Ok i was doing some running around today, was about 105 here pretty warm but has been that way for a week no cooling problems. Get to the store, wasnt paying attention to the temp, and needle was pegged, soon as i stop car, hear the boiling coolant. Anyways, the coolant is now a dark brown color. Ive got a new thermostat for it, went to 180 from 195 (havent installed yet) but dont know what else to replace or check. Anyone know why the coolant would be a dark brown color, what i possibly messed up. What to do to fix this and get it running normal. The fan is wired to a toggle switch and is always running, and i at least know the fan works. Any help is gonna be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

When was the last time you flushed the coolant system? Maybe you just noticed it now. As the coolant ages it'll usually pick up a nasty brownish green color from all the rust and crap in the cooling system.

Is the radiator cap holding pressure? If it's not, the boiling point will drop WAY down. Is your water pump producing any flow? I.E. If you have the cap off and you start the car, you should see quite a bit of turbulence in the side tank. If you don't the pump is bad.

Could be that the radiator is clogged up. If your coolant is brown, I wouldn't doubt it

Is your bottom hose collapsing on itself?

Good luck

EDIT: could also be a failed thermostat that won't open, but you already are replacing that. After the car gets up to the temp of the stat, the gooseneck should get noticably hotter and the upper hose should get firm from all the water flowing through it.

 

i honestly havent checked anything right now. im waiting to hopefully get some ideas and tips from everyone tonight and tomorrow afternoon and then check it after work tomorrow. Not driving the car of course. Ive personally never changed the coolant, i doubt previous owner did either. But wanna find the problem before i flush the system

 

Could be the fans not turning on to couldn't it?
I don't think there is enough info here to diagnose the problem further than telling you its overheating

I would do the stat just because your doing it anyway, make sure the fans kick in, do that water pump test he mentiond (I never heard of that before, good bit of info to know). After that you need some kind of tester to check the radiator cap don't you? If it isn't the cap, then its probably clogged. Once you fix it definatly flush your coolent.

I'm far from an expert but thats how I would go about it.

 

thanks for the info guys, any more tips would be help ful.
thanks