My friend and I have each had our own Camaro overheat and we recently had an argument over how to control it. This is a question asking how you woucl cool down your engine if it was overheating, it's your daily driver, and you have to make it a few days till you get the chance to fix the problem.

My solution was to flip on the AC since that automatically turns on your engine fan, cooling your engine. Also, you would keep the AC on low with the temp i the middle. He argued that it woudl negate itself since the engine has to work harder to run the AC, but i think the engine fan is still the best option.

He said that turning on the heater was the best option since it woudl give the coolant a place to vent off a little heat before returning to the engine. I thought this wasn't enough.

Which is the best way?

Unplug the AC compressor & run it on normal AC with the heat all the way up.

I vote for the above method... even though in the past, I would turn on the heater.

As for the A/C cooling the system...not even close when it is operational...Five7Kid's method is the best one as it will turn on the fan (or should)

depends.


why is it overheating?

is it because of a failing waterpump, radiator cap or somthing else in the cooling system? in this case, niether will work.




is it because the fan(s) arnt coming on? then thats the solution.
turn the fans on.

turning on the AC turns on the fan on a single fan car, and the passenger side fan on a dual fan car.

this will keep the temps down. more so with the single fan car, but it will still keep them down.
so if you're in traffic, and the temp gauge is going way too high, flick the AC on (the compressors "work" doesnt make any diff at all) and the fan will kick on to cool the car. do a u turn or whatever and get some air flowing over the car to cool it.

later you can unplug the compressor and just run with it set to "AC on" to kee the fan on until you fix the prob.
or just ground the relay thru a switch and accomplish the same thing.

the heater? thats a joke. if the car is overheating, there is no way a core that small will stop the heating of a large motor.

The heater CAN work...it all depends on how/why the overheating is occuring...if due to stop and go traffic, it can help. In fact, I have used this to temporarily get a vehicle from Point A to Point B if bad cooling components (usually rad) are the cause.

However, if the WP is bad or some other major mechanical failure is at work, neither option will work...

Guess I need to have a disclaimer on every post

too cool it off, i turn off the engine, leave the fan on, and spray the nitro

When my fan didn't turn on, I would wait until I hit a good downhill, and switch it over to "N". (auto)

Revving up a bit once and a while, to keep the pump flowing.

According to my stock temp gauge, it dropped temps some. But then it's not the best solution of course, emergency sort of thing.

This should be in the cooling board, and you also might want to dig through some of the tech posts for some help on the cooling problems. (Air dam missing? etc, etc)

My favorite method of cooling down an overheating engine is to fix the damn problem.

His problem was something involving his radator and mine was a faulty temp sensor so the fan didn't kick on. Both have been fixed but it was only recently that we got into the argument.

I know the best solution is fixing the problem but we each go to school full time and have a full time job, plus the cars are both daily drivers. Believe me, when it's a hot monday afternoon and you're on your way from school to work and, suddenly you're shooting out coolant, the weekend is far away and you've got no hope of getting to it otherwise.

I need an Autozone nearby! Open till 10, can't beat it. Only problem is the nearest one is 20-30 min away and i'm off work at 945-10ish!

Fix it before it overheats even. Keep it in good shape, and it doesn't overheat.

Then, in case something breaks suddenly, stop driving the car, and fix it right then and there by the side of the road.