Help please!! Overheating van and confused!

[Angkearbey]

Ok! Maybe someone can help me please! My mom was driving on the highway, battery light came one, power steering went out, and van got hot. When She got off the road I opened the hood and the Serpantine belt was broken/idler tensioner pulley. But there was also coolant / water around the top of radiator area on same side of van as the belt had broken but the cap was loose also. I had the belt and idler tensioner replaced and checked the water level which was good and thought I was good to go. WRONG!!! It's now overheating but takes a while to even get past the cold marker then when it starts to heat goes straight up into the red. Thoughts?!? Im somewhat handy for a girl at least and trying not to spend my moms money... It's a 2000 Oldsmobile silhouette. Any and all suggestions welcome! Also tried a new radiator cap just invade but not luck.

 

[LTC8K6]

Sounds like you may have air in the system? You usually need to "burp" the cooling system to purge the air from it to get it actually full of coolant.

There is often a bleed valve at a "high point" in the coolant circuit to let air out.

What happens is the radiator is full, but the engine block is empty.

Probably the belt broke because the tensioner locked up. This caused the overheat and boil-over, which let the coolant escape.

Hopefully you just need to get the system bled of air and full of coolant.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Open the drain petcock at the bottom of the radiator.
Let everything drain out.
Close the petcock
Put a hose in at the top of the radiator.
Turn on the hose - slow volume like filling up a glass of water from the sink
Start the engine.
when the water starts returning from the engine, stop the hose.
Observe if the water is flowing is bubbling. If no movement - thermostat/water pump issue
Once stop bubbling, stop engine
Drain 1 gallon of water from the radiator using the petcock
Close the petcock
Pour in 1 gallon of coolant (not mixed) into the radiator
Start the engine
Observe temp gauge.
If steady; top off the radiator and fill the coolant overflow tank to the mid point between hot and cold levels.

If the temp gauge is not steady; you have another problem - potentially the thermostat?

 

[JCH13]

The engine got overheated when it ran without the serpentine belt driving the water pump. Something in the cooling system might be fried. I would do a coolant flush/bleed as suggested by the posts above me and preemptively replace the thermostat. Keep an eye on the weep holes near the water pump to see if that was damaged, white exhaust to see if there's a head gasket issue, and around the engine to see if something else is leaking (hose, seal, etc).

 

[MixMasterTang]

Like said above, check coolant levels but it's also possible that something went wrong with the water pump. When it is running (before it gets too hot) can you feel any water flowing through the hoses or see any fluid coming out from the water pump?