this is starting to get to me, this retarted car will not run for more then a week woithout something breaking.

anyhow my car has decided that it wants to run at 220*F minium on the highway. granted today is probably over 100*f but its never done this before, i have a new thermostat, brand new GM airdam, replaced most of the hoses when i just did intake gaskets recently. i'm at a loss here.

i tried running it with and without AC on, it didn't make much difference.

 

from what i've read....the TPI's are built to run hot, the fans dont turn on until about 222*F to 230*. I am having a fan problem but from what i've read and been told that temp is normal unless things have been upgraded so that the motor runs cooler.

 

Air dam in place?

 

YES, its in place, in fact its brand new straight from the dealer.

anything TPI dosen't really apply to me since its carbed, i shoulda mentioned that.

i drove it all last summer and its never ran this hot before, on the highway it will run around 220 but as soon as i get into any sort of stop and go traffic, it instantly goes to around 240*

 

new thermostat may be faulty?

 

haha exact same thing happened to me, drivin out to the lake, my car would run at 130+ *C. did you check your coolant level? sounds dumb but, that was my prob :P if you do have enough, you can even run your car without the thermostat, dunno if thatll help. oh yeah if you do, dont forget to put it back in winter if it gets cold where you live. I live in canada, and it gets pretty nippy.

 

normally i'd say that, however changing it made almost no difference in how the car behaved.

 

what kinda shape is the rad in? anything blocking it? are your fans electric.. if so are they atleast turning on?.... from the sounds of things with the high temps on the highway and stop-and-go your not getting enough airflow through the rad.... since the t-stat is functioning... oh yea did you burp the system when you refilled it?

 

I had an over heating problem, which I was missing the air dam, got one installed fixed 90% of my heating problem,
I also pulled the rad, and cleaned all road debris(aka bugs and other things) and ran high pressure water through the condensor, and that seemed to fix the rest of it, now with a 160 thermo, and the fan running at engine start my car gets nowhere near 220, runs about 160-180 I would guess

 

I have a new radiator,2 different radiator caps,2 different thermostats just incase,just switched from a single fan to duals and anything close to traffic and I start to run between 225-235.

 

Redlsone,
from what I understand, without changing the the sensor, that controls the temp the fans come on, that all the mechanical changes will not change the operating temp,
I am by far no expert on this, but there are kits to change the temp the fans come on, or you could hard wire it, using a 30 amp relay, that operates off the with ignition power, now I do not quote me on this, its been awhile I read about these things, so I would look into it more,

 

what is bothering me is WHY its doing this. heres a lowdown on my cooling system.

radiator is not even 3 years old as of right now.
brand new intake gaskets
new fan switch, fan cycles properly.
brand new GM airdam
new hoses, everywhere aside of lower radiator hose.
new thermostat

i could wire my fan on, and drop thermostats, but thats not going to solve the root of my problems.

 

ok, I have read, the factory set operating temp, of 3rd gen camaros, and firebirds, is 220-240, due to emissions, and fuel economy, I am trying to remember exactly where i read this at, it was on this board, it also stated that lower the operating temp, increased power, but also effected gas mileage,
so in my opinon, if you car is running at 220-240, that is within the factory set operating temps,
to change it, from what I understand, is to change the temp the fans turn on, ie at a lower temp,
I know there are people on this board that could go into get detail of doing so, in which I just have the basic info, of it, there is a tech article about this

 

it just bothers me alot since i've never had it run this hot in the past.

and oddly enough i drove it around last night and the temps woulden't go above 200*f with the AC on. wheras earlier that day it woulden't go under 220* with the AC on.

 

Heater core blocked - My car would run 10-20* hotter with the heater core bypassed.
Water Pump - Check the weep hole, also verify flow in the radiator.
Air Pocket - Bleed the system, hit/tap the hoses.
Debris between Condensor and Radiator - Clean it out

BTW, sorry didnt catch the part about the new airdam :P

 

well heres an update, i enged up letting the car run for a little with no radiator cap on, i saw some airbubbles escape, after that the car has been running right.

 

yet another update..... car has been heating up WAY too fast after getting off the highway, and my fan switch seems to have died on me... again.

so that said, i decided to replace my water pump, $30 later and the car seems to run alot more consistant, it cools down quicker when getting on the highway. my old pump was leaking a little out the weep hole and gasket on the back, it was leaking onto the ballancer so i never noticed till i pulled it off.

while i was at it i pulled the radiator out and cleaned all the crap that had gotten between it and the a/c condensor out. i still need to put a new fanswitch in, mabie tommrow morning i will..

 

Had a similar problem -- based on my experience, here are some things to do:

1) As deth_1970 mentioned, clear road debris from your radiator. I had feathers, leaves and trash (plastic bags are the worst) stuck in my radiator.

2) If you have an electric fan, swap the stock fan switch with one that comes on at a lower temperature such as 200 degrees.

3) Replace your thermostat with a lower temperature one. Stock should be 195 and I went with a 170, but that was too cold in the winter so I found that 180 is a good compromise. I also drilled 3 very small holes in my thermostat to eliminate air pockets. The holes can be as small as 1/16 and as big as 3/16. If you drill larger holes (say 3/16) then you will begin to defeat the purpose of the thermostat so keep the holes smaller.

4) Coolant should be mixed 50/50 for best heat transfer. I also added water wetter (made by red line) to the coolant. It should improve the heat transfer of your coolant.

 

Something to note here: if the weep hole at the bottom of the water pump was just leaking a little, your coolant system was not pressuring up all the way. If it was pressured up it would be pouring like mad out the weep hole once it warmed up to normal operating temps. My problem was a radiator cap, too weak to allow the system to get up to 15psi.

 

the car never had problem getting upto full pressure, it just lost it prety quick after you shut it off.