Hey folks,

Well, I've been proud of how cool our 91 305tbi has been running this summer.

Right up until Friday when all h*ll broke loose.

The little woman gets home from work and the car is boiling over like crazy!

I check under the hood while the car is running and everything seems to check out just fine. The fan is running and water is going through the rad etc,etc...

So I'm left scratching my head.

I think back of everything I've replaced in the past year concerning the cooling system.
Which includes:
New 3 row Radiator
New Water Pump
New Thermostat
New hoses
New Serp Belt
New Fan Switch
New Fan Relay Switch
And a Used Electric Fan Motor....

The only thing I could come up with is that the fan motor might be going out. Since I got it from the junk yard a little more than 8 months ago.
But the fan motor was running so I really did not think that was the problem.

On Saturday Morning I do some more checking and I find out the fan motor did not come on. I give it a bump with a long screwdriver and the fan begins to run again.
And it ran fine after I gave it a bump. But I notice the temp is steadily increasing, so I put my hand between the fan and serp belt. (very Carefully I might add) and noticed the fan was not moving too much air.
But the fan was running!!!

I call autozone to see how much a new fan motor would be. They say $28.99 and it has a lifetime warranty. So I figure for $30 I can at least see if I'm wrong about this.

I put in the new fan motor and we go for a drive. Prior to the drive I noticed that this new motor was moving much much more volumes of air. And sure enough the car did not over heat at all!!
And we're talking about taking a drive at 1pm in 103° weather, nothing but stop and go city driving with the A/C on full blast.

The result:

The temp got up to 220° and never got any higher. And it took it over an hour to get there.

So for those of you who are having cooling problems......

You just might want to check and see how much air your fan is really moving.
My fan was running but dying at the same time.
I guess it just got hot and tired too.

Just sharing an experience.

 

Good post! I never would have thought of that. Thanx for the heads up.

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Blue 1989 IROC Z28

 

I agree, excellent advice!!! Thank you.

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Rob
'86 TA 305 TPI
Gutted MAF, Ported Plenum
TB Bypass, Home made Cold Air Intake,
Edelbrock T.E.S.
48psi regulator, (Nickel method)

 

MY two electric fans are working great and the engine temp still goes right to 230+ as soon as I get on the freeway! Idling around town and it stays at 180. Last summer it stayed cool on the freeway this summer it gets hot. There are only 3000 miles on the engine and everything is new. I have changed only one thing since last year and that is I r/r'd the distributor to rebuild it. So what is making it get hot? No leaves between the radiator and condensor, all air deflectors are in place and I just disassembled the water pump and it is fine. 60/40 mix of water/antifreeze.

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'84Z28/'92 305TPI
'92 complete rear suspension/PBR disc/Posi/3:42
Light weight 34.5mm stabilizer bar in front ($10 from wrecking yard)/
"wonder Bar" ($5 from wrecking yard)
23mm sta. bar in rear
Rear RS Springs (slightly softer than my Z28)
comp cam, flowmaster
TB coolantbypass/shutoff valve to heater core
powersteering cooler lines (liberated from another wrecked car of course)
MAT relocated
Ram-Air(home-made) gutted air-box
IROC ground effects/wheels GY245/50's
700R4 superior shift kit/ corvette servo(excellent shift kit btw)
home-made strut tower brace (cost $6)

Rebuilt engine and transplanted it myself.

Love this engine!

freshly painted OCT. 2000 Teal with two white stripes on the hood and deck lid

LOW performance people should drive low performance vehicles!

 

Hmm...

How old is the bottom radiator hose?
Drive the car until it gets warm/hot and then pop the hood. Either rev the engine by hand or have someone rev the engine and look at the bottom radiator hose. Sounds like the hose is collapsing at high rpms.

Could also be something in your radiator as well.
When did you put in the new motor??

 

uh......I've been meening to check that damn lower radiator hose for several weeks now and for some reason I kept on forgetting. I could not remember if I put a new one in or not. Well now that I have the whole front of the engine torn apart I remember to look at that pesky hose and what do you think I found......

 

Thanks Sunbitz. It's a good Idea to check those fans!
Later
Mike

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Check out My Car Pics http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/Albu...667&a=13599419

Gran Turismo Americano "The Ultimate Firebird"
Smokin 1989 GTA- Bone stock except for exhaust. (no catalytic-stainless pipe into Flowmaster 2 chamber) & AC Delco Rapid Fire Plugs

 

84Iroc

Whammo!
But in your defense.....
Not all aftermarket hoses have those wires things in them. I know mine did not! So I keep an eye on it!

Plus IMO the bottom rad hose has a very sharp bend in it which is a weak spot and the last time I replaced mine.... that's where the leak was.
Even if it don't leak I still tend to think that is where a collapse would occur once the hose has some age to it.

I just hope that solves your overheating problem.

 

OK. Here's a good Q. Does a fan that's about to go draw more elec. current similar to the way a starter does? My voltage guage drops quit a bit when the fan kicks on. I guess for $30, how could I go wrong?

AJ

 

Fellow 3rd Genner Desert86Roc brought the missing A/C Condensor strips to my attention as a possible culprit adding to overheating problems as well as less efficient a/c operation. Check it out here.

http://www.gmtips.com/3rd-degree/dox.../ac-strips.htm

 

Last year I had a problem with my car getting hot when I got on the highway and when I got on it pretty hard. After I recurved the distributor and set the timing it stays cool. Just something to think about. I went to Sears and bought a new timing light with the dial that allows you to see how much advance is in the distributor.

 

AJ....

Hmm....
Good thought! I wanna say I've heard something like that before, but I'm just not sure about it. You would tend to think that a eletrical motor that is not running properly would draw more current.

Mike.....

I also checked out the link to the radiator foam thing. Very Very good tip!! I'm going to check the car tomorrow and see if there is anything like that on my car.
If I have that gap, you can bet your last dollar that I'll be heading down to the hardware store for some foam!!

94-6spd.....

And I've also seen posts about the timing and cars running hot.
I like that timing light you mentioned. What model is it and how much does it run??

[This message has been edited by sunbitz (edited August 13, 2001).]

 

They have these timing lights at Sears for about $70.00. They have some that are "Craftsmen" and some that are "Actron" or something like that. I bought mine at "Advance Auto Parts". They have the "Actron" brand.

 

ttt

for mat.

 

My single fan started blowing the fuse and I eventually had to put in a 30 Amp to hold it. Well, after a few months it started blowing the 30 Amp also. The fan sounded like it was running pretty fast and it was moving some air but I went ahead and swapped it with the fan off my parts car. Night and day difference. The "new" fan kicks butt, and keeps the temp in check better too.

 

im taking the a/c out of my camaro, and i took to radiator thing for the a/c out tonight... the engine is out, so i cant tell if im gonna have this problem. if i just leave this part of the a/c out, and throw the radiator back in, do you think my car is gonna overheat?

jon

[This message has been edited by sunbound (edited August 22, 2001).]

 

I have a 1991 RS. If I'm just driving up the road or something then it's fine. Once I get out on the highway and have my a/c running then it gets up redline. We replaced radiator hoses... top and bottom... bottom has the wire reinforcement thing in it... and the thermostat... we made sure there was coolant in the tank cuz we flushed it out and refilled it... tomorrow i'm going to buy a fan from autozone and i hope to *** that fixes it

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(orignally CDnAP48)
'91 Camaro RS (in readers rides)
Dark Metallic Blue
V6, 4th Gen Seats, Sony Xplod CD Player, Pioneer 3-Way 6x9's, Infinity 4x6 Plates, 2 RF Punch 12's, RF Punch Amp, Custom Made Black Carpeted Box, Kelly Charger Front Tires. Soon to come, New Rims, New Rear Tires, Carpet, Floor Mats, Paint Job, Interior Color Change.
E-mail me for any questions or comments.
AdidasPredator15@jam.rr.com
http://www.geocities.com/adidaspredator21/index.html