The weather has been pretty cold here lately in Delaware. So I'm sure that is a factor on why my temperature gage never reaches 160. I cant seem to get my engine to warm up when its cold outside. My new thermostat recently installed is a 180/185..not sure which. I swaped it out from a 160 thermo because of winter. The funny thing is that I never had a problem warming up my engine with the lower temp thermo... it just took much longer to warm up.

I also put some Seafoam in my gastank and crankcase oil. That was about 4 days ago. I have just changed it today with some new oil but havent tested the ability of the engine to warm up yet.

Oh and one more thing. I have a lower air damn that goes with the ground effects kit, but I dont have the front grnd fx lip installed.

My kahonays are freezing with this weather. No warm engine= no heat for my car! lol. I know its going to get even colder and snow soon.. oh wait.. its snowing now. ****! As a temp fix, I put some cardboard in front of the radiator under the plastic cover in the engine bay to see if it would block some of the cold air.

Has anyone had a problem with their engine never getting past the 160 temperature mark? Any advice?

 

My advice is to make sure your system is full of coolant, the heater core is not clogged and don't put cardboard in front of the radiator.

 

make sure the thermostat you just put in isnt stuck open and do like Shoebox said check/bleed the coolant, and flush the heater coil

 

As stated above, check your system. I was out driving in 6 degree F weather last Wednesday, plenty of heat from my system.

 

listen to shoebox

 

Thanks for the replies so quickly. I did check my coolant. Its full, however, still brown even after the flush i did recently before winter hit. I didnt use an aftermarket flush system, just H2O. I've never messed with the heater core before... so ill have to look into that. Oh, and the cardboard idea wasn't mine, fyi. lol. Ill have to give credit to my dad on that one. It actually helped though today. It was cold as ***** outside and my thermo actually got a little above the 160 mark after the cardboard was put in. I'll have to admit that i was thinking im gonna have a fire on my hands in my engine bay.. then thought.. well hey, atleast ill be warm. lol.

I hope i dont have to buy a new radiator and heater core. Thanks again for the advice guys, much appreciated. Hope your winter driving and car restoration/repair is going better than mine.

 

was it the correct thermostat for the engine?(bypass if needed)


I have seen bad thermostats out of the box..........

needless to say, if the thermostat is working properly it will warm up
and if the coolant is full, the gauge and heat will work

 

Heat from a 180 thermostast is alright. But you need a 195 to actually get HOT air out of the heater.

 

depends on the engine, 3.4 had a 195 stock, but an LT1 has a 180 stock

the OP should get plenty of heat with a correctly operating 180, but yes, a correctly operating 190/195 will have better heat then a correctly operating 180

 

I think he means the engine is not warming up, which is why he put a peice of cardboard infornt of the radiator, to make the engine run hotter

 

yup.
I was aiming on fixing that problem today... but... my B&M ripper shifter came in today so I was too excited and installed it. But now I have crazy rattling problems coming from the new shifter. I think its the bearing that the shifter connects to on the tranny, but im not sure. I gotta find out where to get a new one.

So now i've compounded my irritating problems. lol. btw, the cardboard is still in there, along with some hand fulls of old leaves. Those havent burnt up so im guessing it doesnt get that hot in front of the radiator to cause a fire.. i could be wrong though.

Edit: I guess the high pitch rattle in my tranny is normal .. i think. I looked in some other posts around here. I guess a rebuild is the only way to get rid of them.

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=368691&

 

I get plenty of hot air with the stock, 180° thermostat.

 

Its Super Bowl Sunday and im working on my car.

I have flushed out my car about 6 times a couple days ago to try and get that dirty rust color out of it. I used a Prestone Cleaner, a Prestone Flush, and then put in an additive with the Dexcool (orange) coolant which ive heard many things about as far as using/not using it. I believe the thermo will be uninstalled today to check if its stuck open.

During my 6 flushes (a pain in the ***) i actually may have found a problem. I squeezed the hose a bit that was the intake to the heater core and noticed that it was cracking from the inside. I was thinking it was rust flakes in the line. I did purchase some new hoses and a new heater core from auto zone but im not really sure how hard this will be to replace. Anyone replaced a heater core before?

oh and does anyone actually get their "rinse" flush to look close to water? Mine, no matter how many times i rinse, always looks like a brown color.

 

i just replaced my heater core , its not that hard at all , Basically you Remove the glove box , under trim panel and kick panel .

you will see the heater core cover right in front of you rmove the two bolts holding it on , pull down rmove it away maybe disconent a wire on it for easy removing .

next... the heatercore will be right in front of you , only two more bolts holding it in one on the bracket inside , and another under the hood by the firewall and heater hoses its a clip with a bolt going threw it , I belive there all 7 mm blots i think .


also is this the oringanl heater core ? the oringnal one was aluminum . i replaced it with a o'reilys copper/brass one for $60 bucks .


as far as the rust color mine was bad for awhile until i did what you did flushed it out a dozen times with a garden hose , replaced WP and HEater core and used a machine to pull a vacum on the rad cap and suck the coolant out twice . and refilled with pleanty of colant .


now its very green when ever i pop the cap and look , but with a brown tinge