Hi, i have a 97 Chevy Lumina that has 183,00 miles on it and I would like to know why the radiator fan will not blow and as a result my car overheats. Also it does not hold any coolant if i try to drive it when it's overheating. I had a mechanic to check it a few weeks ago because my heater went out and he informed me that it was my manifold gasket that needed to be fixed which would cost me $795 dollars, however i did not have the money at the time so he told me to make sure i keep coolant in it and it should run fine until i could bring it back to get fix, as you can see that was not the case. Now the fan did blow for a couple of days after taking it to the shop but every since then it has not. My question is this is it the manifold gasket and if so, if i have it fix would that solve the problem or is the problem beyond repair, please help me figure out what to do!!!!

The manifold gasket alone won't cause that if you keep it full of coolant. I suspect you have already overheated it to the point that you now have a blown head gasket so the intake gasket would have been a lot cheaper to deal with. That engine is also prone to cracking heads when overheated.

The fan will only effect things when you stopped or in very slow traffic. As long as your driving over 30MPH, you don't even need the fan.




78 Corvette Pace Car For Sale-18k mi orig-Florida

erica; To add to HT's correct observation; The cooling fan gets it's information from the coolant temp sensor. When the engine reaches a specified temperature (usually around 234F), it commands the cooling fan to come on. The sensor must be in contact with the coolant for it to 'work'. So, if the coolant level drops, the cooling fan(s) may not come on, just making it worse. When the shop added water/coolant, the sensor would then work, getting you by for a couple of days. Sorry. But, it's probably too late. You can have the head gaskets/heads checked for leakage by a shop with a chemical analysis or using an exhaust analyzer for gasses in the cooling system. If both these tests are negative, you may get lucky by replacing the intake gaskets and thermostat.
Loren
SW WA