A few days ago I ran out to the store right down the street, and about a mile away from the house I catch my temp gauge going up rather quickly at a stop light, when i would start moving again it would drop like a rock. turns out my heater core was leaking and I was low on fluids, I bypassed my heater core yesterday, ran a hose straight from the top passenger side of my radiator to my intake manifold and topped off the fluids.

I just had to run out to my mom's to mow her grass for her, about 20 miles, and it seems that whether I'm moving or not, no cooling seems to be going on. The temp gauge doesn't rise quickly, but by the end of that 20 miles, it's up at 260' and when I shut the engine off you can hear/see steam escaping into the resevior.

Basically, how could me rerouting a hose and adding more fluid to the system be keeping it from cooling at cruising speeds?

note: I do have an air dam.

Thanks all.

 

check your routing of the oses, make sure you didn't move th hose to the wrong spot, in other words make sure it is all flowing in the same direction

 

that's good advice. which ports are supposed to flow which way?

The water outlet where the thermostat is releases water back into the radiator when temps get high, yes? I've confirmed that at around 160' the thermostat is opening and releasing water back into the top of the radiator. I'm not sure what sort of flow should be coming out of this hose when then thermo opens, but I didn't let the engine run any longer than was necessary to confirm that the thermo was opening.

The water outlet on the front of the TPI intake manifold flows hot water constantly to right under the radiator cap, right?

The hose from the bottom port on the radiator goes to the water pump and I'm guessing the water pump has a port on it to put water directly into the engine. This is where all the cooled water runs into the engine, yes?

 

Instead of getting fancy, why don't you just take the two hoses that come out from the heater core and connect them together. One is an "in" line, the other is "out". This way you wont have to guess where it goes.

Still, this sounds like you are having some fan issues. Is your fan on, does it even turn on??
How is the cap?? Is it holding pressure??

I have my fan hooked up to go all the times and my car (in the most dangerous of heats runs 180 deadly solid). I would recommend you check that fan.

 

My computer turns my fans on at around 160' for whatever reason, so those aren't the problem, but even if they were they shouldn't be an issue at 50-60mph.

The reason I didn't just hook the ends together off the heater core is because I'd like to keep my engine bay as clean as possible, which I've accomplished running 2' of hose from the radiator to the intake manifold, I was also able to get rid of the hose that runs on top of the valve cover, the heater control valve, and the hose that runs down to the metal pipe that's bolted to the frame rail. also because It'd be one hell of a way to rig something up, rather than just doing it the right way, which I believe I've done.

I saw a few drops coming out of my radiator cap, wonder if that could be the issue.

Having your fans turn on at 160' or somewhere in that area is alot better than having them always on, for multiple reasons, but once mine turn on, they never turn off, being that my car never drops below 160' again.

 

any other ideas?

 

this may sound like a stupid question.. but did u burp the car.. because if u disconnected hoses and didnt burp it there is deffinatley air in there.. and that would cause the thermostat to not open.. or if it did open air expanding in your cooling system will cause it to over heat.. and i agree with the guys up there.. i rerouted so complicated way that a f-body shop told me to do.. but i forget it.. but yea rerouting the wrong hoses could cause it to overheat.. just dissconnect the heater core lines and put them together.. hope this solves ur problem

 

Well I've set my timing, replaced my thermostat with another 160' and drilled 4 x 1/8" holes in it, and replaced my radiator cap, but I'm still overheating. I'm starting to wonder if it could be the transmission that I had built up when it went a while back that's doing it. I'm not interested too much in spending a bunch of money installing a trans temp gauge permanently, but I NEED to narrow down this overheating problem.

Is there any way for me to figure out whether it's the trans or the engine causing me to overheat?

Thanks all for the advice.

 

anyone have any suggestions? I really need help on this.

 

I guess, if you ran the hose from the intake, front of the intake and connected it to a hose that us usually on the frame rail running from the pass side of the rad, than you should be OK. Post some pics of what you did. Also, when does your fan come on?? Because a stock computer will not turn the fans on at 160. I am not sure whats going on there, but make sure that it does come on.

Also, the thermostat can be having issues, maybe air pockets or whatnot. Flush the system and it should be alright.

This is what I do that cures most of cooling problems (assuming most of the components are functioning properly).

I go and buy a flush kit from a parts store. I might replace the water pump depending if everything else that I do does not work as well as it should.
Make sure every hose is going where it should be. Check for leaks. Flush the system through the line that sends the water through the engine itself and runs through the radiator. If the water comes through the radiator and its flushing chances are the thermostat is opening. Once that is done and clear water is coming from the radiator I put in 100% coolant in the radiator (I figure roughly about 30-40% of water in the engine and it needs to be mixed with coolant). Than I wire the damn stupid fan to run at all times.
Turn the car on and have it idle, or hold the pedal down for it to reach operating temperature. Once it does this, it will suck up all the coolant thats in the radiator. From there add 50/50 mix until its full. Clean your overflow container and fill it with 50/50 mixture.

This should, if the pump, radiator, and air dam are functioning, make it run very cool.
I've done this on at least 5 third gens so far (that were all having cooling problems) and they are all running where they should be 180-190. Stock they are at 220 but thats because the stupid fan does not turn on until 225 or higher.

I hope this helps.

P.S. You might be searching for problems where there are none with your tranny, although knowing its temperature is a good thing. IMO

 

Your trans isn`t going to cause your engine to overheat. Check to see if your water pump is still working, impellers fall off sometimes.

 

I have the same problem as you, I removed my hearter hoses to clean up my engine bay and then pluged them.My temp rises to about 230 and stays there. I have a new air dam, high volume water pump, 160 thermostat/ also tryed 180 and no thermostat, coil spring in lower rad hose to ensure it does not collapse, 3 core rad 31x19, dual 16" fans(one pushing one pulling and they overlap in the middle), Fans are wired to come on all the time. Everything is brand new exept the rad is 4 years old. The timing is 32 degrees total advance at 3000 rpm, air fuel is 13.5:1 The engines water jackets are clean I also have new edelbrock Performer RPM heads. I also confermed my temp gauge with an aftermarket gauge and an Infered thermometer.

I just bought a new Griffin 31x19 2 core aluminum and Maradyne Jetstream II Dual 12 fan set up. Its not in yet but Ill keep you posted on how that goes.

 

I was going to say buy a radiator cap... but you already did. I suppose the water pump is next.

 

Will it over heat like that if you are just sitting in your driveway? Will it still get that hot in the highway with no traffic?

Sounds like you have all the parts you need, you didn't omit anything.

The only thing that stood out is the dual fans, pulling and pushing.

I run a high output motor, with stock everything, fans, rad, cap and pump. I have a 165 stat. The only thing I did differently than you is that both my fans work in the stock direction, pullers. Then I wired my fans differently. I have one on all the time, and the second one turns on at 165. I run 14.7 air/fuel.

Maybe try and mimic mine and see what you get once you get those new parts installed. My car RUNS at 165 all day in the middle of summer. Its crazy cold. I got it up to 185 once, in the dead heat of traffic in the city, with no moving air at all on a 95* day. I was sweating bullets in the car, but she never went over 185. Very consistent and reliable, and cheap set up. All other cercumstances, she runs 165.

Keep us posted.

Oh and I monitor my temps with an autometer unit.

 

Check to see if your air dams are in place.Start your car and pop the hood. Give it gas and see if the upper or lower radiator hose is collapsing. See if your fans turn on. On a different occasion, start the engine cold and leave cap on radiator off until it starts to rise, then cap it off. I wouldn't drill holes in the thermostat, Just get a 180* or 160* and find the problem. When you drill holes in the thermostat, you allow coolant into the radiator and the radiator does not have time to cool what is inside of it. Just my opinion though.

 

If you see and hear steam going into the overflow you have air in the system. when the system is hot and the cap vents you should normally have liquid. I would check for 1) low coolant 2) head gaskets.
It is possible to get compression into the cooling system and not notice a major performance problem, that could also be a possibility why the heater core let go (besides age)

 

What you did when you installed that hose from the intake to the rad, is you put a DIRECT BYPASS of the radiator in place.

In other words, it is now possible for hot water to exit the top of the motor at the intake, below the thermostat, and recycle itself DIRECTLY BACK INTO the cold side of the system, and then right straight back into the block, and thereby getting no cooling whatsoever.

Instead of the "bypass" hose, go get a couple of those rubber caps from out of the "Help!" aisle at your local parts store, and put those on, and see what happens.

Then, replace the heater core. It won't be summer forever, and it TRULY TOTALLY TUBULARLY SUCKS to be standing out there changing it out on the first cold and nasty day of winter. Think ahead.

 

Didn't picture it that way till it was in writing. Check what sofa said first.