Ok bought the car 7 years ago. İ have had overheating problems for the last year. The radıator was new 7 years ago. İ just put in a new water pump. The thermostat was replaced twice then taken out. The heater core diverter was replaced. All the fluıd had been replaced with 50/50 coolant. The cooling fan motor was just replaced. İm about to give up on this. Anybody have any ideas? The only thing İ can think of is replace the radiator or the heater core. İ noticed even when the temp on the gauage is almost 240 the heat is blowing cold air still and never gets warm. İnsert correct answer below please.

 

I used to have an '84 Z28 with an overheating problem. It turned out to be a broken air dam on the bottom of the radiator support. Without it, air was was not being directed to the radiator.

 

Would cause the overheating within 15 minutes? Theres no thermostat in it as of 3 hours ago and it did the same thing on the way home

 

Is the upper radiator hose hard? And hot? If not you have a bad tep sender.

 

to much advance on the distributor will also cause overheating

 

Yeah, might want to check that out if everything else is ok... Esp. if the heater is blowing cold. Provided your diverter valve is correct and functional, and your heater controls are functional.

 

did you get all the air out of the system when you replaced these components? Do you have the air dam on the car? Is the fan blowing on the motor? or blowing on the radiator?

 

Yes İ bled the system. The fan is blowıng on the motor. As far as the air dam, the only thing i can think of thats missing is that plastic pıece that goes in between the front bumper and the hood release. there never was a fan shroud around it. this is the 3.1 by the way that may be another detail i left out.

 

well that diverter valve about a year ago broke into pıeces due to old age. İ put a new one on but İ never knew what it was for. İ just knew it spewed coolant everywhere when it broke.

 

with the heather blowing cold air, I have to think the sensor is bad........? Possibly water pump not circulating. This is easy to check, especially with the thermostat removed. With the engine COLD (of course) remove the radiator cap and then have someone start the car while you watch the coolant. You should see the coolant circulating, if the other person revs the engine a little you should definitely see flow as the coolant goes down in the passenger side rad tank a little and you see the cross flow coming through the radiator. If you are getting good flow, and the heater is blowing cold, I'd be shocked if the motor was actually overheating. You could even put a temperature sensor into the rad and watch the guage to see if it matches your dash guage as the temperature rises. When I had my thermostat removed in one of my 400's it wouldn't lift the needle off the cold mark hardly unless I got stuck in traffic for a while. That was with a stock rad and a flex fan.

 

The diverter valve allows coolant to flow through the heater core only when the appropriate setting is selected on the HVAC controls. The little black tube that connects to the top of the diverter is a vacuum line, the HVAC controls route vacuum throught that to open the valve. When the valve is closed, coolant bypasses the heater core. So, I guess what I am trying to say is that your heater could blow cold even when the engine is over heating, if the diverter valve is not working properly. However, there really shouldn't be any problem with it if it the correct one for your car and since it is relativly new.

 

Ok the water pump is brand new. I made sure it was working so that shouldnt be the problem. In fact there was nothing wrong with the original. As far as the diverter I may need to check on that. COuld anything be knocked off the controls and cause it to not function, becuase my cd player was a pain back in the day when I put it in. I may have knocked something loose and I do here a small whistle inside the controls but I never thought about checking it out.

 

UPDATE: Ok I found out what was going on if anybody wanted to know. I took it to a shop and they hooked up there gauges and watched mine show the temp was at around 240-250. theres was sitting right at 210 which they said is normal for this motor. So my gauges are reading incorrectly. I think it may be because the connector that goes to the sensor all the plastic is broken off and nolonger protecting the connection and that may be giving off the 20 to 30 degree difference. But anyways my car never was overheating so everything is good. Oh and the heat still doesnt work. I'll worry about it later though

 

Check under the dash at the heater box and make sure that little metal lever isn't broke off, they're very well known to break (like mine). It's the lever that the hot/cold cable connects to.

 

As far as I know thats ok. I think the vacuum hose that goes to the heater core diverter is my problem. theres no vacuum coming from it so I need to hunt down the leak or break in the line. That piece your talkin about that opens the door back and forth to open the door to the heater core right? That still works fine.

 

u said u replaced the heater core diverter..if the heater core is diverted u are NEVER going to get the heat to work

 

Ok well the heater core diverter has a valve built inside of it which shuts the coolant off going to the heater core when the heat is not being used. Then when it is used the valve opens therefore releasing coolant into the heater core so it does not shut it off for good. It is not working now because theres no vacuum on the hose which connects to the diverter valve.

 

aaaaaahh ok i thought the heater core was bypassed completely

 

the fan, there is a sensor on the side of the block that triggers the fan to come on at about 220ish. notice 260 is overheated. that pigtail for somereason breaks, on most cars, ive had 4 camaros and all have had them broke. once they brake the fan wont work. without the fan the radiator dont really help at 220, and boom, it just goes up from there, yes, 20 minutes regular driving will over heat it, and about the same time idling. i fixed it by cutting the pos and neg wires to the fan, and made a manual switch for it. now this is my experience and interpitation, cuz it took me awhile to fix my problem, and alot of money. good luck, pm me for questions

 

This is true for a normal camaro. Mine, not so much, its been in a wreck and I found out 3 months after I bought the car the harness that goes to the sensor your talking about is gone. The relay for it is still in the bracket but the complete harness is M.I.A. I have it wired to where they kick on when the igniton is on.

 

UPDATE: Ok so I may have a blown head gasket, I'm sending it back to the shop that told me it was my gauges and there going to check the heads. If this is the case I'm going to go ahead and have the motor rebuilt. My gauge is still going to 260 and the cars not running as great as it used to.