So I'm having a pretty bad cooling problem with my firebird, when driving during summer or spring it overheats pretty badly. Usually I have to end up turning the heat on full blast during mid day to keep it cool otherwise it gets close to overheating. During night or morning I can usually get by with the fan on low, and at idle it will cool itself down. When I downshift to get up a hill the engine likes to overheat even more than just normal flat road driving. I burped the cooling system to see if that would help get rid of the issue, but it still overheats itself. Any ideas guys?

Is your Radiator Air Deflector attached or broken?sounds like when your accelerating it overheats and when your stopped it cools a little.

Air dam, thermostat, fan switch, air pocket in the cooling system - thats what I can think of

Like members have said in the past, if your using the instrument panel gauge as an indicator it may not be right. Try getting a hold of infrared thermometer and check using that. Have you done any work to it? The thermostat , as alex said, or the water pump? If they are original they may be working marginal at best. Is it just overheating or is it spitting coolant back into the reservoir? Is your coolant level stable? Good luck.

I'll will be sure to check the air dam out tomorrow. Recently I have not done any work on it, im pretty sure this is a problem that has been plaguing the car since I first had it. As far as I know the water pump and thermostat are most likely original. Another thing, which leads me to believe this could be a head gasket is when I changed the oil when I first got the car a couple months ago there was some kind of milky substance mixed in with the oil. Im guessing that's water that leaked into the oil because of a bad head gasket could I be right or no? At the time I didn't think it was an issue but now that it is I get the feeling it is the case

if the air dam is missing or broken, the car cannot keep itself cool over 35mph.

My temp gauge is at least 20 degrees "hot" compared to the reading on my actual waterneck. Check yours.

Obviously, the fans are working because it cools itself down.

Do you have them wired manually or on the factory switch?

I have a 1984 firebird . And I'm needing a little bit of guidance to what is causing it to overheat .Let me start by saying that My check engine light is on. Ive only driven it for only about 10 mins and it gets hotter and hotter and goes past 220 and was almost at the red line the last time I drove it .It also is leaking from the radiator.

get this fixed first.


Ensure Air Dam is in good shape. Ensure good radiator cap. Burp the system and ensure fans come on with AC and when car gets to operating temp.

If your airdam is in good shape, it shouldn't overheat at speed.