Ok I was going the other day to the beach to pick up my check, the Grabber while sitting at a major intersection 4 cars back, let off some steam and stumbled a bit, traffic was bad and I got off the road ASAP, but I did notice the engine got up to at least 240 degrees, it ran fine just hot, popped the hood and saw the by-pass hose had blown off from the thermostat housing and blew nearly all the water out, I put it back on and slowly filled the radiator with fresh water to get me home, it ran fine the 15 miles home with no problems, actually felt like it had a little more uummmpphh to it lol, do you think anything was hurt by the overheating? what would be considered getting too hot? I have a very efficient cooling radiator and fan set-up.
240 is usually not a problem if the radiator cap is good and the system hasnt lost pressure. now sense you blew a hose, your temp sensor was measuring the air temp in the passage, not the coolant temp. as long as its not over heating now and not consuming coolant you should be ok. the only other risk your running is if the cylinder walls got scorched. then you would have a loss of compression and would be down on power. you should be just fine sense it feels stronger.
How long did you drive it at 240°? It probably didn't run hot long enough to damage anything. Many years ago, Mine ran hot for about 2 weeks before I got around to replacing the thermostat, which resulted in a blown head gasket.
Only for about an 8th mile or so, till I could get off the main road, have not drove it since then, might try and take it out for an extended drive tomorrow.
yep, sounds like your fine, brief periods are ok.. and i agree with the erroneous temp from the hose being disconnected.
mine had a small leak i never noticed and didnt do proper fluid checks it went dry and melted the pistons
If you weren't beating on it at the time the coolant ran low.. you should be fine. I use the word "should".. because many don;t realize that it's not the coolant(steam temps) that are the big concern here.. but more the material expansion, head gasket, and piston rings localized temps that can come back to bite you later on. Stretched head bolts can cause gasket issues later on too. Refill it.. run it hard a bit and see if everything still feels right. If something's "off a bit".. run a compression test and check vacuum levels/consistency.
