My 84 Firebird with a 305 runs at a little over 220 while driving around town. Is this high or a normal temp?

 

220 is a little too hot, you want to try and stay around 180-200. does it cool down on the highway?

 

Yeah, it cools way down on the highway, I can't remember what temp it cools down to but it's low. I couldn't find a radiator fan from another car and when I ordered one from the internet it wouldn't fit so I have a three bladed fan from a van. I also have a summer thermostat installed. Is there anything else I could do to get the temp down?

 

what thermostat do you have in now? i mean you could completley eliminate the thermostat, also you should have a 50/50 water/antifreeze ratio.

 

I didn't install the thermostat myself as I'm not mechanically inclined but does a 180 sound right? When I take the cap off my radiator after the car sat all night the radiator was full but the overflow tank is way below the add line. Does this mean I should add more antifreeze and if so do I add it to the tank? I wouldn't be able to add it to the radiator anyway since it's full. What effect would removing the thermostat have?

 

Factory fans don't come on till around 230 I wouldn't say 220 is too hot. Unless your an automotive engineer.... in which case I retract my previous statement.

Fireburn don't use the gauge in the car to judge exact coolant temp. My guage reads well over 220 sitting in traffic. I hooked a Tech 1 (GM scan tool) up and the car NEVER goes over 207, usually stays around 198. You can verify coolant temps with a temp gun on the water outlet.

Your 0 for 2 in this thread bud. Eliminating the thermostat wouldn't let the car full warm up to operating temp OR it may cause it to overheat since the mixture would be flying through the radiator so fast with no chance to dissipate heat.

If your stock you should have a 195, but 180 is okay. If your reservior is low then your losing coolant somewhere (rather leaking or burning). So thats an issue all its own. I would go buy a jug of pre-mixed green coolant. Its mixed with distilled water so you shouldn't have any worries of mineral deposits. Just fill the reservior up to its appropriate fill line (hot or cold). See above for downsides of removing the thermostat. In the mean time check for any external coolant leaks. If there is no leaking but your still losing it, then your burning it. Just hope your not burning it.

 

220*is abnormally hot-i'd check that fan to make sure
it is the correct rotation and that it fits the shroud
without excess clearance between the shroud hole and
blade tips.Removing the thermostat will allow the
coolant to flow unrestricted,and if cooling system is
working good,engine will not get up to temp-gauge will
sit well below normal temp at low speeds,might get up
to around normal temp at highway speeds.

 

I would not be concerned with your temp. If it starts going to ~250, then your starting to have an issue.

 

I had a coolant leak a few days ago and brought it to my mechanic. He installed the new thermostat and a new radiator cap. He said he couldn't find any leaks after he did this and tested her on the highway and allowed her to idle for 30 minutes. I thought that he had refilled the coolant but maybe he forgot. After I drove the car before the leak and popped the hood I noticed that there was a lot of heat. After the leak and new thermostat I went on a longer drive and then popped the hood and there was much less heat even though the gauge read over 220. If I am burning coolant what would cause that?

 

Most common cause is a headgasket.. Hope your not burning any..

 

According to whom exactly? You? GM engineers didn't seem to think 220 is "abnormally hot". But I bet you're smarter than they are.....

Head gasket failure, cracked block or head (uncommon to be honest), and MAAAAYBE an intake leak, but those usually leak coolant externally.

 

If you have white smoke coming out of your tailpipe, that is a good sign of a blown head gasket.

 

true,220*is not anything to get to concerned with,but
if mine gets that hot i'll be looking to find whats wrong
with it-i've had mine since 1990 and it has only been
around 220 a few times,got it to 230* once on a very
hot day running on the interstate at hign speed and
bucking a headwind.(later i installed an engine oil
cooler setup and after that could not get it over around
210 running hard on the interstate on a hot day-oil
coolers really help)
rest of cooling system is pretty much '82 stock;
-195 thermo
-clutch fan
-aluminum core radiator from an '82 T.A.-not sure if
stock to that car,but it looked like it was.GM harrison.
-edelbrock water pump-no change in cooling was
noticed,but it is higher flow than stock and a quality
piece
-stock air dam-i think it folds under some at speed,
going to make an improved one someday but that
is low on the priority list at the moment...
Years ago i tested the factory temp gauge Vs a
mechanical stewart warner and found the factory gauge
acurate-as long as the wiring is sound,body properly
grounded,and printed circuit clips making good
connection,the factory gauge is as accurate as any
other

 

There are a few stickys at the top of the Cooling section and this is part of one. Makes for a interesting read = https://www.thirdgen.org/cool

 

After the car was sitting over night I noticed that the coolant in the reservoir was well below the ADD line. Where should the coolant level be, at the ADD line, FULL HOT line, or somewhere in between?

 

Good god, stop it.

The most common cause of a coolant leak is the radiator cap, not a head gasket. Your mechanic replaced that.

Removing the stat is bad because it is required to restrict flow while the engine warms up. Coolant that flows too fast when the engine is warm can also lead to cavitation. The pump can force water out faster than it can be supplied from the radiator. Vapor pockets can form and we all know that water vapor doesn't have the same cooling properties as water (at least in this environment).

220 degrees is fine and no cause for alarm.

The motor is not overheating unless it's boiling over.

The level in the overflow container may fluctuate slightly. Keep an eye on it over a period of days. Maybe check under the rad cap while it's cool. You'll be able to tell if you're losing coolant within a few days, but you're probably fine.

If your car came with a mechanical fan and you've got something other than the stock one on there, you may want to replace it. I'd recommend an electric. If available you can retrofit and thirdgen electric fan and associated wiring to it, as long as it came from a V8. Aftermarket fan kits that mount to the radiator would be my second choice.

 

As stated above just fill the over flow container to the "when hot" fill line,when the car is "hot". Then check it after a bit "when the car is hot".Also as stated above it will fluctuate to some degree. If you don't want your car running at the stock temp. like me follow the directions in the sticky I posted in reply #14. My car runs at no higher than 180*/190* with a 180* thermostat and a adjustable thermostaticly controlled switch on a auxiliary fan on at 190* and using the stock fan as a back up. I also have engine oil and trans. oil coolers that help.

 

I had the exact same problem with my Camaro the tank turned out to be because my radiator had a whole in it, and I replaced the thermostat for a 160 degree one. And I bought the air dam for it aswell and I got it back to regular temp.

 

220 isn't hot? everyone tells me that's hot!!!!

 

220 is not hot!!!! for your motor. It's a perfectly fine temperature for it.

 

220 is not hot for a TPI car that's NORMAL on these cars my 07 tahoe runs at 210 which again is NORMAL a carbed motor shouldn't run at 220 that's to hot you'd probably end up with vapor lock

 

IMHO, 220 is the upper end of normal. No damage is being done. Fuel injected motors do this in an effort to keep emissions low. However, a lower but still "warm" range of 160-180 is favored by those looking more from a performance perspective. I run a 170 stat with my fans set to come on at 185 and off at 175. I'm thinking a full cooling systems service, (drain, flush, 50/50 mix, new cap/stat/hoses) and making sure all related parts are good/functioning, (air dam, clutch fan OK, etc.), and you should be good. One thing I will add is you might wish to purchase/borrow a mechanical gauge to verify the accuracy of your factory gauge/sending unit/wiring. Also, after a few heat/cool cycles, (to insure all air is bled from the system), I consider it full when the engine is cold, (overnight cold), and the level is at the "full cold" line.

 

just put in a new radiator, water pump, hoses, cap, 180 thermostat and water neck. the air dam is fine. electric fan runs good. i drained, flushed, and filled a 50/50 mix, just like you said. but on a hot day she'll want to pass 200 at a stop light. my fans running constantly, as of right now. i personally don't want it to run that hot, but if what y'all are saying then i won't worry as much, sitting at a red light just watching that therm gauge climbing. lol

i suppose i'll check my gauge next time i get my hands on a temp gun. should i temp the top radiator hose or the bottom?

 

Approximately 1/3 of the energy in gasoline is converted into waste heat and dissipated through the cooling system. In this respect, a system that maintains a 200 degree temperature is functioning extremely well.

Confirm your exact temp by aiming your IR gun on the water neck. You'll likely find it is actually several degrees below what the gage says.

 

Damn, I'm burning coolant with no white smoke out the pipes, sometimes it reads over 220 n sometimes less, ussually 220 or over though, I think I'm fu*ck•d.

 

220° is COMPLETELY NORMAL. In fact, as pointed out above, the stock cooling fan DOESN'T EVEN COME ON until the temp reaches about 235°. Think about that... the factory engineers - not that those people know a damn thing about cars or anything, but FWIW - didn't even think the engine needed cooling AT ALL until it reached 235°; so how can 220° "sometimes" be "too hot"?

Additionally, the "gauges" in these cars (or any others for that matter) aren't "instruments"; they're a TRIM PACKAGE. Their sole purpose is to look cool and convey an "image" of "sportiness" or something. About all they're good for, is telling you if something suddenly changes; think of them as a "cute" version of an idiot light, and that's about right. The absolute value of their indication is entirely unreliable.

These cars RARELY "burn" coolant. (V8 ones anyway, I haven't the vaguest clue about 6-cyl ones, I've never even seen one of those motors in person so I have no idea where things can leak inside it) There's simply not a path available to cause that, that doesn't leave a MUCH larger sign of itself some other way FIRST. Before somebody says "head gasket", let me remind you that the place those fail first is in between 2 cyls, usually the center 2 on one side; they're about ¼" wide there; the closest water to a cyl has to get through about twice as much gasket to do so; if they haven't failed there, then they haven't failed to allow water in, either.

Most common cause of mystery invisible vanishing coolant is the water pump. They leak out the bearing, behind the pulley; and when that starts out, the coolant gets turned into a fine mist and dispersed EVERYWHERE, leaving no visible trace except MAYBE a drip down the bottom of lower rad hose visible only from underneath.

Here's a pic of a head gasket (different kind of motor, but very similar to ours in this matter)... around each cyl, there's an array of holes for the bolts (adjacent cyls share some, but there's a total of 5 around each in ours rather than 4 as in this motor); the little tiny holes near the top, and the ones about the size of a dime other than the bolt holes, are water. There's 15psi more or less in the water, and 1200 psi or more in the cyls. Not hard to see how by the time the gasket fails there, it's LONG SINCE already failed somewhere else.

 

Pull your spark plugs, if any look differently than the others, may be a headgasket issues, lots of places to lose coolant under the hood though, may not be motor. Do all the other checks listed above and maybe it'll be something as simple as debris in radiator. Often times small pinholes in heater hoses will lose coolant without obvious signs of leakage
My 305 runs between 180-210 on aftermarket gauge fwiw

 

This.

My stock 20k mile 305 TPI car behaves this way:

Highway and cruising around (meaning airflow) - 180 to 190 degrees

Stop and go traffic or idling (low airflow) - slowly creeps up to about 235 degrees, at which point you hear the fan click on. It then slowly wanders back down to about the 200-210 range and maintains that until I start moving again. Once in motion, the temps drop to the 180-190 range and the fan clicks off.

It alarmed me at first as well; I'm used to newer cars which run cooler, and my experience with old cars has been with carb'd cars that run cooler than early fuel injection machines such as TPI/TBI cars. But now I know it is stock behavior.

If it really concerns you that much, get a higher performance thermostat and a hypertech chip that will kick your fan in earlier.