this is starting to really bother me with my car and its rather odd how it all began... more on that later.

this summer my car has been an a cooling system nightmare. it never used to be like this.

1987 camaro 305/4bbl, 179,000 miles

lets start with what all has been replaced recently:
Waterpump
intake gaskets
bypassed rear intake heater hose
new heater hoses everywhere
new 180* drilled thermostat
fan switch - keep killing them somehow
brand new GM airdam
cleaned up random crud from between condensor and radiator
upper rad hose
2 freeze plugs due to them developing leaks
radiator was new on 2003

the car is now to the point that if i start it and am not doing constant stop and go it will be fine all day long (180-190ish). however once i let the temps rise above 220* and they always do with the fan on or not in traffic. it will simply not cool back down once i'm doing freeway driving for even extended periods of time afterwards. and on top of that i seem to keep killing fan switches some how.

now i never used to have these problems, the car for awhile worked just as it should have, now i swaped a GFX front clip onto my car, and i swear that is the very day i started to have these problems. the temps rise quicker now then they used to, but not overly fast.

i'm willing to believe that i may have crud in my system, it IS 20 years old now and is coming up on 200,000miles however with all the times the coolant has been drained out and refilled recently i sorta doubt it.

not sure how big my radiator is, and i'm sure that the stock fan isan't very efficent, but before i go throwing money at dual core radiators i want to be sure of what the problem at hand is.

 

you sure its actually staying that high and that the guage isnt just sticking or something?

The guages on these things arent overly reliable.

 

anyone else? i'm willing to believe that my gauges aren't the most accurate things ever, but i'm prety sure that the temp gauge isan't lieing to me.

 

It is possible that there still is crud in your system. Have a professional radiator flush donew, they use a special chemical to clean it and then exchange all the fluid. This cleans out the block nd the radiator. My guess is junk in the block. Either way tat dual core radiator wont help if there is crap in the block. This is supposed to be done as maintenance. ALso, is your radiator cap new? If it isnt holding pressure it simply isnt going to have a high enough boiling point.

 

I'm not sure if it would be the answer to all your troubles (or at all but killing a number of fan switches makes me ask myself if your fan has gone over the edge, drawing too much current and not doing enough rpm's..?

 

But still reccomend the flush

 

i think i'll have it flushed, i don't believe its ever been done in the cars 20 years, but like i said, with all the cooling system problems, i've changed the fluid ALOT recently

the cap is definately good, as the system holds pressure good.

 

same thing happend to me as long as its not a leak you definately got a fan problem. i agree the guages arent acurate but if you shut off the car the guage drops to 100 if you turn it back on and it goes to the same spot 220+ then its in the ballpark. just replace it with the dual fan setup avalible in most junkyards for 50-70bux you will never look back...