Need a second opinion

[n240sxfnatic]

I started me car a couple of weeks ago and it ran fine. After i shut it off I noticed a puddle of coolant under the car. I drove the car to my friends shop to figure out what the problem was. When i got there my car there the thermostat was off the H mark on the gauge. So i replace the thermostat. This still didnt work so i tried bleeding the coolant. There was a loud squeel for about 20 seconds after i started it, coming from the front of the motor near the water pump area. The wierd thing was that the coolant wasnt even going down in the tank and when we replaced the thermostat there was no coolant that even spilled out meaning there was no even in there. After i rev the car up for about 10-15 minutes a white smoke/steam comes out making me think head-gasket but there isnt even any coolant in the motor which makes me think it might just be steam, if thats possible. Im gonna replace the water pump and see if that works. Does this seem logical?

[Jung918]

It seems like you should bring it to a mechanic. They can pressure test the system and see where it is leaking.

[S14DB]

Think the seals blown on the water pump. When I get up to temp/pressure the water blows by and then vaporizes when it hits the air.

New Water pump.

[DJ_Sunrise]

a puddle of coolant under your car = dont drive the car unless you know where its leaking from. like u said.. the gauge read over the H. chances are u blew a seal somewhere or hg explaining the white smoke which is more than likely coolant burning off. does the smoke smell "sweet"? if your belt was squeeling over by the water pump, theres a chance the pump was seized, or the belt was just loose. by replacing the thermostat, you created an air pocket in the block.. which is perfectly normal.. but is an absolute bitch to bleed the air out of the system. dont look at the level in the OVERFLOW tank, because thats all it is.. is overflow. regardless.. the level of coolant in general wont go down during bleeding unless the thermo opens/closes.

no need to flush the coolant again. but.. when the car is cold in the morning or whenever, take off the radiator cap. squeeze the upper and lower radiator hoses. if fluid gushes out, airpockets should only be minor and at the moment nothing to bother with. if u get tons of air bubbles, keep at it, refilling the fluid in the radiator, not the overflow. once you are satisfied lots of the air is out in the hoses, fill the coolant to the brim of the radiator fill neck...or using a coupling, u can attach a funnel to the radiator fill neck making your job easier as you dont have to refill quite as often. fill that shit up a bit. start the car.. ***let it run, and run, and run some more.. you'll notice the level of the coolant going down if theres air trapped inside still. dont worry, the radiator fluid wont squirt everywhere and burn your whole body. only when the system is under pressure(cap on), or extremely hot.. i ran my car for 20 minutes today with the cap off after i replaced my radiator hoses, no probs. when you pull the throttle cable a bit.. you rev your engine.. causing the pulleys to spin, thereby causing the water pump to spin.. in turn.. you'll notice the fluid in the radiator neck(or funnel if you went that route) going up higher the higher you rev the motor.. and it settles back down at idle, which = working water pump. busted water pump = the fluid not going up or down in most cases.

*** where i put the asteriks up top.. do what i just mentioned above. rev the motor up a bit, nice and slow.. u dont have to go nuts, 2k rpm is good. if the fluid doesnt go up or down, shut the car off and replace the waterpump and gasket. rinse and repeat the above steps.

once the coolant system is properly up and running, you can help diagnose a bad HG. bad hg = milky oil, or milky shit nasty coolant, which you would see in the overflow tank, or radiator, or both. you might just have a bad valve seal.. which overnight seeps down, and gets burned off (and smokes) usually at the begining of starting up.. who knows.

if the HG is blown.. and you plan to replace the motor, screw it, drive it till something pops.

if you like your engine and want to keep it, dont drive the car :)

hit me up with some rep if you like what i wrote :)

[DJ_Sunrise]

oh yea.. forgot one thing.. running the motor on a dry system = big nono. too easy to blow something up if theres no air in the system.

forgot about this too.. if you get the coolant system up properly and its fine, spray your motor down with break clean avoiding plastic, silicone, etc. throw some radiator fluid UV dye in the radiator, let the motor run a while. put on some handy dandy uv glasses, turn on your black light, and try to find shit staring back at you nice and bright anywhere on the block, or in the oil. if you have a leak anywhere, itll come up.

-Bart