It's a bad Thanksgiving day to be my Chevelle. It wasn't such a great day to be me, either.
I hadn't driven my Chevelle in awhile. I wasn't sure how long it had been, but I knew I had neglected it for a long time. When I first checked on it the battery was completely dead. I had to charge it overnight. Once the battery was charged it started easily enough though. Everything seemed fine. It ran great.
I took the car out to the closest interstate to cruise it at a reasonably high speed, heat up the engine, and just let it blow out the crap that builds up from sitting. While I was driving I remembered something that happened the last time I drove it.
Last time I drove the Chevelle I had dropped it into 1st gear at about 50 mph and really hammered it. Shortly thereafter it began to spew steam out from under the hood. I thought I had blown a head gasket, which is a big damned deal. But when I pulled over to check I found that the car has no overflow tank for the radiator and no rubber hose to direct overflowing water down to the ground when the radiator is too hot. So it spits its' hot antifreeze straight back onto the side of the engine, hitting the red hot exhaust headers and turning to steam. I had meant to remember this and install an overflow tank, but then I had forgotten to do it.
While I was driving today I noticed steam coming from the exhaust on the passenger side. I checked all the gauges.
Damn, I forgot that the guy I bought this car from installed a lot of extra gauges and some of them are duplicates of the gauges in the dash. So some of the gauges he installed work, but the equivalent gauges in the dash are now unhooked, and some of the gauges he installed are not hooked up and you have to check the gauges in the dash. It's a trick to remember which is which and I haven't driven the car often enough to master the trick. I don't remember which ones are working and which ones are just sitting there uselessly.
I checked the temperature gauges. The gauge in the dash said the engine coolant was at 180 degrees, which is exactly where it should be. The gauge he had installed down below the dash said it was at 240 degrees, which is clearly wrong. That's way too hot. It must not be hooked up. All the other gauges, as best as I could tell, seemed good, too. No problems.
The steam went away. The car was still driving fine. The radiator must be spitting coolant straight out onto my exhaust again. No worries. It's just annoying. I have got to remember to install an overflow tank next time.
I kept driving for several miles. I turned around about 10 miles from home and headed back. As I pulled back onto the highway I noticed the steam again. I started rechecking my gauges, but everything was the same. I slowed a bit and just cruised. The car ran fine. Everything was fine. I wasn't going far so it was unlikely I was going to run out of coolant, although it was odd because I don't recall it ever doing this over and over in the past. It was just that one time, and that was because I had run it extremely hard.
I probably annoyed several of the people driving behind me. I think they expected the big blue musclecar to be tearing up the road, and so they didn't mind driving behind me. But when I didn't go especially fast, or even as fast as they were going, they all passed me.
When I reached my exit I pulled off the interstate and headed back down the main road into My Little Redneck Town. At the first red light I thought the car felt funny, as if it were stumbling. But the camshaft in this engine is enormous and causes the motor to lope pretty heavily at idle. It's probably just that I haven't driven it in awhile and I'm not used to the cam. I drove on, now caught in heavy traffic and not able to go any faster than 40 mph.
As I sat at the next red light I noticed the engine stumbling, as if it were going to stall. I checked my gauges again as I noticed more steam coming out from under the car. The temperature gauge in the dash still read 180 degrees. But the temperature gauge the previous owner had installed now read 265 degrees!
"Oh shit, that's the working gauge! 265!!!!"
265 degrees is pretty damned hot for a big block Chevy engine, in case you didn't know. The thermostat is stupposed to start cold water from the radiator pouring into the motor at 180 degrees. That's pretty standard. Almost all American cars have a thermostat that starts to cool the engine at either 160 or 180 degrees. My engine was ready to burst into flames while sitting at this red light steaming up the road at 265 degrees. The engine was starting to shut itself down. In modern cars there are computer sensors that will shut your engine down under extreme circumstances in order to protect the engine from damage. My engine has no such sensors. It was about to shut down from the extreme heat.
Just then a large red firetruck went screaming through the intersection, lights flashing and horns blaring. It was like foreshadowing, only in real life.
"Hey wait, I may need you in a minute," I yelled after him. But he didn't stop for me.
The light changed and I was able to start moving again. At this point I was about 3 miles from home.
Driving the car is a lot better when it's overheating than sitting at a dead stop. Especially today, while it was fairly cool outside. The cold air rushing through the radiator as you drive is what cools your radiator down. Sitting at a light allows no cool air to flow through and leaves your fan to do all the work. Mine had one hell of a challenge and didn't appear to be up to it considering the current flaming engine temperature. And I had no idea what was wrong.
With the grace of God, and this is what I'm thankful for on this Thanksgiving day, I made it home. I turned off the engine the second I got into the driveway. Steam started to seep out from under the hood. My Wife came walking out of the garage to greet me.
"Hey, that can't be good," she observed, noticing the paint blistering cloud of steam.
"No, it sure isn't," I agreed, and then popped open the hood. Before I could even look at the engine My Wife noticed something she thought was odd.
"Hey, why is that just hanging there," she asked as she pointed at the engine. "Isn't that supposed to be on something?"
I looked at where she was pointing. One of my belts was just hanging uselessly. It wasn't broken, but it wasn't on the pulleys. And it just happened to be the belt that runs my waterpump and alternator.
"Holy shit," I exclaimed without much originality. "I've been running this entire time without a water pump?! No way!"
Yes way.
So, I pulled out my toolbox, my coveralls, and my jack, and I went to work repairing the damage as best as I could.
First I checked the waterpump/alternator belt. It was damaged, but not broken. Nothing is open today, so I couldn't get a new belt. I reinstalled the old one, making sure to get it nice and tight. Then I went inside to check my records on this car and find out how much oil it needs. Yes, I know, but this is a heavily modified engine and doesn't take the normal amount of oil. I found that it takes 6 quarts. I also found that the last time I had driven the car and recorded it was about a year ago. Hey, that can't possibly be right. But you know what? It just might be. I have been so busy and the cars have not been a priority. I hope it isn't right, but I can't say for sure.
And it still doesn't explain why that belt came off.
I pulled out 6 quarts of Castrol Syntec 20W-50 and a filter and started draining out the old oil. It was still plenty thick and gleamy. I think it was OK, but seeing as I had just practically set it on fire I figured it wasn't worth taking chances. After pouring in the new oil I opened the radiator cap and began pouring in antifreeze. It took over a gallon like it was nothing.
After I was done I went inside to write down the oil change in my records. I noticed that the oil I had just drained out had all of 50 miles on it. 50 miles on 6 quarts of fully synthetic, fully expensive oil. And now it was crap.
I had charged the battery while I changed the oil. It was drained pretty badly since the alternator hadn't been running to charge it up. When I started the car with the new oil and the damaged belt reinstalled I noticed a strange sound from the front of the engine. I think the belt is making noise, although I'm not sure. I do know I'll have to replace the belt with a good one before I drive again. And by God I'm going to install a coolant recovery tank for that radiator.
Anyway, that was my Thanksgiving day.
Oh, and I missed the entire first half of the Dallas vs Denver football game. But I did get to see them go down in flames in Sudden Death Overtime
dammit.
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