Today I went to my Dad's shop and installed a manual fan switch in my car. Yesterday I put in a new radiator and air deflector. I put in the manual fan switch because after the radiator and air deflector install the car was still running hot. I don't think my fans were working at all. I checked all the wiring, the relays, the fan fuse and the fans and they all worked but for some reason the fans were not coming on.

Anyway after the install with both of my fans running the car still stays between 200 and 210 degrees. I'm not sure if my 180 degree thermostat is working. Should I go ahead and put in a 160 degree thermostat? Could it be my waterpump?

-Thanks for your input -----> Brad

 

Well is 200-210 a problem with both fans on? -------> Brad

 

200-210 is normal

at least for me it is...

180 thermo doesnt mean car will run at 180, it means the thermostat will open at 180 degrees to let the cooler coolant in...

normal driving at like 50mph or so should bring it to around 195 and 210 or so for very heavy traffic driving

 

On a mild ambient temp day, your engine will run ~15º-20º higher than whatever thermostat you have in it. That's normal.

 

So what is the optimal running temp for the LT1 engine? I want my engine to perform to its fullest potential. -Thanks ------Brad

 

It's going to be mod and programming dependent. An example of Injuneer's car in this thread:
http://web.camaross.com/forums/showt...hreadid=186624