My friends gotta

87 T/A 4BBL 5.0L

anyway .. he asked me since Im a firebird guy ..

How do I thoroughly flush the block of sediment
and other buildup that occurs with alot of heat.

only reason I ask is.. we cant this sucker to run cool.

Im thinkin since it hasnt been flushed and the car has
visited 260* quite frequently.. we changed water pump,
thermostat, hoses, fans operational, good heater core,
doesnt leak, possible blown head gasket; but runs rather
well. Not sure ..no water in oil from what I can tell, has
an exhuast maifold leak on passenger side. But, nothen
should make it heat up and stay up!!

Im mean 260 pinned, and doesnt move till it sits
on "off" for 30 mins or so.

Its gotta be cooling system is clogged up.. there was no air pockets in the rad hoses and appeared normal when I was working on it.


Car is rather easy to work around, given that
Im used to the crammed TPI engines.

Thanks for the advice .. but I cant really give him
any real advice except the ole radiator routine.

Thanks for the help

 

Are we sure that the temp gauge is reading accurately?? Sorry, but gotta eliminate the easy things first..

 

i agree get a mechanical temp gauge and hook it up and see what it says before you try anything else ....

 

Sure will

It could just pin all the time .. but when the car has ran for
a good hour or so, shes boilin' over .. not popping hoses
boiling, but pretty dam close .. Im concerned because its not hot in AZ anymore, and will overheat on 70* nights!!



Thanks for the advice

 

Hey fellas,

sorry to be a pest again.

Its definatly just some air trapped in the cooling system.
Ive never encounter this problem with my car so ..

I dont know what to tell em to avoid air bubbles when
servicing your cooling system; and how to get rid of them
at best!

Thanks

 

Well, typically you won't run into problems with air being trapped in a cooling system like ours. However, if you need to ensure that it is air free, let it warm up with the radiator cap off; any air pockets will work their way to the top and be gone.

That being said, I would check a few other things that could cause cooling system problems like the ignition timing (too retarded or too advanced can cause overheating) and the simple things like whether the radiator cap is good (if it can't apply the rated pressure to the system, the boiling point will be much lower) and the hoses (lower primarily) are in good condition.

edit: this was my 1000th post!

 

Actually, the best way I've found to work out air bubbles is to fill the rad and engine separately. By that, I mean fill the rad like normal, then pop off the thermostat housing, take out the thermostat, and fill the engine through that. Then put it back together, run it, and top up as needed,

 

if you fill the rad up like normal then pop off the thermo housing coolant will pour out due to the radiator being physically higher in the car. drill 3 1/8" holes into the thermostat and air bubbles shouldn't be a problem.