the value of a '94 car. Consider selling the rest of the car for parts and looking for another car.
Very close to 0%! Years ago, your local mechanic would take the engine apart, and rebuild it. That’s no longer economical, and you should look for a good used engine from a low mileage wreck. If the rest of the car is in like-new condition, it would pay to get a rebuilt engine installed.
However, since Chrysler may go bankrupt in the next month, you have to decide how long you want to keep the car, since both dealerships and parts suppply may dry up.
Thank you.
It sounds like a timing belt broke and odds are the engine has damage from the overheating.
What in the world is the matter with shops and mechanics?
One does NOT have to replace a timing belt, etc. to determine if an engine has cylinder head/valve damage or not.
Rotate the engine by hand and put various pistons at the top of their compression stroke, apply compressed air, and see it air hisses back out the intake. (intake valves are the ones that bend as they are larger than exhaust valves)
Remove a valve cover and see if there’s excessive valve lash on the intakes is another but more time consuming method.
Use of a Bore Scope is another method.
Recommendations to perform a lot of expensive work in an effort to determine whether the engine has problems just irritate the carp out of me.
OK4450 is one of the most knowledgable guys I know, but in this case I’d have to suggest that if the timing belt had broken the engine would have stopped immediately and not gone long enough to overheat. If the valves ain’t movin’ in synch with the crank, the engine ain’t runnin’.
If I understand you correctly, you drove the car six blocks in an overheated state, the engine stopped dead, and you’re interpreting that to mean the water pump seized and stopped the engine mechanically. That’s not likely. If the pump had seized the timing belt would likely have broken, as OK implied, but the engine would have stopped right there and not kept running to overheat.
I think you seized your engine. I think it’s toast. Do a leakdown test, but if the cylinders cannot hold compression (compressed air) it could be because of a blown headgasket. That may have even been the original cause of the overheating. Or it could be a result of the overheating.
Since most of the time the entire story is not related, here was my thinking on it anyway.
Eons since the coolant level was checked? Low coolant due to a leaky pump maybe?
If the coolant gets low enough the pump could still operate up to a point. After a bit the engine would overheat and eventually the pump may have seized due to no coolant in the system.
Since I’m reasonably sure the pump is driven by the timing belt maybe at that point the belt snapped when the pump couldn’t take a situation of no lubrication by the coolant.
I also agree with thesamemountainbike that there’s a possibility the engine seized. No matter what, overheating harms an engine to one degree or the other.
The part that grates on me is that a shop feels they have to run up hundreds of dollars in repair bills to “check something” when there are a number of easy tests that could verify major problems; including the leak-down test mountainbike mentions.
Yes OK, if it’s the 3.5L V-6 the water pump is driven by the timing belt. Your scenario is correct.
The water pump on this engine is driven by the flat side of the timing belt, so it is possible to drive for a while with the water pump locked up (I’ve seen people do it before). The timing belt probably burned through and failed, which shut down the engine. Depending on how badly and how many times the engine has been overheated, it may be worth it to try to fix it. I’m not sure if that is an interference engine, but even if it is I would still check the valve lash and do the leakdown test. You may get lucky. I have seen some instances where an interference engine didn’t wreck a single valve. It’s rare, but it happens. If the valves aren’t bent and the engine only overheated once after the water pump seized, you may be okay.
When you say it overheated, how overheated was it? Was the gauge pegged? Was there steam and smoke coming out from under the hood? Was it making any funky noises before it died?
If you’re lucky, the timing belt jumped or snapped due to the water pump being seized and this is what stopped the engine. If you’re unlucky, the motor is seized. I don’t think the 94’ 3.5 is an interference engine, although later models of this engine were. So you may be lucky as far as not having any valve train damage.
Pretty much anything anyone can say is conjecture until the engine is inspected and the sequence of events is known.