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Partially clogged cat will not cause overheating it will cause random stalls from back pressure....fans not working will cause the temp to run higher than usual....pegging needle means you have a flow issue....run the car without a thermostat and if you still overheat then goodnight for the head gaskets

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2002 Impala 3.4L V6 LT FWD 252,300 miles (01MAR2023)
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What percent of total flow relies on a clear heater core with this vehicle? I know on my '97 Taurus, before I bought it brand new as a leftover in early '98, Ford had dealers install a parallel hose line that ensured flow even with a completely blocked heater core. It sounds like *your* heater core is completely blocked, possibly leaving insufficient flow volume to adequately cool the engine.

I'd try one of two things: either attach isolated hoses at the IN and OUT of the heater core and flush in *both* directions to clear it out, or install a bypass hose to temporarily take it out of the loop to see if flow increases enough to solve your problem.
 

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Even though the shop you went to said that it is not the head gaskets, I would put money on it that you have a bad head gasket. My wife has a 2003 with a 3.4 and she was having the same problem with overheating. If you are a diy type person it is not that difficult of a job to do. I did it in two days working on it for a few hours a day.
 

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Discussion Starter · #25 ·
Sadly I must report that its a head gasket problem and on a car that has 250K miles and a head gasket repair costing more then the car is worth and winter coming up I will be parting it out or selling it to someone that can take the time to fix it. Thank you to everyone that tried to help!
 

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I've had issues like this, especially with heater cores not flowing. I find that used cars over time have been filled with well water, or something besides distilled water and have cloged passages from iron and other things in non pure water over time. I go to Walmart and get the 38 cent a gallon drinking water from the water dispenser and use redline water wetter (from autozone) and 20% antifreeze in summer, and 50% in winter (in Tennessee) always using the water wetter as it increases the heat transfer of water better than antifreeze. there are several other things I do with cooling, but I feel you have a clogged block or head passage somewhere after reading about everything you have done. I just wonder if someone had previously put head gaskets on this block?
 

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Discussion Starter · #27 ·
I've had issues like this, especially with heater cores not flowing. I find that used cars over time have been filled with well water, or something besides distilled water and have cloged passages from iron and other things in non pure water over time. I go to Walmart and get the 38 cent a gallon drinking water from the water dispenser and use redline water wetter (from autozone) and 20% antifreeze in summer, and 50% in winter (in Tennessee) always using the water wetter as it increases the heat transfer of water better than antifreeze. there are several other things I do with cooling, but I feel you have a clogged block or head passage somewhere after reading about everything you have done. I just wonder if someone had previously put head gaskets on this block?
We are unsure if someone has done head gaskets on the car before or not. We did not dig that deep down as we were told it was a Intake Gasket problem.
 

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Discussion Starter · #28 ·
Its been abit and the thread is really old but i thought i post what we did to fix the overheat problem for everyone else that might have the same problem i did.......after everything we did in December the problem ended up being in the end a combo of just a very dirty cooling system we had to replace the clogged Radiator, Water Pump and the last thing causing it to overheat was a very very clogged heater core.
 

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2002 Impala 3.4L V6 LT FWD 252,300 miles (01MAR2023)
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So no head gasket work, correct?

I’ve got 207,000 on my 2002 Impala 3.4 (bought brand new), and it still has its original head gaskets. I *did* have to replace the lower intake gaskets at 104,000, though...
 
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