The car is a 91 Camaro six cyl. It doesn't warm up. You can run the car for an hour and it might get up to 140*. They just put in a new thermostat and that didn't help. Any ideas?

 

u sure teh gauge is right? start the car up and let it run for like 10 minutes and pop the hood and put ur hand on the upper radiatior hose and it should be pretty warm. if it is,then it might just be the gauge sending unit,but if its not...then theres problems elsewhere...just something to check.

 

it also have very little heat. so I don't think the gauge is reaging low.

 

Sounds like a stuck open thermostat to me

 

just put a new one in and it didn't help.

 

Your fan running before it suppost to?

 

you sure they put in a high temp(195) thermo?

this is a classic case of stuck open/low temp open thermostat

 

No heat can mean a bad heater core (clogged). Now, you would have to have a bad gauge or sending unit and a clogged heater core (both) to get no heat and a low temp reading on a motor that has enough coolant and a functioning thermostat in it. This is not likley, but anything is possible on a vehicle, and the older the car, the more possible it becomes.

I'd check the top heater hose as suggested and see if it is getting warm. If the hose is getting warm (hot) and then I'd suspect there could be a case made for the above scenario, but I'd be suprised. Or, as suggested, it has a 165 thermostat in it.

Is it full of coolant? If it is not full, you may not have enough water to circulate and that could cause a loss of heat (or nearly no heat, but usually a high reading on the gauge).

Odd....keep us posted.

 

I'm assuming there is plenty of coolant and did you check the thermostat for opening temp B4 you installed it? Also, did you take a temp reading of the head where the coolant sensor (between #1 - #3 plug) so you know what it is? You sure your heater valve is operating?

 

It sounds like you`d be a canadite for a hillbilly t-stat! How cold is it up there in WI? 10 -20 degrees?LOL!! Try placing a cut piece of sheet aluminum or galvanized like.18 gauge in front of the radiator......Now dont block off the whole thing just 75% of it. Ever see school buses with the leather bra over the grill?

 

thanks for the replies. The car is my cousins car so I will pass this info on to him. By the way, greezemonkey, it is -6 this morning

 

-6?

I'm leaving for Daytona in 2 hrs.....

Ahhh....warmth....

 

Fork you with a large broom handle.

 

I had the exact same problem with my 6 cyl camaro. Replaced the thermostat with no change. The new england cold finaly forced me to do something about it. I replaced the thermostat again with a heavy duty 190 deg one and now I've got heat. The heavy duty stat was like 2 dollars more that the standard one it had a much bigger spring and thicker housing. Also my my fan was never shutting off so I unpluged prior to replacing the thermostat and it had no effect of the engine temp.