Its only 30 degrees here so if the temperature is a lot warmer they are way more important than in freezing temperatures.

 

Its fairly obvious the fans are why you overheated not the t-stat. I had a similiar problem...my fans would not kick on no matter what. I bought a new coolant temp sensor and tested all the relays and wiring worked fine as I was able to jump the fans on using the pinouts by where the obdII hooks up. So I gave up and put a fan switch in. I read on the boards that another guy had the same problem as me and he got a new CPU and it fixed it. Low and behold I went to get a tune by Madz28, and after he adjusted my fan temp lower they always come on at the right time. Seems like the computer glitched up and couldnt fix itself.

 

ok guys. over this weekend i checked everything you asked me to. the fuses seem to be working. i tried to jump the fans using the pinouts, but that did not seem to work. i had an old fan pigtail laying around so i wired it up to reach the battery. both fans are working after i tested them. but, when the car is overheating they never come on. i think i am going to rig up the manual fans today. i have a question, when you fill up the car with coolant...which do you fill up? the resivor or the radiator? thanks alot for all you guys help.

 

You should fill up the resevoir then the overflow. If you had coolant under the car...your water pump might be bad. Mine went bad last September. I changed it myself. It wasn't that bad. To check if the pump is bad, you can check it by getting under the car and looking at the pump from the bottom. There is a small hole on the bottom of it. Usually when water pumps go bad it is because of the seals inside. They will leak from that bottom hole, to let you know that it is bad. I would check this out. My Z28 is the same year as yours, and this was the problem that I had. Check it out....let us know.

 

alright, kool. ill check that out today. just to be sure....i fill the one with the silver cap first then the other one with the black cap? ill check the water pump to. about how much do they run for?? thanks alot...

 

i dont understand why everybody mods there cars to make them stop over heating, they obvously work fine from the factory, a lower thermostat and a tune for your fans is all you need to make it run COOLER not to keep from over heating. after i flushed the cooling system and put new coolant in it and a STOCK thermo from oriley it ran perfect always stays at the 1/4 mark and on hot days at idle it goes past the half way marker then the fans come on and cool it back down, no mods needed! then when i got it tuned for the fans to come on earlier it never goes past the 1/4 mark, but my heater sucks! lol

 

dude i wouldnt chop up the car to make run kool, theres two coolant sensors one tells the gauge how hot the motor is the other one tells the computer when to turn the fans on why dont you try that, its the one in the front of the pump btw, and if theres air in the cooling system it will make it run hot also, thats why theres 2 bleeders at the top!

 

so what do you suggest???

 

Fill the radiator cap...then the resevoir to the left of the radiator. I don't know what color your caps are...lol

Auto Zone makes refurbrished water pumps for about $60.

 

i fill the radiator all the way?? (i kow i sound stupid but i just want to make sure.)

 

fill the radiator and res doesnt really matter but it does need aome in there

 

theres two coolant sensors one tells the gauge how hot the motor is the other one tells the computer when to turn the fans on why dont you try that, its the one in the front of the pump btw,

 

but what do i do to the sensors? i dont understand? do i change them out or something? or just check to see if the wires are fraid??

 

well if the gauge works then sensor on the side of the block works, if the fuses are good and the fans work with direct power the yes replace the sensor in front of the pump its like $15 from auto zone

 

Fill the radiator to the top. Fill the resevoir until the full line in the dip stick. Make sure you have fluids in both at all times. You don't want to overheat and warp the heads or something.

Have you gotten under there and checked to see if the water pump is leaking?