Overheating problems!!!!
07-03-2013, 02:37 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: NE
Posts: 44
Overheating problems!!!!
Hey all,
Ok so heres the deal, I have been SLOWLY doing body work on my car and it has been forever since I have driven it reguraly. So I would say about 2 weeks ago when I finally got it out for the summer for the first time it was running very hot. Im talking like 230-240 hot. I had to shut her down a coupl of times to cool her. So I inspected my system, the coolent was very low so I filled it up, the mechanical fan was beat to **** (ends of the blades were all frayed out and it honestly looked burnt, like black burnt. So i wired up and installed dual countour fans which blow like a tornado. And I replaced the t-stat with a 180 degree one. All of this has only dropped it maybe 8 degrees... it still runs about 215-220. I would like to get it down to 190ish preferebly. Im starting to believe it is my radiator... It has the original radiator in it (I believe) and the car was originally a 4 cyl (I dont know if the v8's came with bigger ones.) So after all this the only thing I can think of trying is to flush the radiator but honestly im debating whether or not it has died. Does anyone know of any ways to test a radiator, or how about a water pump? and before I drop 200ish dollars on a new radiator is there anything else it might be?!?! the car runs good in town (stop and go) those fans do a great job. But as soon as I jump on the interstate she climbs to 220 pretty quick (1-2 min)
Ok so heres the deal, I have been SLOWLY doing body work on my car and it has been forever since I have driven it reguraly. So I would say about 2 weeks ago when I finally got it out for the summer for the first time it was running very hot. Im talking like 230-240 hot. I had to shut her down a coupl of times to cool her. So I inspected my system, the coolent was very low so I filled it up, the mechanical fan was beat to **** (ends of the blades were all frayed out and it honestly looked burnt, like black burnt. So i wired up and installed dual countour fans which blow like a tornado. And I replaced the t-stat with a 180 degree one. All of this has only dropped it maybe 8 degrees... it still runs about 215-220. I would like to get it down to 190ish preferebly. Im starting to believe it is my radiator... It has the original radiator in it (I believe) and the car was originally a 4 cyl (I dont know if the v8's came with bigger ones.) So after all this the only thing I can think of trying is to flush the radiator but honestly im debating whether or not it has died. Does anyone know of any ways to test a radiator, or how about a water pump? and before I drop 200ish dollars on a new radiator is there anything else it might be?!?! the car runs good in town (stop and go) those fans do a great job. But as soon as I jump on the interstate she climbs to 220 pretty quick (1-2 min)
07-03-2013, 02:59 PM
#3
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: NE
Posts: 44
I agree 100 percent on any of my cars overheating has always taken place at stop and go so this is why I think it MAY be the radiator because I believe it would be getting plenty of air all by itself while driving at highway speeds (ruling out the fans) which I already replaced those so I am ruling those out too... I do have a aftermarket temp gauge maybe its out of wack, does anyone know where on the engine to point a infa-red temp gun to get an accurate reading?
07-03-2013, 04:55 PM
#7
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: NE
Posts: 44
Update**
Nah pedal happy I changed the t-stat to a 180 (I even lowered from the 195 hoping it would give my radiator a jump start on cooling it. Ok so I went out to my garage and temp guned. First thing I noticed is that when I start the car the gauge is already sitting at 180... which makes me weary of the gauge in the first place. Not knowing which area to gun, I gunned all over. The area where the temp sending unit enters the intake gunned at like 90 degrees before start up. I stood there while it idled and slowly watched the temp rise to roughly 120. I wanted to speed up the process so I took it for a short spin. I waited till my temp gauge in the car read 210 (overheating). jumped out and gunned where the temp sending unit is to find what... the temp to be 180!!! exactly the t-stat that i put in. I drove maybe another 100 feet and gunned again.. 180.5 it literally bounced between 180 and 180.5 the entire time...
Nah pedal happy I changed the t-stat to a 180 (I even lowered from the 195 hoping it would give my radiator a jump start on cooling it. Ok so I went out to my garage and temp guned. First thing I noticed is that when I start the car the gauge is already sitting at 180... which makes me weary of the gauge in the first place. Not knowing which area to gun, I gunned all over. The area where the temp sending unit enters the intake gunned at like 90 degrees before start up. I stood there while it idled and slowly watched the temp rise to roughly 120. I wanted to speed up the process so I took it for a short spin. I waited till my temp gauge in the car read 210 (overheating). jumped out and gunned where the temp sending unit is to find what... the temp to be 180!!! exactly the t-stat that i put in. I drove maybe another 100 feet and gunned again.. 180.5 it literally bounced between 180 and 180.5 the entire time...
07-03-2013, 04:58 PM
#9
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: NE
Posts: 44
I also gunned the t-stat housing and it also read 180. the only places I gunned that read higher were the intake manifold above the valve covers. (gunned at like 220 ish which scares me because thats what my gauge read.... but one side of the block above the valve covers gunned 220 the other gunned like 195?? so IDK if that was the right place to gun it. I also gunned in the radiator fins and the temps were all over the place anywhere from 120-160. So did this help?? Im not sure, but it has just about convinced me to change my temp sending unit for ****s and giggles....