if you have the old T-stat out already i would just replace it they a re cheap , but like ritch says you can toss it in to a bioling pot of water to test them

some are froze up solid others just dont respond to heat.

as far as the cover gose see if you can get both end bolts in and then worry about the cdenter ones.

 

Mickey/Montejass and Great-Wht : Well, thank you all for your help I think I'm making some GOOD progress on my 3.1 (99 Monte-Carlo). I replaced the T-STAT finally hooked everthing back just the way it was before, not bad work for someone USELESS like me (LOL) ran the car 4 about 30 min, AS OPPOSED TO BEFORE VERY HOT UNDER 10 MINS, The temp-needle,(100) is min (260) is max, moved to 115 and remained there the 1st 15min, then moved up to the half-way point which I think is 130, then back down to 115 again then up to 160 more than the half-way point, then back down again to 130 up and down a couple more times and then remained at the half way point. "STRANGE" Turned off the car opened the hood "nice and hot" this time everything looked much better checked all the hoses and connections all good. Smoke still comes from where I said before, above the water-pump under the p-steering reservior, BUT ALOT LESS "VERY LITTLE SMOKE" as opposed to before SMOKED ALOT. Bottom line is I think the T-STAT made it work better butnot sure, Temp-needle does not reach MAXIMUM OVERHEAT OF (260) stays at about the half-way point BUT still Smokes and Hisses. QUESTIONS: could it be a head gasket? exhaust is not white. Whereshould the Temp-needle remain normally? Is ther a bleeding procedure that must be done and HOW? One last thing I forgot to mention is,after turnning off the engine and opened the hood I also heard Bubbleing-up noise came fron the Radiator Cap and the coolant Recovery Tank. WOW is that enough? What do you guys think? Can you HELP?

 

i know this sounds silly but when you changed the water pump and put it all back togeather.

How did you refill your system?

was the car runnign or not?

Was the ehater on or not?

it sounds crazy but i normally will add till teh rad is ful. and start the car. turn on teh heat as hot as i can get it .
then with the rad cap off look inside for it to start to cycel. as it is doing that i will add some more water in to it to keep it full

then when it cuts off again i will add to full again and throw the cap on it. Thsi will give the new pump a chance to get the air out and also allows the system to be full


sounds like you might have air in it.

 

The steam etc bugs me. I wounder if there is a seal in the location of the water pump that is damaged.
Since the cooling system in general runs under pressure this type of leak could be a reason why the temperature is moving up and down.
The other posibility is that there is an air bubble stuck in the system.
It might be well worth flushing the system and re-filling.
GWN

 

To rule out a possible gasket issue I would take it to a shop that has a way to pressure test the cooling system, it would also make it easier to see where the leak is if at all.


But in most cases where there is steam there is a leak of some sort..

I take it you installed the waterpump yourself? Are you sure the gasket went on ok? Plenty of gasket sealant? I know, it may sound like basic questions but I wanna cover all the bases...

 

also another thing is check the tork on your pump after it heating up and cooling off it might have losend the pump some and causeing it to seem threw there. But if it is the case more then likely you will be doing a gasket replacment at the very least again

 

Great/Mickey/Montejass thanks to all, NOW> 1st Great, There IS a seal in the area I said the steam is coming from. 2nd Mickey, the pump has been double checked for LOOSE bolts after running hot and cooling off, all good n tight. 3rd Montejass, I had a Tech briefly look at it and saw were the steam was coming from, said looks like a LEAK in the head gasket OR possible CRACK in the block. Relpaced T-Stat, Water-Pump, Flushed out Radiator, Added Correct Amount of New Coolant, ALL is Better Now! WHY? is the Hissing Sound and Steam Much Much less and tempeture needle just about normal after driving it for about (45min). Is it Possible that all the work I did: New Pump, New T-stat, and New Coolant Helped Reduce Gasket Leak??? I can drive the car Now! Before it would OVERHEAT to MAX in under (10min), will it damage it more if I keep driving it, OR is it Ok to run like this till I fix it ASAP, as Long as it does NOT Over-Heat??? Botton line: tempeture seems normal alittle up n down but needle remians around the middle AND very little Steam and Hissing. Is it possible the car has a blown gasket (small leak) and still operate well??? What the!........ is going On here (LOL) Next step : going to get a real Tech to look at it but for the meantime any suggestions please?? Thanks All Again Very Much.

 

you say your car hS A 3.1 LITRE in it correct check the corners of your in take gasket take a litght and look at the corners they ar notarious about leaking there once the cars reack 60k or more trucst me a have replace these gaskets on many a car as i am a mechanic myself if you dont know what you are looking for you local shop could tell you in a few seconds

 

DESS03<<< Not sure where the intake gasket is, but checked all the engine all over and the only thing I can see is that steam and hissing that I talked about to the others. Is that gasket which your talking about a difficut job to tackle? like is it on the top or the bottom of engine? anything can help me thanks.

 

Ouch, the only way to know for sure is to pull it apart. Just out of curiosity, when it first started getting hot, how hot was hot? Did the engine knock? It could very well be that it got too hot and caused more damage than we thought.


Another curiosity, is any part of that 3.1L aluminum?



Your taking a gamble on this one. I would keep a close eye on your fluid levels, check your oil to make sure your not getting water through the motor. It looks like the only true fix is to tear it down, inspect the heads & block for cracks and put it back to gether. I hope it's just a gasket...


Let us know how things go with it..