okay so during the winter I took off my front air dam.
later in the year when the weather got warmer, my car started to run hot when I turned the AC on so I reinstalled the air dam and it fixed things for a while.

Lately, my car was running hotter than normal when I ran the AC and would get close to the red zone while stopped in traffic with the AC on.

Last night, in the cool weather, AC off, my car overheated on my way home.

Today, I flushed my coolant system with shoebox's alternate garden hose method. basically, I removed the t-stat, removed the radiator drain plug and ran water through the engine while running.

Afterwards, I installed a new t-stat, new radiator cap, and and refilled it.

Also, I loosened the bleeder valves while running to get rid of air in the system.
now it overheats worse than ever. Its in the redzone in less than 2 minutes and I dont know what to do. please help

 

are you leaking any anywhere? are your fans working like they should? is your antifreeze disappearing (check your oil)?

 

no leaks. even when its completely overheated, no leaks. it has plenty of anti-freeze, and my oil is clean

 

Did you bleed ALL of the air out of the cooling system? It can take a while to get it all out. Also, is the thermonstat installed correctly and is it the right type? What is the temp. rating of the thermostat you installed?

 

im pretty sure I got the air out. the t-stat is installed correctly, I believe its a 180 degree stat. I just asked the cashier at advanced auto for a t-stat for a 94 camaro z28.

 

That might be your problem. Dorks at the auto parts store don't know its a reverse flow cooling system and give yout a stat for a standard chevy small block.

 

You might check what he said above. I went into an autoparts store here and asked for a 160 t-stat and they gave me a SBC one instead of the correct t-stat for the LT1 motor.

Mike

 

this is the long thermostat because the old one was a 160* sbc thermostat. so its a 180* tstat for lt1's.

I just went outside to check it again. I started the engine, opened the bleeder screws, nothing came out of them until the temp gauge read about 180. It was a steady flow of coolant. no air. It continued to get hotter until it got into the read so I just turned off afterwards.

coolant resavoir was up to the FULL HOT line.

once again, my fans are both working, there is no bloggage in front of radiator. my t-stat is the extened lt1 type and it is opening at 180*.

 

Is the water pump drive in good shape?

If it is sheared off or not attached correct than your pump will not pump and the coolant will not flow into the engine.

Take the radiator cap off while the engine is running and make sure that the coolant is flowing through the radiator. It should flow just like a stream

 

im not sure about the condition of the water pump. I just ran the car with the cap off and it stays near the bottom of the filler neck and when the coolant temp gets up to 180, it starts to fill up to the top of the neck and begins to spew out.

does it sound like the water pump is bad?
if so, should I go electric?

 

you could try to take out the tstat all together, reassemble and see if you see water moving. no movement=dead pump.

 

I know that the tstat is working properly because no coolant spews from the bleeder screws (when i have them open) until the temp gauge hits 180

 

i wasnt trying to have you test the tstat, it was to see if the water pump is working.

spewing coolant after its hot, in and of itself, does not mean the wp is working. only that the coolant has expanded as it got hot.

if you take out the tstat, start the car and you see good coolant circulation, the pump is fine and you can move on to other things.

just my .02

 

if you're positive everything is working (t stat, no air in coolant, etc...), then your heads are cracked or something. Do a compression check. If that's not it, something else is wrong. I'd test that t-stat. It's not unlikely that you got a bad one fresh off the shelf.

 

Hi:

I had the exact same issue, and did all you mentioned. My problem was that the radiator was just about plugged up. Happens a lot in arizona. I went to a 3 core radiator, and the problem was solved. However, it does run about 200 degrees occasionally when I have the A/C on and idling in 100+ degree heat in the Arizona summers, but never gets extremely hot now. The radiator was my problem and it was clear when I removed it and the coolant was just oozing out of the radiator.