I just got my first thirdgen. The seller told me the car had been sitting in a garage for a year, and he drove it the last 2 weeks. I checked the oil level and coolant level, both seemed old, but fine. Drove the car home for an hour and 1/2 and in front of a slow stoplight, where I sat for about five minutes, it got a bit hot.

Yesterday I took it to a mechanic to do a full tuneup and have a look at the cooling. Car was leaking coolant, probably from lower radiator hose, he retightened it and fixed the gauge.

After reading the boards here it checked the engine again this night. The lower hose is no longer leaking. I made sure the radiator and overflow are full, added some cooland and water. Ran the engine for a short while with the cap off, with my hand I could feel a little bit of air pressure gradually building up (didn't see any foam). I could see two slow streams of water flowing from the top right inside the radiator hole. Screwed on the radiator cap and drove around the block.

Then I let it idle and watch the temp gauge, it climbed to about 180-190 @ 2000 rpm for a few minutes. The upper radiator hose has pressure, and is still squeezable, but feels almost too hot to touch comfortably. Temperature seemed to climb slowly, but I could not run the engine any longer now at night. The radiator felt warm around the cap. The day of overheating it did not feel warm, but I felt throught the camaro grille. I will test tomorrow if the ***** radiator heats up, or just parts of it.

Some other information:
-The airdam IS missing, but the car also overheats when standing still. (I will order a replacement)
-The single electric fan kicks in when hot.
-No excessive white smoke when cold, none when hot.
-No smudge on oil cap...

I know the overheating horror stories and just want to make shure

If there is anything I can do or test to give more information, please say so and I'll do it first thing in the morning.

 

I don't know if you can tell if it has a dud headgasket by feeling the top rad hose, the hoses will ge hot because they are transfering heat out of the engine into the radiator to cool and the cooling system gets heaps of preshure when hot because of expansion. That is why on the rad cap it will say "Do not remove when HOT" or you will get soaked in very hot water.

Pull the dipstick out and have a look there, is the oil dark colour or is it a light brown?

But these cars run at the 220+ mark, normaly only run cooler when they have a dual fan or good single fan with shroud setup.
There are small mods to lower it a bit EG: 190'F fan switch or manual one, 180'F thermostat, make a small shroud up for youre current fan and they MUST have an Airdam installed.

 

mine did the same thing....i changed the radiator...thermostat..hoses..waterpump...and it wasnt even them it was the fan ..the previous owner switched the wires on the fan so it spun the wrong way.....first see if your fan turns on..then out your hand in betwwen the engine and the fan to see if it is blowing at the engine if u feel wind its blowing the right way if its not its spinning the wrong way

 

Well, no air dam is a good reason why overheating when driving home. Is oil milky white, is oil ***** floating around in oil. The normal temp will be around 220 when driving, your will overheat because of no air dam. Flush radiator, clean radiator coil and make sure fan are cutting in. Also, find an honest mechanic. If my mechanic felt the rad hose and said 1700.00 I would laugh in his face. Congrats on your find. What does it have 305.

 

It is not likely that the head gasket is bad and causing it to overheat, although I haven't looked at your car and your mechanics may have seen some evidence of a bad gasket that we're not aware of.

The most likely cause, since your fan is running, is a bad or incorrect radiator cap. I would replace the cap before doing anything else. It's an inexpensive piece.

The thermostat missing might be a clue that a previous owner attempted to correct an overheating problem.

 

Also - replace that air dam.

 

My 89 RS had a bad overheating problem and i was told it was the head gasket too. It would always climb to 250 in a hurry i mean like after 2 miles... But anyway I changed every thing and Now it runs 150 max never gets above 150 and i live in so cal were its 110-115 easily in summer....So heres my list of things for you too change in the same order i did

Radiator cap---ended up pressurizing the system and blew the water pump
Water--Pump pressurized it more and blew a hole in the radiator core
Radiator--Changed this and That was it!!! Went from having to drive around with the heater on too help cool it to running 150 max!!!

So yeah try that plus its a lot cheaper than 1700 so yeah....O BTW Lemme know if this is similar to you

 

If it's barely hitting 150 then you're probably overestimating the accuracy of your gauge. That's far too low.

 

Im assuming 150...The Heat gun on the the hose said like 157... but yeah on the gauge its in between100 and 220 its on a dash between them but its not labeled i remember taking a heat gun to the hose and it said 150 and the gauge was at that unmarked dash so.....i think the thermostat kicks open at 150 though cuz its aftermarket

 

Well the oil is just dark, but it is very old.

Thank you I'll try that, wiring is a mess. I noticed the cooling fan is attached a bot crooced, so it is not on the small plastic shroud. I'll bolt it up/ tie wrap it today.


I'll check the oil again and drain the radiator myself. What is the radiator coil, and how do i find and clean it?

Is there any way to test the radiator cap? I have a 15 LBS on there right now. But I don't understand how it could overheat from a bad cap? Is is because over or underpressure, and why do I need pressure at all? Sorry about noob questions

YEah, it's a 305 TPI, plenty of power for me right now!



Or hide it... :S


I will, but shipping to the Netherlands takes a few weeks. Can I fab up something myself in the meantime?


Seems like the same problem, for about 100$ I can get a good waterpump here, thats always on stock @ special usa car companies. ALso discussed: cap will be changed. As for the radiator: I'll take a pic of it so you guys can tell me if it's damaged. And I will feel if it gets hot all over its surface. If not I did a seach and came up with this drop in replacement:

3-row core
TransPro Ready-Rad Plus
Ordered through Kragen for $176.99
Kragen P/N: PA 6549547, TransPro P/N 438918


So if I'm correct, standing still in cold weather the temp may go up to 220, not much further. When driving it should cool to about the thermostat rating (I'll order a 180). But driving without an airdam is dangerous?

 

yeah don't trust the OEM guages mine will read 260'F but my aftermarket guage will be reading 235'F.

 

A bad radiator cap will vent pressure too early allowing the radiator to 'boil' over at a lower temperature. It will not allow the system to maintain the pressure it requires to raise the boiling point of the coolant.

 

This is what I did this morning:
Started the car and drove it around for like 10 minutes. Temperature climbs slowly, stopped at my house around 200 fahrenheit. Let it run at idle an saw it climb to 240 within 3 minutes. Stopped the engine popped the hood and checked the following:


- Oil color and consistancy: dark, bit thick and touches the F of "full" at operating temperature, after letting the car sit for 5 minutes.
- Oil cap: not clean, no smudge. Looks perfect
- Fan turning in the right direction: blowing towards engine
- Fan properly attached? There is some room, but it looks OEM. See picture below.
- Fan coming on? Yes, at 220 on my stock temp gauge.
- Radiator hot? NO! Upperside feels warm, bottom is stone cold when gauge is at 240 degrees.
- Engine codes:
Code 33: MAF sensor indicated an air flow of 45 gm/sec or more for 1 second when TPS was less than 1/4 throttle and engine speed was under 2000 RPM. What does it mean? At least it doesn't say 'illegal error' like windows :P
- Pressure on hoses: they seem pretty inflated but squeezable.
- Cracked hoses: yup. Underside of upper radiator hose does not leak but shows the threads of the core. Pictured below.

Gap from fan to radiator:


Lower left side of radiator


Balloon hose?

 

Didn't you verify water flow through the radiator? If not, I'd suspect the water pump or a blockage in the system.

When/if you installed a new t-stat air can get trapped below it and not allow it to reach temp to open. A small hole drilled in the side of the t-stat flange will prevent this.

Check your water pump for signs of leakage at the weep hole under the pully mount. Water getting past the seals is an indicator that it's worn out.

Radiator fan should be fine, although the radiator fins could use some cleaning, but if the radiator's not getting hot then hot water is not going through it.

 

The resized picture doesn't show it very well but the fins are pretty much all bent on the radiator.

Here is a better shot of the worst part. I think it's a good idea to replace it...



How do I verify the flow? It flows some, but how much water should it flow?
I made a short movie with the radiator cap off:

 

Your radiator is F***** UP. Try using a small screw driver and straighten out those fins. Front and back. You dont have any air flow thru the coil. if my rad looked like that and didnt overheat I would be worried. These car run hot anyway, that would be like blocking over half of it off. No wonder. Also hoses arent supposed to expand, there gone. I looked at the radiator again, find a big trash can.

 

is that the radiatior or the ac condensor isnt that in front of the radiator??

 

That picture shot through the left grille pocket. AC condenser sits higher I believe. Though I'm not sure?!? :S

 

yeah that is the condencer, you said the aircon dont work?
Well first thing id do is take the radiator out and look over it and make shure you can see through the finns in the core then take that condencer out and chuck it in the bin (it is too far gone).
replace the radiator hoses and then put youre radiator back in then see how it runs.

 

WILCO! :P