my digital gauge i personally installed for my 1986 trans am with the 305 tpi fuel injected 5.0 v8 engine says im running at 230 degrees once its fully warmed up.

assuming the gauge is accurate.

is that a safe temperature if for the engine? or should i try to cool it down to around 200?

 

220 is the average temp that the factory set for our cars

 

well im readin 230 is that bad? what can i do to bring down 10-20 degrees?

this is the reading at idle parked in my drive way would it dropped if it was on the highway with the wind blowing up at the engine?

my fan is already switched to be on all the time and the thermostate i believe is a 170degree

 

It should drop when on the highways. Are you sure you have a lower thermostat in your car. I would recommend running a 180 and with the fan running all the time you should be around the 205 range all day.

 

i am sure because i installed it. why would a higher thermostate bring down the engine temp?

new radiator as well. im using 50/50 cooling antifreeze

is there any special antifreeze on the market?

thanks for your help

 

mine sees 170 most of the time, unless i sit in traffic.

trans sits at about 140.

 

hmm, I dont know much about cooling, but I had the same problem, but except, later of trying to figure out what was causing my car to go up to 260 all the time, I found out I was missing an air dam, but me and my dad, put in a high flow thermostat 180 I recall, my electrical fan runs all the time when the car starts up, as one of my friends says its suppose to shut off when the controls are on, but it runs all the time. maybe putting a high flow therm will help, and make sure you have dex-cool.. if you have the origanal green stuff, I think as I remeber, it can really screw up with the engine, even if you try cleaning the raditor as clean as possible.

 

when i had a "highflow" thermostat, it never closed to allow the engine to warm up, would be lucky to see 100 on the highway, then stall out from being too cold when i came to a stop.

your fan running all the time, when you don't need it, may be disturbing airflow to the radiator. making things even worse?

 

definitely needs the lower air dam...180 stat should be perfect imho...it would cool a bit on the road but not much...have you ever had the radiator reworked? 20 years old they tend to get bunches of crud and the tubes get stopped up..might be worth it to take it out and have a shop clean and rework it..much cheaper than fixing blown head gaskets and/or whatever damage may be done by continually overheating..230deg doesn't give you much room before bad things happen..

 

it has a lower air dam but doesnt do much good if the car is just running in the driveway

its parked for the winter and i just runi t for like an 30mins to keep the fuel and engine and battery fresh

brand new radiator abotu a yr old barely used since the car is barely used.

previous owner reported soem over heating issues

i replaced the thermostate and radiator and coolent

not sure what else i could do

the fan is shorted by the previous owner to stay on all the time

im not really considering to replace the fan switch and hope that works, id ratehr just put a switch in my dash

but is 230 normal for idling in my garage?

not sure what the temp is when driving i dont remember sicne i dont drive it much

this car is still in project mode
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im sure its lower while driving only makes sense with the lowe air damn but it will be 4months before i can make sure

and i got all winter to tweak if need be just need some advice

 

Personally, I'd stay the heck away from the Dex-cool. If you must switch, make sure that your cooling system is totally void of the green stuff--I learned the hard way! Dex-cool mixed with the green stuff turns to MUD in your radiator.

 

yeah, mine does that alot too. I have wonder why my car doesnt warm up at all, but it doesnt really bother me, I just didnt wanna replace that thermastat, (my car has fuel injection, so it doesnt stall out) and I dont understand why my fan runs all the time, it makes my temp stat look like it ant workign at all, ahaha.
and I do understand that mixing preston and dex-cool will turn to mud, but its best that if the car was origanally had the green preston, stick with it, and if the car had dex cool, I think it was best to stick with it, I just didnt wanna screw up my car.

 

My setup runs a constant 190* with a 195* t-stat. Everything is stock except my fan is re-wired to be controlled by ECM (ebl) so i can tweak the on/off temps and 40+ mph shutdown.

 

HEy wats up Guyyss Im new to this website and just Recently I bought a 1984 Trans Am off My Lady Neighbor Raaan REaal SMooooth till i blew the tranny and i got a new one...After i got it put in my car Started To heat up it almost reaches the REd but then the Fan kicks In and it kinda goes dowwn but when the fan turns off it goes right back up!! can somebody Help me out Would really appreciate it im losT~!!
Thanks!

 

i have a 160 thermastat in my '89 tpi. the car usually runs between 140 - 160with no problems. i have both fans wire to separtate switches on the dash. i used the stock relays. i also use dex-cool but the motor and cooling system is brand new. 230 seems a little warm.