Help!!


I have an Isuzu Rodeo '98 4 cyl 2.6 Lt engine and it has been one of the best cars I have ever had!!


Recently the engine temp started to rise over "normal" (in a scale of 1-100 in the gauge), normal has always been 40-45. A week ago I started experiencing a rise in the temp first to 50, stood there for a while and the it went up . I turned the engine off before it reached 80 and took it to the shop.


My mechanic has done everything possible (changed thermostat, fan clutch, radiator cap , serviced the whole radiator, checked the hoses, brought down the water pump and alllooks ok. We also checked the gasket of the engine block and it was perfect.


I start the car and go for about 20 min with the temp in 40-45, but after some 20 min or so it then climbs to 50 and stays there for a couple of mins and then it keeps going up.


I have not changed the temp bulb but I can feel the engine run hot.


Can any one give me a hand on this?


Thank you

 

hate to tell you this but I had the same problem not even a week ago, it is your head gasket. start your vehicle let it run for a few minutes and if you see steam coming from you tale pipe and its 80 degrees out that shouldn't be happening. That will show your mechanic that the leak is around the exhaust side only.I had a faulty gasket around the exhaust side only of the head gasket and luckily not the intake. And while youre at it you might as well replace your timing belt while your mechanic has your head off, and I strongly recommend that you have him change your oil after he replaces your head gasket. Ohh by the way do yourself a favor and buy the head gasket off of ebay instead of Isuzuand save yourself about 40 bucks.

 

Thank you JC463rd for your help!!


Saturday I dedicated myself to the problem and finally solved it!!


We did exactly what you said but found out that the gasket was perfect. We changed the head gasket, both exhaust and intake gaskets, timing belt, and cleaned the whole thing all together.


Once we brought down the head gasket and found no problems with it we just sat down looking up to the sky with disbilief. Then after a couple of minutes of unconciousnessIfound some elongated perfectly pin like shaped crystalized resin around the radiator cap when I took it off. I askedthe mech whathe thoughtitwould be and he didn't know. Wedecided to go back and pull the water out of the radiatorfiltering it to see what came out of it.When we pulled the lower hose out ,the water came out at a slower rate than usual. I asked him who did the work on the radiator andit turnedout he had sent it out to a radiator shop. Well to make the story short , the radiator shop didn't do thecleaning job well and the radiator was still clogged with this cristalyzedreddish-yellowishpin-shaped resin. we cleaned it thoroughly, assembeled it and voila!! cool as an icebox!!


But what was that resin? We don't know yet but looks like the antifreeze from Texaco I had on the radiator which is kind of reddish.


For some reason I don't know yet , the antifreeze cristalyzed when it passed through the radiator vertical tubing(that is the elongated pin-like shape) and clogged the radiator at the lower section.


I called the engineers from Texaco and will meet with them today to seeif those particles are from the antifreeze and try to understand why they cristalyzed.


Iam meeting with the radiator shop today soas to show them whata poor jobcan cause in cost and stress. I want to talk personally with the person who performed the job in the radiator and let him know what I went through.


Thank you jc463rd!!


It is nice to knowthere are people out there who care!!

 

I have no idea on this green earth as to why antifreeze would crystalize. I'm not a super mechanic but a damn good parts changer. That puzzles me as odd. Are you sure that at some point that someone might have put some stop leak in your radiator fo try to fix any water displacement issue like I did at first?I do know one thing you can run water through the radiator n engine block till you turn blue in the face and you are always gonna see some of that stuff floating in your antifreeze when you take the cap off or in the over fill. Glad you got it resolved, just hope your fuel assender don't crap out on you next like mine just did. Or your rear coil springs break. In the same place on both of them oddly enough.

 

We don't know what the crystalized particles are from yet. We thought it came from the antifreeze due to the color but it does not make sense.


We are investigating and will let you know what we conclude. As I said , I called the guys from Texaco to have them look into thisand have themhelp us determine the origin since nobody else has touched the car at all. I am also puzzled and that's why I want to drill down into this.


I will keep you posted on the conclusions this week.


Thanks.

 

thanks. my rodeo is running fine now. i just got to get the crazy gas guage fixed now. Especially since I work out of town alot. I get tired of keeping track of my milage. Got the fuel assending unit on order, but I guess there is such a huge demand for them that they actually have them on back order. Good luck with the whole antifreeze ordeal.