How's your water pump?? If not the gasket or cracked head then no or low water flow could be from a shot water pump. I boiled my girl one hot day for other reasons & lost near as to all my coolant but still made it home just on the effect of the oil cooler. She ran bloody hot but no damage. Just a thought.

 

You have to make sure the fan is coming on. If there is no water in the oil or steam from the exhaust the likelyhood of a bad head gasket is small. You should also pull the water pump out and check it. The plastic impellers are much more likely to fail than the head gasket.

 

Ya I read somewhere that a few years ago there was anti freeze that had silica in it to help keep corrosion out of the cooling system and it in turn chewed up plastic pump fins.

Also I would not cut the over flow tube that is in the resovoir cause it is designed that if the cooling system calls for more fluid that is where it gets it, if the tube is too high and not in the fluid it can pull air into the system.

What about the chance that an exhaust bolt or manifold has wore thin and causing positive pressure in the cooling system?

I had the same issue with coming out the drain tube from the resovoir. I replaced the thermostat and cap and it cleared mine up.

Good luck with yours
Medic

 

Also I would not cut the over flow tube that is in the resovoir cause it is designed that if the cooling system calls for more fluid that is where it gets it, if the tube is too high and not in the fluid it can pull air into the system.

Not correct I'm afraid

The water is fed through a hose at the bottom of the filler bottle which connects to the radiator just below the radiator cap..................ask me how I know.....

 

Yep. Don't put a hose on the overflow bottle cap. It WILL cause you to loose coolant & ultimately overheat. That's not your issue however.

I'm not familiar with the actual water flow circuit so I am wondering if it's possible to have flow using your hose but still have a blocked radiator? From memory there are three hoses on the radiator & using the hose, water could pass through into a tank & back out the other outlet giving the impression of correct flow??

 

Huh, Thanks alot for clearing that up for me.

Medic

 

That's possible, Blue, but I'm leaning more towards a blocked thermostat or busted waterpump...............
Unless it's the famous 3 way hose that is cracked and leaks under pressure. We've had a few of those......

 

if a 88 might be a beautiful o-ring that is shot!

 

Well after tearing into the motor the problem was really apparent... There was a slight leak where water was going into the number 3 cylinder. There was no carbon on the valves what so ever. I checked the head with a straight edge and it looked good. Threw it all back together and burned the road up for 400 miles and didn't lose a drop of water. Thanks everyone for your help.