i just replaced my water pump and its flowing....i also went with a 195 degree thermostat that was what oreillys said it took...plus a 18lb radiator cap that it called for according to oriellys also....

today my low coolant level sensor blew out of my radiator today.....is 18 lbs too much? when i opened it up to replace the water pump it had no thermostat and a 16lb cap.....

what should i do? go back to no stat and a 16 or 15lb cap?

 

Keep the thermostat. It is pretty important to have.

O'reilly's shows 18lb cap for our cars.

 

18 psi cap is the stock cap, but 180° is the stock thermostat. That's what you should use.

 

why would it blow the sensor out at 18 lbs then if it never passed 210 on the gauge? so i need to swap in a 180 thernostat? will oriellys give me an exchange since theirs was wrong? my girl is gettin tired of the car going down every two days....so help me out.

i lost the wire clip for sensor when it blew out so there is another 45 bucks gone for a new sensor. will it not pop the new one out if i go to a 180 thermostat? what would happen if i ran a 16 lb cap? this car is a daily driver that my girl depends on and i dont want her stranded again. thanks in advance.

 

The sensor should not blow out if clipped in properly (even people overheating don't seem to have that issue). Using a lower pressure cap is not the answer. You will have ask O'Reilly's about what they will do.

 

Every LT1 from the factory has an 18# cap. In the 14 years I've owned mine, and in the 10 years I've been posting on this site, this is the first time I have ever heard of the coolant level sensor blowing out of the radiator. Sounds like it wasn't installed correctly. Got to be something peculiar to your car.

The 195* t'stat could be contributing to the problem, because it only STARTS to open at 195*, and won't be fully open until it hits maybe 215*.

 

Anyway to tell if the stat we have is the 180*? Part numbers and such?

Edit:Looks like it's stamped on the bottom of the stat...

 

Is there a way to bypass the coolant level sensor? Like in plugging the hole it came from? I really don't want to shell out another 45 bucks. Plus I don't think it worked anyways.

 

Is there a 195 stat made for the LT1?

 

They are available, but the question would be why you would want one.

 

If you live in Alaska's northern region????????

 

i think i found my problem... first off the old low pressure sensor had no retaining wire on it... so thats probably why it blew out. second when i put the new one in and refilled the radiator and started it it idled and then got real hot...like 220! i could hear the water boiling in the radiator. so i opened the thermostat bleeder and alot of air came out. then i let it pee a little while to get all the air out and closed it and moved on to the upper heater hose bleeder.....even more air....let it pee antifreeze to get all the air out too.

refilled and drove it and the car never past 180...so iguess i do have a 180 thermostat. are these cars that hard to bleed the air out of? also i've had to top the radiator off three times since last night . i see no leaks and the oil level is fine and its not burning any antifreeze.......is it still burping air? and would air in the water pump cause it to overheat like that so fast?

thanks for all your help guys..... i'm a camaro newbie and i appreciate all you OCG old camaro guys helping me.....todays mission is rear brakes and a new right rear rotor...oh joy!

 

It can be hard to bleed all the air out. Keep checking the radiator every morning and keep topping off until the day it is still full.

 

The correct way is to open the bleeders during filling. That lets the most air escape. If you don't, you end up with large air pockets that are hard to purge.