96 Overheating infrequently. Need advice

[freebird21207]

Okay people, I could really use some assistance. My car was overheating, so I took it to Nissan. Bingo, the water pump. Got that replaced (and the belts too) last Thursday. Since then I was having low idling. Idle drop at stop lights and in stop and go traffic on the highway. Resulting in stalling. I tinkered with the AIV today and bingo, the idling stopped. Today soon after the AIV, the damn thing overheated again, but no low idle. Also there is this weird, "eeky eeky eeky" sound. Coming from near the water pump area. You can only hear it with the hood up. My overflow is filled beyond the max line and sometimes that's casuing alittle spraying outside of the top hole, when its tranferred over, but not much though. Last Weds. when it over heated it cut off. I waited 30min on the side of the highway managed to get it cranked and hauled *** 2-3 miles home. Belts sqeeling the entire way. Got home and it stalled the next day I had it towed to the shop. Does anyone else think I have a blown head gasket? My ex wreck my car about 5 months back, in a small frontal fender bender. My headlight braket was busted but nothing more from what I can tell. I also think the crank shaft seal is leaky, but I don't know what if that's a factor. And yes I'm working on getting that fixed too. I noticed that when it over heated earlier today it was when I was sitting still and driving slow, but that the temp gauge went down when I was moving. Its idling a little below 1000 and at 2500 at about 60mph on the highway in 5th gear. Any suggestions welcome. Here's an old pic before my upgrades, changes and wheel conversion.

[ddgsxr504]

Well your post seems to be a blessing since I also have an issue with my idle when stopping at stop signs and lights so if you sctratch my back then I'll scratch yours. My 95 had a problem over heating a few years ago and after replacing the water pump and thermostat it turned out to be my radiator cap spring was faulty so $14 later my problems were solved. You also said that when it died on you that you waited 30min on the side of the road and then hauled a$$ home with (the belts squealing all the way) well that sounds to me like the belts are loose and not grabbing the water pump pulley so you might want to check the belt tensioner for that specific belt. Now if you could define the term "tinkering" with the AIV I would be very appreciative of you!

[DjPantsSpecR]

its true that nissan head gaskets blow easily. however, if you noticed you were overheating and stopped within a few minutes you might be cool and the gang. I was once.

However, i purchased a car with an overheating problem. it would drive fine until warm up then it would have a spike, then it would go down after you pushed it for a little. this was after i did a headgasket on it, when i purchased the car, it would just flat out overheat all the time, ridiculously.

didn't bleed the air out of the system when i did the first headgasket, it was my first headgasket on a nissan, and i had just got the car, so i only had a FSM.

overheated, so i did another headgasket a few months later tryin to fix the problem. i shoulda been trying to fix a warped head, which was the problem. still i rolled the piss outta it because my other 240 i had just purchased wasn't running. i blew a hole in the upper tank of the radiator. swapped radiators, then blew a hole in that one three months later. at that point the head was so warped it would just smoke out of the overflow the entire time i drove it, 25 miles to school adn back. it blew on the fourth or fifth day of this abuse.

radiator caps, thermostats, leaves in front of the radiator between the condensor, but i'm guessing you either need to have your system bleed do to filling of coolant without opening the bolt on the intake manifold that tells you not to remove it. or you will blow that head gasket really really soon.

get one of those funnels that sticks into your radiator, prestone makes adecent one, you just need to wrap it up with some electrical tape to seal it right. but then you put this in the radiator, and fill it like halfway up. this makes the coolant level higher there and so the air bubbles should rise.

you have to have the car running however, and sometimes it takes like 20 minutes to get all the air out, and its always messy with coolant, especially if you have huge burps or massive overflows. these are always a good sign of a problem, but not necessarily so dont freak out

so get that burp funnel, and burp it. adn you should have that plug bolted in while doing this

[freebird21207]

Okay forgive the crude description, it's too cold to go look again and my camera is missing the usb cord anyway. On the passenger side of the car towards the back of the intake. You'll see a plastic housing shaped like a number eight (8). On the bottom half of the eight there will be a screw in the center. That's your AIV. Turning it to your left lets more air in, the right closes it. You'll know which is which, becuase if you close it too much, your car won't have any air and probably won't start.

[DjPantsSpecR]

actually, you can fire up a car with the screw all the way closed, i did yesterday, but i hardly think this a good way to fix an overheating problem