some days i will drive and it will stay at 170* and some days it goes to 220* with both fans on. my airdam is intact. do you think that sometimes my t-stat is getting stuck shut??????

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1988 GTA Trans Am 350tpi: 46k miles,3:27 BW rear, aftermarket t-tops
Hotchkis: subframe connectors & strut tower brace
Flowmaster: 3inch exhaust& dual chamber muffler
Accel: 8.8mm wires, cap&rotor, u-groove spark plugs
Edelbrock: 52mmTB, intake & runners
K&N: filtercharger
TPIS: 170* stat, afpr, mat relocation kit
March: performance crank and alternator pulleys
Hypertech: 176* fan switch
Other mods: ported plenum, gutted cat, tb coolant bypass, homemade cold air induction, flux capacitor, driver side floor mat removed

 

your thermostat could be stuck open.
Bolth fans? Does that mean your ac is on? That might be why your temp is higher than 170. It also could be as simple as how far you drive. I notice when I drive more than 20 min my temp goes up to 220, when I drive for 10/15min or so it stays around 180, when the ac is on it goes to 250.

 

with the AC on the car should run cooler becasue the other fan turns on. and why would a thermostat that is stuck open cause a car to overheat?
anyway both my fans are on because of my hypertech switch..
and why would it matter how long i drive for,, every other car has a normal driving temp, my father's car stays at one temp all the time, it dosent matter if the ac is on or how far he is driving or how hot the day is, why isnt my car like this?
anyone else wanna take a stab at this?

 

HOLD ON A MIN. When your A\C is on the car will run hotter because the condenser gets hotter than hell and the fan is pulling all that hot air into the radiator. And I have a 160 stat. and I am getting ready to change it to a 180. Right now my gas milage sucks


I DRAG 2

 

then why is it that people put on the ac when the car starts to overheat?? its to put the other fan on.
why cant the car be 170* everyday of the year,, this is what i want to know,,,,,,

 

And here I always thought it was the HEATER, not the AC... Running the heater will pull heat away from the heater core which uses coolent to heat it up in the first place. That is why your heater doesn't work worth a darn until your engine warms up a bit.

An open thermostat will allow coolent to run through the system too fast and it won't stay in the radiator long enough to cool off.

Perhaps your radiator and/or thermostat are getting a little clogged up...



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1984 z28 w/ a 357 cu in. monster engine which is looking like the posterchild for Edelbrock with the exception of the Holley 750vac... all the suspension stuff... 9-bolt posi disk is in...

-=ICON Motorsports=-

 

AMEN brother! Why do so many thirdgens have overheating problems. Mine is fine in winter on cool days, rain and at night. If I go to the city (in traffic) or idle in traffic for a couple of minutes on warm to hot days the needle will climb till it overheats. Funny thing is all I have to is run it out on the highway for awhile and it cools down.

 

anybody who has spent 15 seconds studying thermodynamics knows this isn't the case."swiped from Road head "
Well i would say that were not talking about hot air rather coolent temp. The coolent temp is circulated for to long of a period will dramaticly increse in most cases. The coolent needs to spend some time in the radiator in order to cool it doesnt matter if the condenser is hot because the air passing through will not heat to the temprature of the condenser it will remain cooler.

But on another note one would assume the the condenser is cold because the refriderant is cold passing through but this also doesnet happen.

Ron, change the thermostate it cant hurt and its olny 3/4 bucks, and if that dont help im sure someone can come up with another idea.
One of these could be the problem radiator water pump thermostat fan wired incorectly fauly guage.

 

Clean out the front of your radiator, you wouldnt believe what will find its way in there. I had the same exact problems for a few months, I changed all kinds of stuff including the radiator and thats when i found the problem, leaves , bugs ,plastic bag,paper well you get the picture. I havent had a problem since in hot weather, traffic or idling for extended periods of time.

 

Okay, put the PhD's aside, and get back to the cars

The reason our dual fan (assume single fan too, should pull enough air?) cars will cool down when in an idling or stop and go situation when we turn the A/C on, is because turning on the A/C also turns on the 2ndry coolant fan..on my car (factory) both turn on and stay on, until like 37mph (have to check the exact number with my scanner someday...oh well).

In just about every situation, the addition of the fans being on, draws enough air through the radiator to overcome the heat in the condensor.

If your cooling system is operating correctly, this will be the case the majority of the time.

As far as pulling the tstat and running hotter? Maybe one car out of a hundred, but in every case I've done it (several cars when I was living in Phx, Az, and several here in the San Juaquin Valley in Ca. too) the car runs cooler, generally temps didn't exceed 145*F, these were cars with either clutch fans or hard fans off the water pump, I'd still expect the same result's with electric fans that were running all the time.

If your car runs hotter with the Tstat removed and you have no cooling system issues, you're in the minor-minority.

 

So what about my situation? Oh and another thing, the car will also cool down if I turn it off and then turn the key forward and let the fan cool it down. So what's going on?
One more thing, I just recently rebuilt the motor and took off the radiator and it was clean all around it.

[This message has been edited by Third (edited May 01, 2001).]

 

I feel the same man. My needle moves from 180-220+ all the time. It bothers the crap out of me. I have a new radiator, intact air damn... I am going to replace the themostat with a new one. Isn't there some kind of debate between the two tempatures you can choose from. Like one doesn't let the computer take over?

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Owner of a 1989 IROC-Z Camaro, a.k.a. "The Babe Magnet". Painted a cheap metallic blue that chips off all too easily and covers over the IROC-Z decals on the doors, also has non-leaking T-tops, ps, pw, power rear hatch, working A/C. Mods: SLP intake runners, gutted MAF sensor, adjustable fuel pressure regulator, modified air spoil, 3.27 posi rear end.
Broken stuff: rear spoiler brake light, driver side lock, power antenna, tilt steering, rear end bushings, cracked passanger side ground effect, washer fluid tab, leaking exhaust and a rotted through muffler that sparks when the car bottoms out while driving like any 17 year old does.