I have a 1991 camaro with a 5.7 tpi. I live in Tucson, Az so it's pretty getting pretty hot here now that summer has rolled around. When it was starting to get warm here my car was running pretty warm like around 215* F. So I put in a 160* thermostat hoping that would cool it down, but now I have been having problems with the car over heating. I'm not sure if it's something to do with the thermostat or something else becuase I drove the car for about a week with no problems. I first noticed it the other night when I was trying to get the governor in the transmission set right. There temperature gauge was approaching 260* F. I stopped driving and opened the hood and you could here the coolant in the motor boiling. Also the coolent catch tank nearly filled its self up all the way, then once the car cooled down it was pulled back into the motor. I'm not really sure what could be causing this. The top radiator hose is getting hot so that would mean that the themostat and water pump is working ok. Both my fans work. I just replaced the radiator cap cause I though maybe it was that not being able to hold in pressure. I don't really know what to try next. Any ideas?

 

are you sure the fans are working on time??

 

Actually mine is gettn pretty hot as well. Around 240 to 260 without the ac runnig. I changed my fan motor which is a single fan. Constantly on. No relay to turn it off. direct wired. 160 degree thermostat. Im looking at getting a high flow water pump as well as a new radiator just to try and remedy MY OWN problem. Let me know what you come up with if you get it to keep cooler. I would be interested to know what you did. Thanks

 

i had a problem with my car over heating only when it was hot outside. so i changed the stat,pump and radiator. NO change so i replaced my dual fans for a 3800cfm flexalite single 16 inch black magic fan havent had any problems since. So heres what i was told by a buddy about the stock fans he said that those fans are all the same 5.0 to5.7 so as soon as i did my motor swap thats when the problem started.

 

Yea I'm running the EBL flash and I actually have both of then set to come on at 180* F

 

I'll look into some other fans. Do you know how much the stock fans flow?

 

I don't think the you have a chip in the ECM for the 160 deg stat and it still turning the fan on for the stock 195 deg stat. So the fan may not be coming on at all. The passenger side fan only works with the A/C on.

 

I have the fans wired together, both are controlled by the ECM and I do not have the stock ECM, I'm running the EBL flash. Right now both fans are set to come on at 180* F and they come on when the car reaches 180*F.

 

You did not make it real clear if the car was overheating while idling stopped or while driving. Make sure the lower rad hose has a spring inside it. If not, replace it with one that does. If you want to check it, wait till the car gets 200 deg or so and watch the lower hose while reving the motor.

 

Originally the car got to almost 260* F when I was driving it. I have been testing it at idle and when it gets close to 240* F I've been shutting if off cause it never got that hot before. But I will check the bottom radiator hose, I dont really think its that because all the hoses are pretty new.

 

maybe for where you live you need the 180 thermostat to keep the coolant in the radiator longer. if your thermostat is too low your engine just keeps it open and the hot coolant just goes in and out without being cooled in the radiator.