Near death

[luckyme]

Sad story - aopologies if too long. Brought Sportage 2001 LPG conversion from ebay. Really happy with car. 2 days later after cold night in UK, driving at 7.00am there was a pop and I thought dense smoke (turned out to be steam) poured from windscreen vents like a fire extinguisher. Quickly couldn't see, have to slow and stop in fast lane, brace myself thinking this is going to hurt and wait for crash. Large bang behind me which was coach swerving and going up embankment but not me - total miles used car 65, time 40 hours.
So, turns out heater matrix had blown, dumping water into car. Towed to garage, £500 to fix but still not right.
Symptons: Fill up with water, leave idling with radiator cap off. Engine warms up, water slowly wells out of top of rad, then suddenly comes out very quickly loosing pints. Am scared to put cap on and run in case blows again. Also I am sure there is a rattle from front of engine that wasn't there before.
So . . . Problem definately due to cold night and not enough anti-freeeze in engine. Possibly owner knew of this. Something froze, engine overheated, boiled, couldn't vent through rad cap and blew matrix.
Initial thought water pump empellor sheared but have taken pump off (false start undoing power steering pump) but all looks OK.
Next steps look at head and gasket. So I am asking the forum.
- Any general comments on my problem (am obviously worried about block but trying not to think of this, was't that cold, about -5 C)
- Any tips to taking the head off
- Is the head susceptable to warping/blowing gaskets (must have got hot)
- Am doing work myself, have found Kia manuals on USA Kia site.
Thanks, may have to post again

[02 Rio Racer]

I think that the coolant system has to be under pressure to work correctly. I've seen that for some cars you can buy upgraded radiator caps that hold up to 1.3 bar of pressure. The higher pressure lowers the boiling point of the coolant and consequently helps your engine run cooler. So, you may want to just cap the radiator and see if it runs ok, just be careful in case the cap does pop off...
As to your concerns about overheating, your temperature gauge would tell you if the engine overheated. Check your oil, if there is a problem with your head, then there will be antifreeze in the oil. The oil will look like two separate layers.
I would be concerned about the head but not too concerned. My last vehicle was an '86 Ford Bronco II with a 2.9L V6. I was having problems with the water pump. Before I totaled that suv, I had put in something like 6 or 7 water pumps. Finally the mechanic figured out that the fan pulley was bad and that finally fixed it. Anywho, one day on my way to work I saw my temp gauge shoot up to the red H during 80 degree (Fahrenheit) weather. I got out to see that once again the water pump had gone out and was leaking antifreeze. Being quite angry because I just got it out of the shop the day before I drove the last 10 minutes (about 5 miles) to work with the temp gauge all the way up. There was no problems with the head(s). Hope this helps you out some...

[Drooler]

Just my 2 cents,

As O2 stated, put your cap back on and keep an eye on your temperature guage. If you have water/antifreeze in your oil it will look almost exactly like a McDonalds chocolate (vanilla?) milkshake.

With the cap left on you are able to judge whether you have any leaks in your system by running it and then letting the system cool down enough to open the cap and check the coolant level.

[luckyme]

Thanks for comments. Have brought new water pump off ebay (will I ever learn), think old one had slight play in it. Will stick it all back together today and see what happens.
Will drain system completely and fill up to get ride of all airlocks.
Also have seen another thread somewhere on this forum about potential problems with Sportages and someone mentioned heater core ( I guess the same at the heater matrix) leaking as it was glued together and the water pump going after about 5 years.
Any problems I might post again.
Cheers