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Eh I broke down and bought them today. $36 shipped. Not bad.

Ya he seems hard to get a hold of.

Truthfully, I haven't heard from him much lately. I travel so much with my job that I kind of lose track of all of my friends. Especially with him living clear across town.

Ya I put the car up for sale and Rob sent me an email thru craigs list.

He is supposed to be digging out a set of coils for me to try/borrow.

Since my last post Ive done some work to the car.

I did a compression test and it does have compression. I pulled the water pump off and hoses to make sure there is no coolant blockages. All good. I pulled the TStat out as its a replacement and I believe it was stuck. Actually Ive been told its highly common for the non-OEM ones to stick...

Ive got the car back on E bay and CL. I need to get it running to keep or to sell. Or just sell it. It was a mistake of a car, thats for sure.

If you talk to Rob give him a nudge :) Ive been waiting over a week now to borrow those coils :)

The 3.5 is a stout engine. When it go's into overheat, individual cylinders are turned off, preventing combustion in the cylinder. The cool gas is used to help cool each cylinder down. It was a pretty cool version of a limp mode that GM used exclusively on the North and Short Start motors.

While I have heard of 3.5's blowing head gaskets, it isn't very common.

Yes, the cooling system is a pressurized system, that does not need bleed out.

Ryan, if you still have Rob's number (the guy you got the mountain of Alero parts off of) give him a call. I don't know many people (including mechanics) that know more about the Northstart and Shortstar engines than him. Otherwise if you need it, email or PM me.

Yeah, you might try one of the local shops and see if you can write them a check to hold onto while you borrow one of theirs.

Well I checked into it more and the 8" extension summit sells should do the trick. Im gonna order it next payday.

So the car is gonna sti for another week and a half. Oh well.

I bet if there is a problem its in the back.

Im half tempted to just get the water pump back on and get the fluids in it and start her up and see what happens.

Hmm... I've never heard of that? Maybe though, but running water in it for a short time while trying to get it fixed is very unlikely to cause any problems.

I have read that these motors sometimes blow the gasket between the cylinder and water jacket...

Hmmm...

Actually I read they will rust there is you use to much water.

The compression would be lower on that cylinder. Sometimes it'll blow between two cylinders, which makes both those cylinders low on compression.

Sometimes it'll blow at a water jacket and leak coolant externally, which doesn't effect compression at all. Which is where the coolant pressure check comes in handy. But even if it doesn't hold pressure, it doesn't really mean a head/head gasket, it could be anywhere in cooling system.

Sometimes it'll blow between the water jacket and cylinder, which makes the pretty bubbles.

Sometimes it'll have poor compression due to bad rings. Add a little oil down that cylinder and if the compression increases, if it does, it's the rings. If it doesn't, it's a blown head gasket or bad valve or something in the top end.

If you need any help with it you can call me. If you don't have my number you can pm me and I'll give it to ya.