Belt broke, radiator burst, 235°, Whoo Hoo

[BullElk]

We recently handed down my wife's 2000 LX to my daughter. Today she she called me. Said she turned into a parking lot and it quit turning. She already knew the first thing to check was the CDL. Not it. So she waited 15 minutes for Ol Dad.....with the A/C running.

The belt had broken and the nonturning fan allowed radiator to overheat and kaboom. I should have figured it out then and told her to turn it off. That cost me.

I put on a handy spare belt and drove it a few miles to gas station while I currently wait on a wrecker to tow it to my house.

The engine temp go to 235° at last stop. It does crank and run well, however. New radiator is on the way.

At what temp would one expect to permanently damage engine?

 

[duggy]

Wait, how did the AC still work if the serpentine belt was broken?

 

[BullElk]

It didn't work long she said but the freon had recently been low and she wasn't alarmed about it not being too cool

 

[AimCOtaco]

Yeah, the steering and AC are the same belt (serpentine) but the water pump is driven by the timing belt.
Sounds like the AC was probably just assumed working after the serpentine broke which had stopped the mechanical fan, so she sat idling and heat soaking until the radiator without air flow got to 235 and blew off the hose.

I think you'll put it back together and it will be just fine.
EDIT: assuming the 235 was coolant temp and you had not lost so much coolant that it was just reading air temp. Can I assume you let it cool, replaced the belt, and had decent coolant level before you drove it to it's last stop?

 

[BullElk]

I did let it cool a good bit while replacing belt but don't think there was much coolant left.

At gas station I parked it and has been cooling for over an hour. I cranked it and seems to run well with A/C working fine. Waiting on tow truck now.

 

[Patineto]

I'm so glad we had a land cruiser now, in the old days I saw many radiators cake with mud (layer upon layers sometimes) and the engines keep working fine..

That same thing will cost you a drop piston liner on a old range rover/Discovery, so wonder the RR are so cheap and plentiful...

 

[Ninja Cruiser100]

I would be mildly concerned, 235 or 10-15 minutes should not be jugular.

 

[re_guderian]

I had a top seam leak that let my coolant level get low. Fan still worked, but I drove it home with the heat blasting. At stop lights it would get to 232° for 30-40 seconds before it cooled. Did that for about 8 miles, 20 minutes. While running was in the 205-210 range, IIRC. Several thousand miles later, no issues.

 

[suprarx7nut]

I'd be most concerned about damage to the head aluminum (annealing) which should happen until well above 230F.

If the engine didn't run for a while with the coolant missing you should be just fine.

 

[txtortoise]

Didn't the 80 have two belts, one as backup? Miss that.

 

[BullElk]

This was the 2000 LX.

 

[medtro]

Didn't the 80 have two belts, one as backup? Miss that.

Yes, it does.

 

[AimCOtaco]

With motion down the road and the electric supplemental fan this truck would likely have made it's destination just without power steering, charging, and air conditioning. The water pump runs on the timing belt so if it's wet and the engine is running it's pretty well protected. Letting it sit and idle in this condition is what got the cooling system blowing off.. just my opinion here but the 100 is indeed hard to kill.

 

[BullElk]

UPDATE.... I got the new radiator in last night. Put on a new Gates belt (had two months left on warranty from Oreillys). Seems to run and cool perfectly.

So, I guess 235*, for a small period of time at least, will not destroy a hundy engine.....even at 296K miles. It actually seems to purr even better than before. May be due to the new belt.