Strange cooling problem

[shaliberty]

Took car to dealer, overheating problem, had air in sytem, bled off air, added coolant, few tiny little bubbles coming from funnel cap he had on radiator, not many. Said to run a few days see if that solves it, (if not could be head gasket, a 700-900 buck repair I can't afford),ran about 5 days with nothing overheating, staying right in middle of gauge. Thought all was well, on the fifth day, it started overheating again. It goes up, it goes down, up & down, finally will go all the way up to 'that' point where alarm comes on. Stop, shut down, few seconds later, temp almost down to halfway again, cools off mighty fast. Fan is coming on, Turbo cool to touch sometimes cold, radiator cool to touch, sometimes bubbles out overflow, sometimes not. Radiator cap is hot, hoses are hot. No obstructions between condenser and radiator. Anyone have any ideas< seems to me if head gasket shot, I'd be having other issues, no water in oil either. Oh 2003 2.4 Turbo PT.

[Hooligan]

When you visually check your level in the radiator is it still covering the core or can't you see it at all. Possibly the air isn't all out of the system after all. Could you have a vacuum leak that sucks air into the system when the PT cools off?

[CREWZIN]

Your from Upstate NY, are you using your air-conditioning at all. Can you correlate the A/C with overheating at all.

How about making a conscious effort not to use the A/C (even on defrost mode) and see if the overheating stops. If if does, then try it WITH the A/C and see if the overheating comes back.

[shaliberty]

Hi Hooligan & Crewzin, Wasn't using the a/c, only time I checked it with a/c on was to see if fan came on. After I posted, a friend of mine, bled the radiator with the bleeder valve, could hear/feel air coming out. Still on high side of temp gauge, finally took cap off, engine still cool, fluid was not up to top, put more in and still bleeding with valve, temp went down. Bottom hose and radiator heated up. Took for test drive, stayed at the level on gauge. Must be it keeps sucking air from somewhere or they didn't get it all out? Still can't figure out why it doesn't pull the overflow fluid back into radiator after cooldown. Could it be my dumb luck to have a bad head gasket. My ss sure won't handle that. Appreciate your feedback and suggestions. So far so good at the moment, but it took almost 5 days for it to show up before, sooooo. OH and vacuum leak from where other than head gasket?

[bobs turbo pt]

i hate to say it but its sounds like head gasket

[shaliberty]

Shoot! Was hoping for other alternatives to that, but you are probably right. Time to trade back down I guess, no way can I come up with the $ to have that done.

[Hooligan]

This is a hard one to correct. Has it been put up on a hoist to see if there is any leaks. I think a loose clamp that would allow air to get in when the car cools down. Doesn't sound like you have a head gasket problem if you don't have milky oil or smoky exhaust. Please do more checking before you trade it in.

[CREWZIN]

....and please check you Private Messages on the top of the forum.

[shaliberty]

Hey Hooligan & Crewzin
Thanks to you both for your input, it was on lift at dealer's no leaks, the only time it leaked was from overflow boiling over. Drove it 36 mi. this am, level stayed in middle where it belongs, but like I said, it lasted almost 5 days last time before it started all over again. I check for leaks everytime I drive it since this first started trying to spot something. I gotta another related question, dealer says I should use nothing but Mopar antifreeze in the system, he said I should bring it back if it doesn't overheat anymore and have the system powerflushed and refilled with Mopar. From everything I can read, a good anitifreeze should be just as good. When it first boiled everything out on me I refilled with half & half Peak/water. and no milky oil or smokey exhaust.

[Hooligan]

I do know that the PT uses a different anti freeze than the normal, I have about a gallon of the "old" type that I can't use in the PT.