Question 1990 2.6L Isuzu trooper cooling system strange prob..

I'm hoping to get some direction with the groups help. (Please)!!!

I recently had to replace the head gasket and automatically replaced
the timing belt and a new thermostat at the same time. For 8 weeks it
has ran great. Last week the heater and defroster stopped producing
any warmth. As of yesterday it seems to overheat after driving 10 mins.
I'm thinking my problem is the water pump. The w.pump shows no sign
of leakage nor does it make any strange noises. What is strange is
that I see a tremendous amout of white steam coming out of the rear
exhaust. "Wall to wall steam". I have not had much of any loss in
power which hopefully rules out the head gasket. But how would water
be entering into the combustion cycle and coming out the exhaust as
steam? Thanks in advance for any help you can give. Ernie in Fort
Bragg, North Carolina.

skysoldier173d wrote:
> I'm hoping to get some direction with the groups help. (Please)!!!
>
> I recently had to replace the head gasket and automatically replaced
> the timing belt and a new thermostat at the same time. For 8 weeks it
> has ran great. Last week the heater and defroster stopped producing
> any warmth. As of yesterday it seems to overheat after driving 10 mins.
> I'm thinking my problem is the water pump. The w.pump shows no sign
> of leakage nor does it make any strange noises. What is strange is
> that I see a tremendous amout of white steam coming out of the rear
> exhaust. "Wall to wall steam". I have not had much of any loss in
> power which hopefully rules out the head gasket. But how would water
> be entering into the combustion cycle and coming out the exhaust as
> steam? Thanks in advance for any help you can give. Ernie in Fort
> Bragg, North Carolina.

You will know very soon.
You adequately describe a head gasket failure. Where else would that
white smoke come from? You have air in the system and therefore no
heat. It might pay to change the water pump this time. You need a more
thorough diagnosis this time or you will be going for gasket #3.

Hello Al Bundy,
Thank you sir for the quick reply. "I really do appreciate your
time and efforts". Something that I should mention to you regarding
this problem. I can remember when about a week ago this problem seemed
to originate just after I accidentally over-filled the plastic coolant
reservoir with perhaps 1 to 2 quarts of water that went above the line
and to the very top of the plastic container. Also, today I started it
up with the radiator pressure cap off and rev'd the throttle manually
at the fuel injection cable/pulley shaft while watching the water flow
inside the radiator where is was filled with anti-freeze (very green in
color) and watched/looked for any fluid moving. My limited experience
has proven in the past that with engine revving or a fast idle that the
coolant usually will show some directional (right to left or left to
right) flow movement. Am I correct about this?
Also, maybe and I hope so, <smiling> that maybe the steam out the
exhaust was not as big as I said earlier. I really am having a hard
time with the steam issue. As it happens, our weather here has just
started turning colder. Today we has the high in the 40's and it has
been quite cool for this area all week. At this point I feel pretty
certain that the water pump is failing and just now upon listening
under the hood, I believe I noticed a tall-tale sound originating in
and around the vacinity of the water pump. (I believe the w.p. is just
behind the fan pulley on this 4 cyl. 2.6L trooper. I don't notice any
loss of power usually associated with a bad head gasket. My now
question is: "If the water pump is not working, any possibility that
could be causing some excess water vapor to be getting thru the
running operation? maybe some overflow could be boiling off
somewhere. But I know what your saying. If water is coming out the
exhaust it must be getting into the combustion chamber at some point
such as a port in the water gasket at the head gasket vacinity which I
hope is not the case.. I think that I really need to pay attention to
this steam situation. I would hate the thought of another head gasket
change. I had a machine shop check the trueness of the head and block
mating surfaces and got a clean bill of health regarding a good true
surface. Man alive! that was a lot of work. Another ques: Could the
heater failure to produce and warm water thru it be due to a bad water
pump? During that last Head Gasket change I went ahead and put in a
new fuel pump into the tank as my pressures were not reading very
reliably and I have had all along an idle surging problem. I believe
that is caused by a faulty air regulator in the intake system.
Thanks again to you Al and to anyone else that might have any
suggestion.

are other cars also emitting white smoke, it can happen when the air
temp is close to the dew point....

the wate rinthe radiaort will not move until the engine has wamred
enough for the thermostat to open

you may have a bad thermostadt

or you may have a bad head gasket

Mark

Thank you sir!!) for the quick reply. "I really do appreciate your
time and efforts". Something that I should mention regarding this
problem. I can remember when about a week ago this problem seemed to
originate just after I accidentally over-filled the plastic coolant
reservoir with perhaps 1 to 2 quarts of water that went above the line
and to the very top of the plastic container. Also, today I started it
up with the radiator pressure cap off and rev'd the throttle manually
at the fuel injection cable/pulley shaft while watching the water flow
inside the radiator where is was filled with anti-freeze (very green in
color) and watched/looked for any fluid moving. My limited experience
has proven in the past that with engine revving or a fast idle that the
coolant usually will show some directional (right to left or left to
right) flow movement. Am I correct about this?
Also, maybe and I hope so, <smiling> that maybe the steam out the
exhaust was not as big as I said earlier. I really am having a hard
time with the steam issue. As it happens, our weather here has just
started turning colder. Today we has the high in the 40's and it has
been quite cool for this area all week. At this point I feel pretty
certain that the water pump is failing and just now upon listening
under the hood, I believe I noticed a tall-tale sound originating in
and around the vacinity of the water pump. (I believe the w.p. is just
behind the fan pulley on this 4 cyl. 2.6L trooper. My now question
is: "If the water pump is not working, any possibility that could be
causing some excess water vapor to be getting thru the running
operation? maybe some overflow could be boiling off somewhere. But I
know what your saying. If water is coming out the exhaust it must be
getting into the combustion chamber at some point such as a port in the
water gasket at the head gasket vacinity which I hope is not the case..
I think that I really need to pay attention to this steam situation.
I would hate the thought of another head gasket change. I had a
machine shop check the trueness of the head and block mating surfaces
and got a clean bill of health regarding a good true surface. Man
alive! that was a lot of work. Another ques: Could the heater failure
to produce and warm water thru it be due to a bad water pump? During
that last Head Gasket change I went ahead and put in a new fuel pump
into the tank as my pressures were not reading very reliably and I have
had all along an idle surging problem. I believe that is caused by a
faulty air regulator in the intake system.

Thanks again Al. You're nice to jump in here and try to help. I do
the same when I can.
I hope and wish that my prob will end up being only the water pump.
Ernie

Hey Mark,
Thanks for your opinion.. And yes, other veh's were emitting steam, my
trooper seemed to be sending out more. But then, I was just getting
rolling after being out of the veh. and in a business for approx 20-30
minutes. Is it possible that a bad water pump, coupled with the
overheating engine condition cause what appeared like more white steam?

Thanks, Ernie

Hello again Mark,

I'm sorry to bother you but I didn't quite understand your explanation,
i.e.:

"the wate rinthe radiaort will not move until" <-----could you please
explain your thought when you wrote this.

I would like to know what you were trying to explain to me. Thanks
in Advance, Ernie

Your over filling the plastic resivoir has nothing to do with anything
except it shows that you are consuming coolant if you are adding.
No, you can't test the flow of a water pump by looking into the
radiator. You can feel the upper and lower radiator hoses for relative
heat and sometimes feel flow by grasping the hoses. Sometimes a water
pump will deteriorate to the point that the impeller has no vanes to
pump water and the flow goes down. But this happens gradually. You say
the vehicle was fine for eight weeks after the head gasket repair. With
high mileage, changing that water pump would not be a bad idea anyway.
The "no heat" condition: Check the temperature of the inlet and outlet
hoses to the heater core. Both should be fairly hot with the inlet
hotter.
Perhaps you could borrow a pressure tester and test the cooling system
to see if it holds pressure. Some auto parts stores have tool loaner
programs.

Dude, a little bit of steam is ok as it is one of the by-products of
gasoline combustion. Usually, you can't see the steam unless the
current temperature is at or below the dew point. If you see heavy
steam all of the time, then some how excess water is entering the
combustion chamber. This is most likely through the head. You replaced
a head gasket. Why? Did you check the head surface for flatness? Did
you get the head magna-fluxed to check for cracks in the head that you
can't see with the naked eye? Head gaskets themselves don't go bad to
often. It is usually caused by over-heating the engine because of a bad
thermostat or water pump (and you keep on driving it), and the head
warps, Since you recently worked in that area, the head sounds suspect.

BTW, I have a 1990 Isuzu Trooper II w/ 2.8L V6 that I am replacing some
bad lifters on currently.

Good to hear from you. I replaced the head gasket because it
definitely was blown. The trooper would bearly run at all. Once the
head was off, I took it too a respected auto machine shop and they
performed several tests for stress and trueness of the surfaces. The
upper end, valves, lifters, etc was good as well as the surface tests
came out good. The top of the block was checked by me with flour and
flat glass. I didn't remove the block to take it to the machine shop.
Prior to the gasket blowing, there wasn't any indication of
over-heating. Then again, I had only had it for 2 months at the time
and the prior owner could have exp'd these kind of thermal probs. I
had an 1984 model trooper with a 4cyl gasser and loved that truck and
really took good care of it and it blew the h. gasket for what appeared
as an unknown reason. Well, I have certainly made up my mind to change
the water pump and check and see how it runs after that. I have come
to the belief that water pumps have a definite (fixed) life span that
is stamped into them to go bad at a certain mileage or age. My
experience is that water pumps have gone bad for me faster than brakes
wear out.
Good luck on the lifter replacement and sorry to hear that they wore
themselves out.

Thanks for chiming in, Ernie