Cooling issue ‘03 Liberty

[mbalbritton]

So the kid has an ‘03 Liberty with the 3.7. She called me yesterday with overheating issues. She had a friend follow her and tried to limp it home. According to the friend there was white smoke. I can’t get a clear answer if it was from the tailpipe or under the hood or even how much. My kid didn’t notice, so I don’t think it was too bad.

When I got to it, there was no coolant in upper hose, the reservoir was very low. The engine was down to about 90-100*. I checked the oil and it was black. Checked the water pump pulley and it was tight. Checked belt, it was intact and tight.

topped off the coolant and it would drain from the reservoir slowly and I’d topped it off until I put a gallon in. Still nowhere near enough to get any in the upper rad hose.

I was about 2-3 miles from the house so I fired it up. The coolant in the resistor began to rise almost immediately. Seemed to be leaking past the cap a little. Enough to drip on the exhaust and smoke a little. I jumped in and drive it home.

it got up to temp and began creeping over, I turned off the AC and it settled a little but this just before getting to the house and I had slowed my speed some.

I was thinking T-stat until my kid said her friend saw white smoke. seeing as the oil looks good, can you have a coolant leak that doesn’t contaminate the oil?

 

[Croatan_Kid]

Of course. It could have a cracked head that only leaks in to the exhaust side or in to the combustion chamber and burns it. Check the spark plugs and see how they look. Not sure if the EGR setup has a cooler like diesels, but when those leak, it burns it out of the exhaust and it never gets in the engine.

 

[mbalbritton]

- put hot water over T-stat and it opened
- pulled Water Pump and it’s good
- pulled all of the spark plugs and they all look good.

could this just be a crapped out radiator cap? Stuck open/leaked the coolant out to the point over heating.

Only thing that counters that for me is how fast the pressure in the coolant reservoir built up. Makes me thing compression pushing into the coolant jacket.

 

[NickMaul]

Overheating in the winter? Put a new cap on it and a quality thermostat. Otherwise it sounds like the head gasket is compromised.


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[Caver Dave]

So the kid has an ‘03 Liberty with the 3.7. She called me yesterday with overheating issues. She had a friend follow her and tried to limp it home. According to the friend there was white smoke. I can’t get a clear answer if it was from the tailpipe or under the hood or even how much. My kid didn’t notice, so I don’t think it was too bad.

While her lack of "notice" likely causes ME as much distress as it does you ... how'd she know there were "overheating issues"?

Overheating in the winter? Put a new cap on it and a quality thermostat. Otherwise it sounds like the head gasket is compromised.

Flo-rida... still in the 60*-80* range there daily!