However, the 4.9 seems to have an intake (or head) gasket leak since when I drove it home, the coolant overflow boiled over after I park infront of my house. Ugh, not in the mood for another swap. Any offers?
Might just be a bad radiator cap. That will cause the coolant to boil over.
LOL
Radiator cap will not cause that.
It's a Northstar..... The head bolts are pulling out of the block. I do not understand what it will take for the Fiero world to realize these are bad engines. Even Cadillac dealers are glad they are no longer made.
The 4.9 is a pushrod engine and predates the N* (4.6 and smaller 4.0 Aurora version).
Overheating can be caused by a lot of issues from poor coolant flow to poor air flow through the radiator, as well as engine related items. Checking the oil for coolant is a good place to start, but if it is clean, then I would start looking at the water pump, pinched coolant tubes, radiator fan working with proper shroud, lower air dam in place, missing air seal flaps on the side of the radiator, etc.
I did just have the water pump replaced... FML! Oddly the temp gauge seems read OK but the temp light would fade on. Perhaps those two wires are reversed?
[This message has been edited by lou_dias (edited 09-02-2018).]
Many times the temp light is hooked up to the metal head temperature switch, usually located on the head below the fuel rail fittings. The 4.9 is the predecessor of the Northstar. Cam in block, OHV. I've had a few Northstars. Great engine, gobs of power, had no issues and went over 230K miles.
Many times the temp light is hooked up to the metal head temperature switch, usually located on the head below the fuel rail fittings. The 4.9 is the predecessor of the Northstar. Cam in block, OHV. I've had a few Northstars. Great engine, gobs of power, had no issues and went over 230K miles.
This was originally one of the latter lower quality 4.9 swaps the Fiero Store did before Ed retired...in case that makes a difference. I'm still leaning towards an intake gasket leak... I guess only a compression test will tell me for sure if it's heads or intake...
seems like it takes a few minutes for both ends of the radiator to get warm...as it the driver's side gets warm first then several minutes later the passenger side finally gets warm... so is this a cap issue or is the radiator clogged up car was sitting for a while only got it running again recently then it showed the cooling issues...
[This message has been edited by lou_dias (edited 09-04-2018).]
