i have a 1995 chevrolet astro cargo van with the six cylinder engine. two months ago i was driving and blinding smoke came pouring from my interior vents. it smelt like radiator fluid. i had a mechanic look at it as i have a warranty for another 20,000 miles. it has 127,000 miles on it. the mechanic said he replaced the heater core. since then the heater has not worked but the smoke was gone and the a/c worked. i could care less about the heater.

today i was driving and when idle at a light the engine would run hot. yet when i accelerated it would cool. there is smoke again pouring from the interior vents. not as bad as last time though. i turned of the a/c and shut off the whole system. the smoke still does persist though. i checked the radiator, oil, and radiator reserve and all are full and fine.

does anyone know what the problem could possibly be knowing you can not be 100% sure seeing as you cant see the vehicle to diagnose it.

thanks,
mark

 

sounds like it may be the heatercore does the smoke smell like antifreeze?
suggest you take it to a shop have cooling system pressure tested and find out why its overheating.

 

Sounds like the heater core again . Let them repair it at no charge to you.

 

If you had a heater core problem you would notice a loss of coolant and since you say that the levels are fine then you DO NOT have a heater core problem, UNLESS it is clogged which is not likely since you just had it replaced. It sounds to me like you have a cooling fan issue. Thus the overheating at the stops, and cooling while moving. If you have a fan attached to your water pump then the clutch is probably free wheeling it. If you have an electric cooling fan then you either have a bad fan or one of the components (fuse, relay, temp sensor) is not sending a signal to turn the fan on when it needs to.
Hope this helps.
Billy