Thismorning I got in the camaro and fired it up. I went back into the house for a few min to let it warm up. I came back out and the needle on the temp gauge had barely begun to move. So I sat and waited, then it very quickly began to move and it went past the third line on the gauge b4 I shut it off. I let it sit for a few min and started it again. did the same thing. I tried it a thrid time. same thing. Now its the coldest it has been here in over 2 years what gives? I mean its like 3 deg outside, wind chill -13. but that should be no wheres near cold enough to freeze fresh coolant (coolant is only about a month old. 50/50 mix)

Any help would be great.

 

first two things i'd check is make sure your waterpump didnt crap out on you, and then take your thermostat out and test it to make sure its opening still to allow the coolant to flow past it...just get a pot of boiling water and drop the t-stat in and it should open up...then take it out and it should close back up...if not then its bad and u need a new one

 

Id check stat, then pump in that order.
Also if you go to buy a new stat, buy the correct one made for the LT1.

 

t-stat is 2 months old and was working perfectly 2 days ago. Do u think it would fail that quickly? Waterpump is about 18 months maybe 20,000 miles. I will check when it warms up a little outside.

 

Its possible, a part can have a freak failure. Its definitely worth checking out along with the waterpump.

 

I bought one that didn't work when I installed it. Anything is possible.

 

Check the coolant level to make sure you don't have a leak. Check under the car and see if you sucked a bag or something up that's covering the radiator. You also might try burping the system as air in the system will cause overheating.

 

make sure no way for fan to come on, and touch radiator all around, might have blockages. if the thermostat tests good and water pump running ok.

 

Check the coolant to make sure it really is a 50/50 mix, to prevent the radiator from freezing up....... that would cause the problem you experienced.

 

maybe a bad heater-core?

 

wouldn't make the guage go high

 

Mine did. My heater core was blocked, and was causing it to overheat

 

then you should replace your rad as well, you can remove and cap off the heater lines and it shouldn't effect the coolant temp

 

what it was is the coolant was not going through the heater core, it was only going on the "in" side, and not comming out, causing it to get extremely hot. My radiator is fine.

 

well i found the problem. It was VERY low on coolant. I filled and burped the system and it was fine. I also THINK I found the leak that caused the low coolant level. It looks to be coming from the passednger side of the water pump. it is a pretty large stream of coolant coming from right around that area. It is not coming from the weep hole. That area is bone dry. I guess this week when it gets a little warmer. I will pull the pump and see if it is a leaking gasket. If there is anything else it could be in that general area, please let me know. I hate to pull the pump if i dont have to.


Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

Ed