Hi, I am sure you guys can help me with this.... I have a stock Camaro RS 3.1L 6 cylinder and it has 109,000 miles on it. When I drive around town the car heats up sometimes a little past 240 degrees, but whenever it does, the temperature just flies back a little past half way which is 220 I think,so I was wondering if this was normal,because I live in Hot Tucson, Az and it isn't even close to as hot as it is going to get in the summer. So should I get this checked out? Also whenever I drive around for a while and it heats up, the car almost dies on me usually when I am in the first or second gear. Like I will stop at a stop light and when it turns green and I try to gun it and it will go for like half a second and then all of a sudden the car will stop revving and make a weird sounding noise and jerk the car a little. Then if I am really easy with the gas pedal I can make it home. It usually happens in first or second gear. Someone was saying the timing of the spark plugs were off and I needed a tune up. But I wanted to ask other camaro owners to see if this has ever happened to them and how I can fix it. Thanks if anyone knows what this is!

 

Welcome to the board! Don't forget to check out us other V6'ers, we have our own message board on here.

Now, when you say you're driving around town, do you mean you're in stop & go traffic, and barely moving? If so, that's normal. No airflow over the radiator means the car will heat up to 230 degrees (your gauge might be off), and then the electric fan will kick in.

If you're driving around at normal speeds and the temp's getting that high, it's not normal. First- is your air dam under the front of the car intact? This is a black plastic piece that hangs low under the radiator, and it usually scrapes driveways and curbs all the time. It's purpose is to force air up and through the radiator as you drive.

If all that's okay, your thermostat is could be stuck "mostly" closed. This would cause the car to heat up, no matter how much air is coming over your radiator.

[edit] With a completely stuck-shut thermostat, your car would never cool down at all (like you said it does). You'd see the temp climb and climb and climb and then you'd break something important! Check for a stuck thermostat by running the engine until it gets around 200 degrees. Feel your upper radiator hose. It should feel 200 degrees hot (don't burn yourself)! If not, if it just feels like a normal hot, then your thermostat probably isn't opening (and not letting 200 degree coolant go thru the upper hose).

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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

[This message has been edited by TomP (edited March 23, 2001).]

 

is the car overheating?? if not,replace your Coolant Temperature Sensor. my gauge used to go to the redline until the fan came on and it went back to around 200 degrees....BUT i checked the ACTUAL temperature and the fan was kicking it at 227 degrees...exactly when it should. so my gauge was screwy. i relaced the CTS ($10) and problem solved.

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Dan
1990 3.1L RS
80 Series Flowmaster
It's fast(er than a 3 cyl metro)

 

Well my car has never overheated and thanks a lot to you guys. But does anyone know what the other thing is in my car? Whenever I drive for a while (Always when in a lot of stop and go traffic) Something prevents me from taking off. It makes a really weird sound in the engine or somewhere underneath the hood and the car sounds like it's about to die, I will give some gas and the car will take off only to be stopped by this thing, Someone told me something about engine backfires or something? Does anyone know how to fix this? Thanks again guys. Eric

 

there is probably something wrong with your car and you should get it checked out before it becomes very expensive for you.