My son informed me earlier that his '81 240 temp gauge rose to the top earlier on his way home from school. He said his heater hadn't worked for the last couple of days too. We checked the coolant level and sure enough, it was low, so we filled it up. No more overheating. But... the engine makes a kind of clunky rattling sound that I had never heard before. It sounds like it's coming from the front of the engine in the area of the timing belt or water pump. Timing belt was recently replaced. I don't think he drove it long enough to do any serious damage so I'm wondering what it could be. Any suggestions guys? All input is appreciated.

 

When my kids tell me the car is "kinda hot" and "smoking a little" she means they're on the side of the road and the only reason they've stopped is they can't see out the windshield because the wipers don't work well on a steamy mixture of water and ethylene glycol.

You could take off the fan belt to disable the water pump and see if the noise goes away. .

 

Suspect bad water pump. A good time to change it is while you're changing the timing belt because you're already in there and it saves on labor time.