--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not mine it's my brothers 96 camaro.

It's hard for me to tell what's wrong because he's in houston and im 500 miles away.

It had a 160 stat in but we thought it was bad so he changed it to a 180 for the time. Water pump seems to be working well. It's an electric by the way.
Fans work for sure.
Twice he had the resivor explode with coolant coming out everywhere.

Another thing I might mention because I've heard some bad things about this is I used Bar's Stop Leak to stop a coolant leak on it.
DOnt know if that can actually clog up other things or what??

any ideas??

 

Pull the thermostat out and run it without one for a few minutes. If it still starts to overheat then youll know for sure its not thermostat related.

 

sounds like air in the system...mine overheated about a week ago and water gushing out of the fill tank and i didnt add water when it sat over night and air probably worked its way into the block before t-stat closed or something and when i did fill it in the morning i drove about 1 mile and it was already near the red mark. so i let it cool down and bled the system and it took another gallon of water to be properly filled. when i did open the bleed screw it took quite awhile to get all the air out.

 

I second air in the system... tell him to keep opening the bleeder screws to let the air escape while the car is running, and have someone watch the gauge.

 

also you could park the car at an angle so the front of the car is higher than the rear..

 

front higher and you can leave the electric pump running by jumping it and use the bleeder screws and keep filling with water, should be able to get all the air out in 5-7 minutes

 

I had a lot of coolant along with air out of the bleed screw so be careful not to get any drips on the opti. I ended up using a couple of towels.

 

I appreciate it guys.
that was the only other thing I could think of was air in the line.
We'll see what happens. Havent talked to him since lunch. I'll let him know in the morning.

 

are you absolutely sure the t-stat installed was LT1 specific and not just a traditional SBC?

 

I'm not sure about yours, but the cap is near the highest point on mine minus the bleeder screw on the heater core hoses. I believe it's even higher than the intake. Regardless, what does that matter when inlet hose to the engine is at the bottom of the radiator going into the w/p?

 

You know I thought this myself. I was not there when he got it at autozone. He did tell them he had a 96 camaro.

 

yeah, but that doesn't mean a whole lot to them. they usually ask if it's a 6 or 8 cylinder and they may just dismiss it as a SBC. i never go to a parts store w/out a part number. i had this problem when i tried to get the PCM water temp sensor located in the w/p. they gave me a generic water temp sensor, i took it back and they coudln't figure out for the life of them how to get the correct one.
you can ask him how much he payed for it. i believe the lt1 t-stats are more expensive than a regular sbc t-stat.
there's really no logical reason why the car would get an air pocket just by changing the t-stat out since that is the return line back into the radiator unless he lost enough coolant to drain the w/p... which is unlikely.

Here's pics of the LTx t-stat courtesy of the man himself:

http://shbox.com/1/tstat.jpg
http://shbox.com/1/180_thermostat.jpg

send these to your bro and have him compare...

 

Buy a new radiator cap as well.....when mine went bad my car kept on getting air in the system and overheating....couldn't figure out how the air kept coming back everyday...every morning i had to burp it...bought a new cap...burped the system and problem never came back. When i looked at the old cap later on there was very very small crack in the seal...it was letting air in overnight.

 

Symptoms definately sound like no coolant flow. Could be the air thing, but could be the pump, even if it still runs. If he runs it without a stat, verify coolant is flowing in the radiator with the pump on, too. Just look in the fill neck with cap off. I remember reading about one electric pump that had the impeller come off the motor shaft.

He's lucky to have you (and CZ28 community) helping him - hope you get it figured out.

 

You guys are a big help on here. Im gonna get my hands on it here in acouple of days. I noticed the radiator cap was dif than mine. I will get a new one of those. Also it's programmed for a 160 stat so I will do that.
I will also make sure the water pump is not cutting out, and make sure and bleed all the air out. If that doesnt work. Were selling it for $1.