Nasphreak29

I recently bought my Camaro a couple months ago. Recently, as in a couple a days ago it has started heating up pretty quickly rising to the 250-260 mark on the thermostat.

When I stop and turn off the car and open the hood and coolant overflow is literally overflowing from the cap of it.

It was cooler here until a couple weeks ago when the summer temps really started kicking in. Before then the car would run fine and stay at about the 190-225 mark and the overflow would boil, but not overflow out of the cap and spew everywhere.

And i have looked around here and on other sites and I can't seem to find anyone with the overflow boiling over. I dunno if this has anything to do with it but the coolant is brownish in color after running for a bit.

ZZ28ZZ

Do a pressure check on radiator cap, or replace it.

Nasphreak29

Pressure is just fine, its not coming out of the radiator itself, its coming out of the overflow.

jaykar

iTrader: (1)

After that, might want to pull the plugs and check for water.
Do a compression test.

Headgasket a possibility, especially if 260 for to long

Later

eschevyrda

your car is over heating and since these cars run hot already and its summer , and it could be that your still running with 20 year old parts.

check your fan relay,
and the sensor thats on your manifold ( forgot the name of thing sorry)
or the fan sensor that sits aside the starter on the passenger side of the motor.

thermostat couldve also went bad,

these are the things that usually go wrong becouse people neglet its not your fault , u just got the car

it happen to me wen i first got my car, my car looked pretty good wen i got but internally it was a mess.

all thanks to the previous owner

if the problem still persists post up people will help

91z 2 8

mine did that boiling out but it was from the rad cap and it was just a bad cap i took it off and the botom peice stayed in there

eschevyrda

could also be your water pump

Nasphreak29

Its not a head gasket I ruled that out just now. However when I came home I left the car running popped the hood to check the fans. The temp gauge inside the car was reading 250-55 but only the fan on the driver side was on.

I know that one fan is supposed to kick in at about 220 and the other at about 245 I just dont know which one is supposed to kick on first but I can naturally assume the driver side kicks on first.

and I will get to checking the stuff that you listed, eschevyrda and will get back to ya when im done with that

safemode

iTrader: (1)

Watch it cooking your engine like that. I've killed starters doing less. The varnish melts off some of the wires in the coils. Ends up causing a dead spot in the electro magnet that turns the starter moter. I would not be surprised if you have "click click click" issues

Turn the AC on, if both dont come on then either the fan is dead or the relay is (maybe you'll get lucky and it's just a fuse).

If it only overheats when sitting still and not driving > 40mph, then you can at least rule out flow rate as a cause. That means, the water pump, thermostat, and radiator and accompanied tubes are all good if the temp is normal when driving > 40mph. If it overheats even then, then i would check the thermostat and water pump, something is stopping the coolant from moving. (edit) I assume you have a fully functional air damn under the car and it's not broken in half (/edit)

campin1983

iTrader: (4)

The boiling over in the overflow is pretty standard for the thing overheating. Pressure increases in the coolant system from the water overheating, the hot coolant goes into the overflow, and it was already boiling when it hit the overflow tank.

Don't worry about the coolant that's in the overflow boiling, thats the norm for this situation. The core problem is the overheating motor. I'd flush the radiator and cooling system, check for blockages on the front of the radiator, and check the air dam below for damage or if it's missing. I'd start there, then also check thermostat, fans, etc.

ZZ28ZZ

The cap serves 2 purposes.
1. To keep coolant/pressure from leaking to the outside.
2. To keep 15 psi on the cooling system, and when 15psi is exceeded, it routes coolant to overflow tank.

For each psi of pressure in the cooling sys, it raises the boiling point 3 degs.
So, if the 15psi cap is working, coolant will not boil until 257 degs.

If the cap is defective and doesn't hold pressure, the coolant will start to boil when the coolant exceeds 212 degs and will start to vent coolant to the overflow tank. Coolant temp will start to climb fast when this happens.

Overflow can be a symptom of overheating and it can also the cause if it occures prematurely.

Not saying you don't have another issue, but the radiator cap is often overlooked when troubleshooting, and thats a shame since it's the easiest/cheapest part to replace.

campin1983

iTrader: (4)

Didn't know that specificly. Again, this thread is showing lots of new info for all of us.

Nasphreak29

Wow, I did not know that. Tomorrow ima head up to advance auto parts and get a new cap and thermostat and replace those tomorrow. I still need to fix the fan but if that fixes most of my overheating problems the fan can wait till I get more money. Also gonna flush the radiator out as well.

That'll be cheap enough and rule out several problems as well. Thank you guys very much for your help by the way

Nasphreak29

Ok, well I ran into some problems today.

My ramps are to steep to get the Camaro on to, but that was somewhat solved using a jack for the time being.

I can't find the petcock, and if it doesn't have one then ima have heck trying to get to the lower radiator pipe cause of how its located.

Can someone point me in a location to look for the petcock?

Nasphreak29

Alright, found the petcock this morning cause it started raining yesterday afternoon. It was hidden pretty good, but with the morning sun it hit it just fine.

Flushed the radiator, checked the hoses, which seem to be in good condition. Went to change the thermostat, however i discovered I didn't have the right set to get in there. However, I went ahead and flushed the radiator and added a new radiator cap and the temps are no longer soaring to the 260 range.

It stays steady at 220-225 which is still hot however not extremely hot. When I get the tools to put in the 180 thermostat it should cool it down more. I also should look into getting an Air Dam as well because mine doesn't have one.

I would like to thank everyone here you gave me suggestions and im sure yall will see me around asking more questions and hopefully helping some people in the near future

campin1983

iTrader: (4)

The air dam should help lower temps even further, as well as the thermostat. Glad its back under control though. 220 is warm, but its a running temperature at least, rather than everything overheating.

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

No air dam? There's your MAIN culprit. New relay or secondary fan motor is the next focus.

THEN, you can look into a lower temp thermostat. If everything is doing its job good, no real need for a lower temp thermostat.

To test your rad cap, take it inside, cold, & put it in a pan of water on the stove. If it won't open, there is another problem.

But start with getting an air dam. Camaros don't rely o them as heavily as Firebirds, but they still need them.

Nasphreak29

Forgot to mention this, but the person that owned the car before me had the Air Dam ripped off, so what he did was remove the foglights and added(I cant think of the exact word) Plastic Tubes to make the air flow through to the radiator, I will post pictures of it tomorrow.

Now, I am going to go to advance tomorrow and get a new motor for my secondary fan, because I switched the relays and the Primary Fan(then acting as my secondary fan) came on so it had to be the motor. Right?

Ill update tomorrow. But putting the new thermostat went well and slows the overheating process down at 180 slightly.

safemode

iTrader: (1)

little plastic tubes can only provide a fraction of the air flow that the air dam provides. btw, 220 isn't hot. That's right around normal for the stock thermostat.

jaykar

iTrader: (1)

Those plastic tubes your talking about are probably
the tubing that comes standard on our cars.

They sit behind the rear fog lite openings.

Yes, firebirds need the dam more than camaros because
lacking the front openings, but you still need the airdam.

Later

Nasphreak29

I did not know that ^_^ thx lol >_>

And, it gets above 220 when I get in stop and go traffic close to 250-60 sometimes but as soon as I get above 40, its starts getting back to 220-230 hence why im replacing the my motor which seems to have gone out.

Nasphreak29

WOOT waste of 26$ on the new motor apparently


Ok, Well.....heres the deal, I replaced the fan motor in the secondary fan because I was sure it was that was it, however crank up my engine.....turn the AC on...no dice. I notice that the primary fan spins a little bit at start up for like maybe 1m, so I switch the relay and same...the now secondary fan starts up....so, I get curious and put the relays back to normal and then I switch the actual plug on the motors them selves...turn the engine on...and tada the new motor spins. Switch the relays again just to be sure..and same, new motor still spins.


So, I take that as theres something wrong with my Harness? Where can I get a new dual fan harness and how much will it cost eh?