Ive owned the car for 3 months and when i first had it i noticed that the engine service light will kick on when my car is sitting at a light or in traffic or at a drivethrough etc. the temp will go above 220 and as soon as i drive the light will go off almost as if air drafts through the car and air damn and supplies it with sufficient cooling. While removing a foghorn from my car i noticed that the front of my radiator is very fragile and disentegrates like ashes upon touch, there are a few dents n knicks in it, and the back of it is perfect looking. A few times when i started the car i noticed very little white smoking coming from the oustide of my car and it would go away after the car was runnin for like a min this rarely happens. A few weeks ago my mechanic and local auto store guy pointed out that my coolant was very low, surely i got home and checked my reserve tank and all the coolant was gone from it, i refilled it and its been fine since. I bought some texaco coolant and gm pellets and eventually plan on flushing the system and adjusting it for driving in the winter, just want to figre out whats wrong with it before i flush it. Any ideas guys?

well, i am not exactly 100% sure on this, BUT it is an idea. I have had that same problem stopping at a stoplight or whatnot. I took it to Autozone near me, and they checked it, but of course with my luck, the light wasnt on. turns out i got to to come on whilst being there, and it was the Temperature control. There are three of them for the 84 firebird v8. It made mine stop doing that, but i never had any smoke, and i recently replaced the radiator. So if you wanna go off that?

does sound like you might have a bad radiator,as far
as the crumbly fins,are you sure that is the front of the
radiator and not the A/C condenser? in any case i have
never seen that problem but some road chemicals might
attack the aluminum.Have seen cracks in the plastic
radiator tanks leaking coolant(the tanks are replacable-
replaced a cracked tank on a'95 olds aurora once,got
new tank at dealer,repair wasn't too hard)
If your fan is not operating you will find lots of posts
covering that problem

thanks guys, ill look into the temperature control. I dont have bills for a new radiator at the moment. There are no cracks in the plastic. its strictly the fins that are weak. This car was purchased from isle park right near the water it has suffered some rust damage i wouldnt be suprised if the salt water did this to the radiator.

8t2 z-chev i think your right and i feel like a dumbass, i think it is the ac condenser if its a thing that looks like the radiator and goes infront of it. Ive been calling it my radiator this whole time, and no my fan does not run while im sitting, started the car this morning and it was not spinning.

If your fan isn't working then do two things. Hook the fan directly to the battery and make sure it runs. If it doesn't run you obviously need a new fan. If it does run than your fan turn on switch is probably bad. Not sure were the switch is on v6's but it's probably in the cylinder head
Alex

Great work .. really informative .. and thanks a lot for sharing ..