Overheating While Idling on Inclines, What would cause this? Options

[Coomer]

I was in a parking garage shooting some photos today, and as I was parked on an incline (front up, rear down) taking some pictures I noticed something dripping from the car. I immediately shut the car off and noticed that the temperature needle was higher than normal, like this: (sorry for the bad photoshop)



Once I shut the car off, I popped the hood, and the fluid was actually coolant that had come out of the top of the reservoir somehow...fluid was within the min and max levels though, like it always is.

I let the car cool off for a while while I adventured off to take more pictures and came back and had no problems whatsoever, even sitting at idle for a long period of time (on a flat surface.)

So I found another incline, and this time parked with the front down and the back up, let the car idle for a few minutes, and sure enough, the temperature gauge started rising again past normal levels, this time with no fluid coming out of the reservoir though. Again, I shut off the car and let it cool down, and now it's fine again. It's really hot outside, but only when I leave it idling on an incline does the water temperature rise. It's fine at idle on a flat surface, and while driving (both up and down steep hills at 3,600 RPM...I make the very hilly drive to Yakima often.)

I couldn't think of what would cause this...I bled my coolant system a few thousand miles ago (probably like 9-10,000 miles.) Anyone have any ideas?

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[presure2]

head gasket. or a blockage somewhere.

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

The thing I would think is that because you're swapped or because you mess with the motor all the time a hose is pinched or something is out of wack. If it's over heating like that, check the fuild in the radiator when it's cool. You could just have a bad cap that's not pressurizing right and because of the low fuild you are overheating, but its only low enough to affect you while you at an angle. That makes sense to me. Caps are cheap, and so are thermostats, so I would just replace them and flush the system and see what it does. There's not much else besides new radiator and hoses after that, and their pretty easy to tell if bad just by a visual.

[Bitter]

the only variable was the incline, a pinched hose or headgasket would be a constant issue.

i'd be willing to bet you have some air trapped in the cooling system and its been sitting out of the way on flat surfaces but when on that incline gets around and disrupts the cooling. or that incline loads the waterpump in such a way that it can no longer cope with (old pump/old belt/who knows?) or that its some odd quirk with the 3sgte on an incline.

[Dr_Tweak]

Is your radiator fan working okay? This is really weird... it could possibly have something to do with how your radiator hoses are routed... did you do anything unusual with them when you did the swap?

-Doc

[vsideboy]

air in systems or maybe water pump not working 100%?

[hitcachi]

or that its some odd quirk with the 3sgte on an incline.

No 3S, 4AGE

[Bitter]

or that its some odd quirk with the 3sgte on an incline.

No 3S, 4AGE

oh, well ive had my 7afe on some relatively steep inclines...but pointing the other way. if i can find some incline that i can sit on facing the other direction i'll see if its an issue with the way the A block is or if its specific to the 4age or some odd issue just coomer is having.