I took the car to the carwash today and went for a little cruise afterwards, I was driving it pretty normal. I'll admit I was taking off a little fast its kinda of hard to resist with that monster under the hood, anyways when I got home I noticed smoke coming from the hood. So I immeaditly looked at the temp gauge and it was right on 220 which is normal for my car most the time. So I pop the hood and most of the smoke is coming from right side only. I was haveing brake problems so I had someone take that apart for me and in the process we lost some brake fluid so I put some more in it, I overfilled it a little and noticed it was leaking did'ent think much of it. I think a combination of that and the maybe some water got in the engine bay and it was just steam/vapor. Any other ideas? It really freaked me out tho.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Any ideas.

Oh yeah almost forgot while I had it idling the second fan kept on turning on it would go over 220 and the fan would turn on, the fan cooled it down then it would go up again and the fan would turn on again, this happend about 4 damn times! It's starting to worry me a bit. Any ideaS?

 

220* is a little hot, but I would not necessarily call that overheating. That smoke from under your hood probably was that brake fluid frying on your manifold. It will eventually stop. As for the fans, if you're gonna be in Houston all summer you may want to get a lower degree fan switch. The guys is the cooling forum can point you in the right direction.

 

Thanks and sorry about posting in the wrong board.........

 

my fan comes on at a little over 220 and cools the engine down until it turns off again, isn't that how the factory engine is supposed to run with iron heads?

As mentioned, a lower temp fan switch will keep your engine cooler for sure, I know hypertech makes a decent one. If you're in a warm/hot area like I am in Ca you can wire a switch to the fan/relay and keep it running all the time to keep it from potentially getting too hot if you're concerned.

 

Why not start with a cooler thermostat? If you haven't changed it, you probably have a 195* thermostat.

I'd seriously reccomend changing to a 180* thermostat before you change the fan switch. I changed the thermostat in my 350 from a 195* to a 180* and the running temp dropped from about 210-215* to right around 195-200*.

 

220* is to hot for me. I crinch if mine gets to 200*.

I have a 195 thermostat in right now. But I have my fan wired to run constantly. It flunctuates between 180-200.

I would definetly get a lower temp fan switch. I believe it kicks the fan on around 190 and off at 180 or something. I used to run one like that. It worked great.

 

I got this too...noticed my master cylinder liquid container had one of the sides not pressed on all the way (think the guy who did the brakes last put too much fluid in and it popped off while I was driving). I pushed it down and some more fluid spilled out the side...how long should I expect it to smoke from frying that liquid off wherever it fell? :P

my temp stays a normal just under 200 or 180-ish (195 thermostat)

 

That's EXACTLY what it's supposed to do. It's working perfectly.

Sounds to me like your car is working normally; except that the puff of smoke from under the hood may be from a valve cover gasket leak. Which, it could be argued, is perfectly normal too.

My car willl run about 185-190 while driving; then when parked and idling, the gauge will steadily go up to about 230° (right near the red), the fan will come on, the temp will go down to about 210 or so (just below halfway), the temp will climb again, the fan will come on, cool it down, it will turn off, etc. etc. etc., for as long as it sits. It will do that for hours, probably until it runs out of gas. Then as soon as it starts driving again, within 60 seconds of reaching 40 mph, the temp will be back down to 190°.

Personally I think people are entirely too paranoid about their coolant temp. Mostly from not understanding about the boiling point of the cooling system. Yours however is working EXACTLY AS THE FACTORY DESINGED IT, and as such, it is NOT broken or inappropriate or in need of repair or modification, for a street-driven car.