95 Bonneville overheat not starting

1995 ALL OTHER MAKES ALL OTHER MODELS
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LDWORAK
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Any help out there would be appreciated. Sons car overheated the other night, says it barely made it home, lack of power, he replaced thermostat, it started and seemed to run fine. Went to gas station, left there and 6 blocks later is looses power and dies. Note: it's not been running so good for quite a while but he has been living with it.

In troubleshooting we found one of the coil packs had a bad side to it and a bad plug wire. Replaced those, thinking those were probably bad for a while but don't really know.

We are getting spark out of all coil packs, and compression is good. (only checked one cyclinder) Smells like gas in cylinders so we do think the fuel pump is working. (just smelled spark plug) Tried starting fluid and got only backfire. Sounds good turning over like it wants to start. Thinking timing sensor or something like that. Oh yah we realized that the water pump is bad and that's why it overheated in the first place. Would the excessive heat cause something to go out that we might be overlooking? Not sure how much $$ to put into this car.

Any thoughts?
Nov 11, 2006 at 1:39 PM
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AT-YOUR-SITE
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sounds like a head gasket problem , aluninum head will warp from overheading
Nov 11, 2006 at 5:50 PM
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LDWORAK
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thinking of buying a scan tool to check codes. think that will help out.
Nov 12, 2006 at 11:26 AM
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LDWORAK
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I think your right. It started today for a bit. Sounded great cold. As it warmed we got a lot of while smoke then the engine sounded terrible and died. Also found out the son drove it a while when it was overheating. This car is probably a gonner!
Nov 12, 2006 at 10:39 PM
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WEAREA2J2
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Not necessarily a goner. Those 3.8Ls are pretty tough. If the car is in good shape otherwise, one might consider a little $$$ investment to keep it going!! Is the check engine light on? A bad head gasket will make it run bad all the time, not just when it's warm. Good luck!!
Nov 12, 2006 at 11:27 PM
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