Engine Cooling problem
1996 Chevy Camaro V8 Two Wheel Drive Automatic 135000 miles

Ok, so a few weeks ago my car overheats. I figure nothing major. So I take it home to flush and refill the coolant. BTW it's a 96 Chevy Camaro z28 (350 LT1) I mention this because they are reverse flow. So I flush the system till the water runs clear, and go to fill it up with straight tap to check that it's ok before I add the antifreeze. So I let it warm to operating temp. (I have a 160 thermostat) and then check everything. Well I find water/coolant coming from my tailpipe, the radiators full, or seems so, and the engine is bone-dry. I took out the thermo to look down into the water pump and it's dry (the system was properly drained of air too). So I decide to try again, this time filling up the water pump first. I then fill the radiator, fill the overflow tank, and bleed the air only to be met with the same results. So now I'm thinking I may have a blown head gasket (it was burning coolant too; sweet smelling white smoke). However, I wouldn't think a blown head gasket would get bad enough for straight liquid coolant to make it out the exhaust pipe. Any ideas?

Hi there,

The exhaust is not hot enough for some time to keep the water vapor as steam, the cooler exhaust will condense the vapor back into liquid.

mark (mhpautos)