My car over heated. The temp gage max out and then went dead. No heat from the Heater. Stop at a station and added coolent as soon as it got hot. Did not help. Car died about 3 times and started each time. It would make funny sounds , but then it would smooth out. It had white smoke coming from under the hood. Could have been Steam. It finally Died and it would not start again. I have since put a new thermostat in it the old was bad. Filled the Radiator and it still won't start. What would keep it from starting, I have seen cars with blown head gasket start. I am going to go over all the hoses this weekend, double check the radatior and water pump. The engine is getting spark, and Yes it does have a full tank of gas. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

 

Head gasket's toast and likely the head is warped. Sorry for the bad news, but that head's got to come off.

 

Hydrolock will occur to where the key will not even turn over the engine. The coolant pours into a cylinder, often after the engine has been shut off for a while, and since water can't be compressed.......

In a dire emergency to get the car home, one could either leave out the plug, to the wet cylinder, entirely, and run the car making this huge racket on the way home (plus suffer from power loss and improper mixture in other cylinders), or perhaps try to crank over the engine with the coil wire out and the spark plug out, to drive out the water, and then put the plug back in and cross your fingers. But then if bad enough you might be billowing out a trail of white smoke behind you and draw cops. Either way you might draw the cops: 1st way, from the racket; and the 2nd way from the billowing steam.

 

Thanks to everyone that gave me the bad news. I sort of new the head was going to have to come off. I have a 2002 Chev Venture that the ABS light stays on, Track OFF stays on and it says my traction system needs service. Any Ideas

 

A lot of times when I see the ABS light and the Traction control light on at the same time it's due to a bad ABS wheel sensor.

Make sure when you pull the heads that you check your pistons for warpage.