Desparately need help!!! overheating problems!

[intrigueguy]

Hey yall, I'm Andrew, owner of a 2000 Oldsmobile intrigue. I read the overheating forum on here but none of the responses seemed to meet my situation exactly. So let me give you a quick background. So at around 142k miles or so my car started overheating. I took it in the shop and they said I needed a coolant flush. It was quite obvious I did since there was lots of corrode inside the reservoir tank that somehow I didn't notice until it started overheating. So once I did that the overheating problem was pretty much gone. It would overheat when idle but some air bubbles that were left had eventually released out and problem was fixed. So a couple of months later it started overheating again. First guess was that since all the corrode had initially there, the leftover was causing the thermostat to stick. Strangely tho, eventually it stopped overheating. It would sporatically get hot from time to time but nothing ever that big. So one day I let my dad borrow it. Usually I'm only driving the car for rides that last less than 15 minutes. When my dad borrowed it he had to drive 45 minutes on it.
So on the way to work he noticed it starting to get alittle hot. On the way back is when this whole ordeal had offically STARTED. It got pretty hot but with my dad thinking that the thermostat was just sticking kept driving it...and driving it... and driving it until it went past critical and eventually shut off by itself. This is where he really messed up. He did this TWO more times! I couldn't believe it...but anyway he managed to get home although everytime it would shut off there would be no coolant left and he'd have to refill it.
So I take it in the shop figuring something small was wrong to find out they tell me I need to buy a new engine! They said the radiator was leaking, it probably needed new radiator hoses and either theres a cracked block or blown head gasket and that buying a new engine would be cheaper.
Luckly, I had my friend that was a mechanic and would do it alot cheaper. So first he replaced the radiator. And then bought the gasket kit and replaced all of those. It still overheated. So they replaced the thermostat. STILL overheated. Then even replaced the water pump, STILL overheated. They then even put this radiator sealer stuff in there thinking that there was a small leak somewhere that couldnt be seen. This still didn't help. So I took it somewhere else. A note worth mentioning is that after I put the sealer in and it kept overheating I drove it for a couple weeks just from school and back which is about 10-15 minutes, babying it the whole time. It only got to critical about 3 times over that span and I shut it off as soon as it did unlike my dad who kept driving it still. But so once I took it to another mechanic they said after taking off the radiator hoses that discovered that they were EMPTY. Apparently the people who put in the thermostat never primed it, so that meant there was no water in the block to get hot, meaning the thermostat could never kick in. After doing this it STILL overheated. So then they knocked the engine and after seeing no water shoot out from the above the spark plugs they said that the head gasket was probably fine although my water in my reservior tank had a slight shine to it. OH, also worth mentioning is that in that span that I drove it for a couple weeks I would only use water since it kept losing water everytime I drove it. Like I would drive it for only 5 minutes or so and when I'd check the reservoir tank it'd be dry. So I figured what's the use of wasting gallons and gallons of coolant. Also what I havn't said is that I'd only overheat after driving it for about 10 to 15 minutes and strangely sometimes it'd get to 3/4th's and then drop back down to 1/2 suddenly. This is what made me believe there was a air bubble somewhere. But then the place I went to even bled out the system and STILL overheated. Also what was strange is that when I'd drive it, sometimes the water wouldn't go dry and would maintain it's level.

But after all this, the last people I went to said that from process of elimination and after all that corrode in the beginning that there may be a clog in the block and that I should try flushing the radiator again and if that doesnt work i'll have to buy a new block. BUT then I talked to the first people who fixed it and they said that flushing it wouldn't help it since he had back flushed it with a water hose and that would have removed any clogs and that there must be a crack in the engine block. I disagree since when you use radiator flush its like a acid and should get alot more rust and stuff off then just normal water. Am i correct??

So in conclusion I'm hoping that flushing it might actually help or that maybe the 2nd place I went to didnt bleed the bubble out right since they didnt use the y adaptor procedure like I had seen on here but then someone told me the bubble would have escaped already anyway.

So can someone PLEASEEEEE, pleaseeee tell me what could be wrong with my car? Is the only possibility that I have a cracked block?? I've already spent a thousand fixing it and don't wanna have to spend another 1000-1500 on it (( Any advice would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks


Andrew

O and I forgot to add that they took the engine head to a machine shop to have them tested and they said they were fine.

[YourcarFTL]

Honestly, the amount of times you have overheated the engine, i wouldn't be surprised if the something had warped or cracked inside the engine. If you know that the radiator isn't leaking, the coolant is going somewhere in the block. What all gaskets have you replaced.

[intrigueguy]

well they put the 320 dollar full gasket kit, i believe it had all the engine gaskets in it

[intrigueguy]

I read somewhere about a intake manifold gasket being a possibility, I'm not sure if the kit included that one but do you think that could be a possibility?

[YourcarFTL]

Its usually your head gasket or intake manifold gasket ya. If they put $320 worth of gaskets into the motor though I'm sure that would have been included. so that would point more towards something being warped or a crack.

[intrigueguy]

Well they said it was originally 220 but since they said my car had the rare cadillac engine type then it was 320 instead, but I guess the intake manifold would still be in there. But anyway, I bought this K&W Nanotechnology Permanent head gasket and block repair stuff, do you think putting that in there might give a prayer to fixing it? And do you think replacing the block would be worth it or just go ahead and replace the engine?

[YourcarFTL]

Any stopleak aditive you put in, is only going to make things worse. honestly your most likely better off just picking up a used engine. but without being there to properly diagnose it, i can't really say.

[intrigueguy]

Woah really? How's it make it worse? I thought it was more like a bandaid, a temporarily fix I could use until I saved up for the money for the engine.

[oldsfan]

why don't you just replaced the whole radiator..do you know that a bad radiator will make your car overheat so bad, you'll think you had already blown the head gasket.. had the same pb on a galant..it was the radiator.but also, check to see if your water pump belt hasn't accidently snapped..it happen to me couple of month ago on my 2003 olds aurora..i really hope this would be of any help.

[70 cutlass s]

Sound like you need a new car