Ok 2 questions,

first backround :
I have an '89 IROC 350 TPI, when i got the car tranny rebuilt with a beefy sun shell and shift kit , new radiator, new plugs, wires , injectors, brakes, all stock though runs good .But I immediatley noticed temp gage was shot, mainly because some one installed an aftermarket coolant gage/ sensor ( witch was also gone) but sensor was still in the head, so funds being tight, I installed an argon temp gauge wich works good, now i know im supposed to have it hooked to ecm so it leans /riches right, but since my junkyard just crushed all their third gens for scrape ��parts are limited. my fan harness was butchered, Passenger fan was still hooked up but drivers side fan was disconnected and plug wraped around front sway bar..... so off i go , i replace fan harness but ecm plug on car side was so trashed i had to baypass it with three of the wires but needless to say i got both fans running on a dash toggle with stock fuse and relays in place thanks to this site ��. However after 2 days, the drivers side fan is kaput,. prolly why it was disconnected by PO but I still got 12VDC at the plug for it when i Close dash switch so my wiring is good, & passenger works fine still.

Now my questions:
first off from what ive gatherd from the site about 170-190F is a good temp for this car, so why is my car running so cool? I only hit that temp after about 45 minutes in traffic , then I hit fans but just cruising around she stays at about 150F the faster i go sometimes she gets up to 150-60F but not often then she cools down even more while cruising 60-70 mph., is this bad or no? Im learning just use to stuff running hotter.

next, I wanna replace thst fan( might as well do both) but I wanna bolt on fix dont wanna screw with my 6 hour rewire I already did, and keep my current Stock alternator, relays and such so wich fans to get? i wanna mount them in stock cage and plug them in without blowning fuses or frying wires once again I want new fans not pulls from yard, im sure autozones got them just not sure of airflow rating or what amperage to get, thanks in advance!

 

Bump, hope you get some answers. 200 temp is not bad. I think that's about normal once the motor get warm. Is your airdam in place? I will let the guys that know more give you more info.

 

Hey Crash.... I live part time up in Northern NC and with the cool weather my normal temps have been right around 200. If anything I'd worry about the accuracy of your temp gauge. It seems it could be running that low from some things I've heard but Ive never had any of mine run that low and I've owned over 40 F-bodies and have about 9 running at the moment. As for the CFM's .... I have a Ford Taurus fan in mine which runs around 4300 CFM's. Its a 2 speed fan but I only have it wired for high speed. The low setting was clocked at around 2000 CFM's and when I ran it on low....I was running about 220 (which is average in a lot of F-Bodies). I'm always concerned with temps and paranoid about overheating even when everything is fine lol. Thats why I wired it to the high speed. It runs about 190-200 now. So I guess you'd want something around a 4300 CFM range fan. Really check into what you buy though. A lot advertise 10000000000000 CFM's but really only produce 2000 lol. I'd imagine a good web search could find a reputable fan motor.

Also when the car is running 55-60 MPH the stock fan set up will shut the fan down and the engine is then primarily cooled by the airflow ( which is where the airdam comes in). The airdam cant be over stressed! Its about as important as the radiator itself lol. Check that and make sure it has at least has a 30 degree angle to it so air pulls up to the engine. Your temp seems good for now so if you have any questions I didnt cover in this long **** rant I've been on...feel free to PM. Hope it helps some how.

Teagen

 

theres 3 different "sensors" that deal with coolant. theres the one on the front of the engint, on the intake manifold. thats the coolant temp sensor and its the one that feeds coolant temp to the ecm. should have a yellow and black wire going to it. the one on the dirver side head is the coolant gauge temp sender and runs the coolant gauge. it shold be connected with a single dark green wire. then theres the fan switch on the passanger side head. if you have the dual fan setup, the ecm controls the primary fan and the fan switch controls the secondary fan. it should have a single wire going to it and the connector looks a lot like the knock sensor.

if its just the fan wiring thats hacked up. id suggest getting an aftermarket fan controller and wire the fans to that. and either getting a good quality water temp gauge, or getting a functioning stock one.

 

Thanks Guys & Gals,

My Airdam is Good to go , one of the main things I made sure of when I first started this project reading on this forum you find out quick a good airdam is impairative,

Im paranoid too dont even wanna trust a thermal switch I like my toggle, and thanks for the info on when stock fan cuts off at 55-60 Ive been making sure not to use them at anymore then about 50mph cause I wasnt sure.

Today it was in the thirtys outside and my gauge read about 140F at 70mph on the way into work on the base (Im a civilian weapons contractor), I got stuck in traffic for about 20 minutes, coolant temp climbed to about 190F and I hit my fan switch, still only got one fan running, she cooled right off to about 160-170 and held , only ran fan for like 4 minutes. I guess what I'll do is let her just Idle for 30 minutes see how hot she gets, she aint blowin coolant, took me awhile to get coolant level right since I have an after market coolant resevior.

So I need to look for a 1500-2000 CFM fan, that will fit my stock fan shroud? There wont be any issues with my current stock relays, or wiring with increased amperage? anybody know the blade diameter on the stock fans? Thanks again and sorry for the long posts.

 

Not sure what gauge wire I used. Most was stock though.....I'd play it on the safe side and get a fan over 3000 CFM though. When I ran the 2500 CFM low speed setting on the Taurus fan....It ran a little warmer then I liked. I use the toggle also....I like controling the fan myself and never let anyone drive it. Thats my worse fear....Someone using my car and not flipping the switch to turn the fan on. As far as the fan blades? Im thinking for some reason you could just get the motor part and install it in the existing blades. The motor un bolts right out of the blades. My husband did this on one of his Camaros or TA's....I forget which one we have so many lol. We recently started numbering them lol. With the cool temps outside I can see why your running so cool. Mine does that in the cold also. I really only use the fan when Im in stop and go traffic. My husband was with the SEAL Teams and was an instructor at Bragg for a few months so I know those winters are way colder then it gets up here in between the mountains. If no one posts the diameters I'll get them from my husband. He has our F-body bible and is out of town right now lol. But really.......Id pull the shroud out and take the fan to the parts store and look for a fan (motor only that is) that bolts into the original fan blades if theyre in good shape. The higher the CFMs the better. You can always cut the fan off if icicles form on the engine from the high CFMs. I use a 30 amp fuse I believe and havent blown any. I'll double that that for ya too tomorrow sometime. Im actually working on the cooling system on my nephews 89 Camaro RS. BTW Dont apologize for long posts.....as you can see I ramble on also but its a must in order to cover everything.......even then stuff is forgotten lol

 

Sweet yeah cool, Ive got a damn service manual but my glossary on its missing so I got dig hard through it to find stuff pertinent to what Im piecing back together, but it is a bible Im flippin now and I'll post stock fan specs when I find them.

I wanted to just do a motor but wasnt sure if thats how it was done lol,.....This is my 1st third gen,.. hell car Ive worked on this much... she was in sad shape. A 900 dollar gem . I'll jerk that fan out tomorrow and get the blades off too head for the parts shops,...the stock fan I got workin on the right cools it right down ,its got a brand new radiator. And no way Id let anyone drive this car, havent taught my wife yet either Im dreading it ....visions of cracked heads makes my skin crawl.

I'll just get 2 , change both motors I know my blades are good , fans hadnt been used in years probably. old radiator was all twisted jerry rigged in around the fan harness wiring .ecm plug was melted. with the driverside fan pig tail tied around the swaybar. kid couldnt figure out why the car wouldnt run right......But Im just happy Im up and moving around a year and quite a few bucks later,
,

 

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I been working on my nephews 89 RS....the toggle switch we been using IS a 30 amp. The entire time I been working on that with him....I been thinking about how your car is running so cool. I really would think that your getting an inaccurate reading. I mean if the thermostat were stuck......eventually the engine would warm up and it would cause it to run hot. We messed around with 3 of our 3rd gens lastnight......all had stock 305's.....same cooling system set ups and virtually identical parts. Outside temp was 27 degrees....all using 195 degree thermostats and same fans. All were on toggles I might add.
1) The 89 RS ran for 1 hour, not moving, high defrost turned on. It ran at and idle at a temp of 210. The fans were on from the start up.
2) 92 RS same settings except we drove the car for an hour. It ran 200
3) 91 RS Sat at an idle for 32 minutes, no fans on, defrost on full high heat as the others....Had to shut down the experiment and engage the fans for safety of the engine at 245 degrees.

So even with the temps as low as they are....all situations basically ran the same temp but never low...... Just a thought but maybe the temp sensor is blocked slightly or corroded? I really think your getting a bad reading. Unless someone else can think of some super cooling aftermarket part that makes our cars run that cool........Id look into that and make triple sure your getting the right temp reading........BTW.......MAN!!!!!!!! Its getting cold at night here.

 

well she heats up fine up to 190-200 at idle after 5 minutes or so she just cools down so damn fast once i get down the road is what worries me maybe the stat aint closing?

 

Well thanks for all the replys,

Pulled the throttle body and pulled off TSTAT housing and "Shut the front door!" no thermostat at all ! Gotta love 18 year old Previous owners . I can hear him now ," Hey fans are blown and radiator has a 12 inch hole in it soooooo.....I'll just remove the themostat that'll cool it off!". Imagine thats why she was running cool once I replaced radiator and put in new fan motors,.... just spitballing though lol.

So I put in a 195* t-stat and she runs good ,warms up so I got good closed loop the tSTAT opens and she cools right down to 180* after hitting 195*. Heat works great too so all is well. Did a thorough job wiring up my fans to run on a manual switch. I cut them on in traffic when the head coolant hits 205*, little cooler then the factory setup did , but from what Ive read here, GM wanted them to run hotter and leaner for emmissions so maybe I'll prolong killing my high mileage old SBC a little longer before i have to pull it apart and completely rebuild it.However she rarely gets to 205* the TSTAT does a good job, I imagine that'll change in the muggy a&@ Carolina summers.

Next project is deleting HVAC wich is completely shot.My dad is an HVAC tech lives next door he worked on it awhile,and then blew taps over it lol, it'll be way to much $$$ to fix. Also gonna eliminate smog pump wich sucks cause I just bought a new serpintime belt , it blew while I was on the road so i was stranded and had to buy a full sized one to get home. Im gonna just buy the A/C delete pulley and another dang belt for an '89 4.3L S-10 with A/C and
remove smog pump completely. According to my research here its the cheapest easiest way to do the deletes as the belt set up on S-10 was same minus smog pump, so the belt is pefect length to run no delete pully for smog pump at all wich saves some cash

Thanks Again All,
Crash