Whitchman

Ok first off, the car is a 91 camaro z28 5.7. I bought it about 2 weeks ago. It's in pretty damn good condition for the most part. I brought it to a new mechanic to get a few leaks taken care of. In addition to fixing all of that, he also said he toned down my idle a bit since it was a little too high. And he put a piece of steel wool in my exhaust to quiet it down a bit, to maybe win over the guys that failed me for inspection ( thats another story, the inspection guy who's english was pretty rough tried to tell me that I failed for an exhaust leak and THATS what was making my car so loud. when it was really the fast that my entire emmissions system is ripped out from the engine back and my borla exhaust is bypassing the muffler on purpose).

Anyway, I get it back from him today, and I wasn't even 5 minutes from the shop when I noticed my temp going past 220, which it only does in heavy traffic on really hot days. Then it kept going, all the way into the red which it has never done. I have 2 cooling fans @ the radiator, the right one is not working. I do not know whether or not it was working before I brought it to the shop, but when I called the mechanic after all this happened, he said the fans were working in the shop. I would think that with atleast one fan running, I wouldn't see the car overheat that fast regardless. Do you think that the steel wool in the exhaust could cause more heat to build up in the engine due to less exhaust flow?
I'm not sure if this is the exact exhaust model I have but it's pretty much the same setup:

http://www.borla.com/applications/lo..._System/14888/

He supposedly put the steel in the right pipe in that picture, after the split. The only other thing I can think of is that somehow lowering the cars idle somehow messed with the computer (which i was told by previous owner is an aftermarket performance chip) and randomly caused some chain reaction. My car knowledge is like a 4 out of 10 though So I'm really just throwing ideas out there.

On another note, the inner window sill on the drivers side door is completely loose. This is something I would have noticed as I had my windows down and my arm on the door all day long driving it yesterday. He said he did no work involving the door. How random is that? Sheesh.

IROCWPB

How did he adjust the idle? Your car has TPI, right? hopefully this guy wasn't an idiot and went around screwing with your timing which can change where it idles, and I'm no expert, but on a TPI setup, I know of no other way short of reprogramming something in your computer/chip.

what is your idle at now?

Whitchman

maybe like 850, 900 or so.... It was at 1k, maybe a bit more.

EDIT: yes it's TPI. Would lowering the idle somehow affect cooling, or make the engine run abnormally hot?

IROCWPB

changing the timing can effect the cooling. and just an FYI, our engines are supposed to idle at 800rpm, from what I've been told anyway. I'm thinking that he did adjust your timing. Or maybe I have overheating problems because my timing is off and I should be idling at 1k rpm too? hmmmm.........

i think it's high time that an expert chime in.

IROCWPB

now that i think of it, there is a screw on the throttle body that doesn't allow it to close all the way, that's probably where he would've raised the idle. wouldn't effect cooling though.

Whitchman

Update: I noticed that there was a burnt and frayed wire going down between the headers on the passenger side. It was disconnected from what I later found out is the sensor to turn the other fan on. I brought it back to my mechanic and they were really busy today, but managed to replace the wire and the relay. They said they couldn't get it to overheat in the shop. They took it for a drive, but still they said it wasn't really that much hotter. It was definately getting to 240+ both on the way there, and on the way home. It only cooled down when I was moving. Blasting my heat helped slow it down when I was stopped.

Not that I really know alot about cars, but it seems to me that I shouldn't even need the second fan to keep me cool unless there is something else wrong. I get the feeling that even if I get the second fan working properly, I'll still have problems.

jimdutro

iTrader: (1)

The fan on the drivers side(left) is the primary fan which is powered by the burnt wire you found on the passengers(right) side. The wire connects to a thermal fan switch that turns the fan on at a predetermined temp. The fan on the right only comes on when the air conditioning is turned on and speed is under 35 I believe. The thermal fan switch can be changed to come on at different temps. You also need to replace the thermostat if changing the switch. As best as I can tell the reason your car overheated so bad was because your mechanic left the switch wire on the exhaust. I had a mechanic do this on my `74 El Camino with the positive battery cable, fried the entire elec. system which he got to pay to replace. There are a lot of mechanics out there not qualified to work on lawn mowers, you found one. Find a new mechanic and warn others about the clown that worked on your car.