Last summer I was at car craft and I drove my 88 trans am there I did a little bit of cruising around the grounds, but I let it sit a lot to make sure it would not overheat. after I left I was driving and any time I got to below 5mph it would kill.

I know it was overheating and i've replaced the head gaskets last winter along with all the coolant hoses, I also replaced both the temperature sensors and the heater core. After the car show I let the car cool off when I went to a movie when I came out of the movie and looked at the engine the coolant hoses all were a gray/white color not the usual black.

Does anyone know how I can fix this overheating issue? Both of my colling fans are wired to pull air through the radiator not push air and they will come on as soon as i start the car

 

Thermostat or underside airdam ???

 

Pics

 

I have the full air dam underneath it kind broke away from the bolts so we fixed it with a few L brackets and its very rigid and sturdy now, i think we may have changed out the thermostat as well when we did the top end rebuild, I have the car in storage at my neighbors ill go take some pics right now and post them when i can

 

Timing?

 

The timing might be off a little but I know it has a small miss at idle, as for the pics I'm still working on them when I tried to upload them the computer erased them from my phone

 

Check your timing and get it set correctly.

 

Once I pull it into the garage this winter ill definitely check the timing but I'm thinking it could be the water pump or the radiator as well. When we pulled the radiator we blew out the fins with compressed air and it looked very clean, but it is the original radiator to my knowledge it has not been replaced, i've been thinking about replacing the radiator once I can get the money, also is there any way to test the water pump?

 

So i tried to upload the pictures but it would not let me my phone takes pics that are to large for the limit for attachments

 

Try downloading them to a site like Photobucket and linking them over. That should work better or you can also resize them to be smaller. Even the version of MS Paint that comes with Win 7 can do a decent job resizing photos.

 

Ok, i hope this works here's two pictures of the upper radiator hose

 

If water pump is bad, it will leak. Usually same for radiator.

A good cooling system flush may help.

But, timing will certianly cause over heating.

Over heating is not normal. Your car should be able to idle all day and not over heat.

 

Well if my timing is off by very little we checked it many times when we rebuilt the top end. At idle it can cool its self down most of the time, but not always it also anything under 30mph I think (speedo is not accurate) it has trouble cooling. I also think my temperature is not working it goes up to about 200-220 and stops it never goes higher.

 

Wrong head gasekts or installed backwards?

 

As far as i remeber they were installed right, me and my dad did it and we checked multipal times, i was having over heating issues before we did the rebuild, we found out the previous owner had wired the fans to blow air into the radiator insted of pulling it thorugh the radiator so we fixed that and we figured that fixed it. Now it cools pretty well until it gets over 80 degrees out side then it starts to have issues.

 

Not much to a cooling system.

Radiator, cap, waterpump, and thermostat, fans.

Flush the cooling system, check your timing, replace the rad cap and get back to us.

 

After looking at the top hose just above the yellow decal then the bulge in the hose above the belt, Looks like you have a thermostat hanging and not opening fully......

 

Hmmm never noticed the bulge, its not to big though so could that be the only problem?

 

You have to check, Remove the thermostat and drop it in a pot of boiling water to see if it opens fully. If it doesn't replace, If it does look elsewhere......

 

Alright ill have to try that maybe next week, i currently have an 85 firebird in my garage i'm trying to restore and sell so that's taking priority first