overheating

[jroefs]

I have a '83 944 which suddenly began overheating, immediately previously it ran cool at the 1/4 mark on the temperature gauge. Water level is fine, at the tank and at the bleed screw. The fans are working (they go on when the AC is turned on) but the car overheats anyway. The car starts and runs fine. The temperature gauge will not stabilize, it continues past the 3/4 mark, unless the engine is shut off. I pulled the timing belt cover and the water pump pulley is turning. No leakage from the pump, hoses, or elsewhere in the cooling circuit is apparent.

[1.2gees]

The pulley turning alone doesn't mean the pump works, the pulley and the actual pump itself might seperate, which is fairly common, but hopefully you've just got a thermostat that's stuck closed, which is a lot more common. This put's extra strain on the pump itself, so you might wanna take care of it as soon as possible.

[sqgabriel]

I had a similar problem with my '83, on inspection you could see now obvious sign of a leak and none appeared to be dissapering out of the expansion tank. Took it into the shop and they found that the oil cooler housing had cracked and was not keeping the integrity of the cooling system, on the early cars such as the '83 it has a water cooled oil cooler, water sits in a housing around the honeycomb oil cooler, was supposed to help heat the oil quicker at start up and then keep it cool at high speed.
In my opimion just seems to cause more problems than this is worth,
Just a thought but worth a try. the housing is just above and to the right of the oil filter, the assembly is all one. good luck