Last time I was driving the Camaro back home from work, it was getting pretty hot. According to my scan tool, it was hitting 200-205 degrees on the highway with the AC on. Shutting the AC off resulted in 190-195 degrees. This seemed awful hot, considering that I have a 160 degree thermostat. Keep in mind this is on the highway, at about 65 miles per hour. Yes, the air dam is in place and intact. Yes, the tune has the fans kicking on at the correct temps for a 160 thermostat.

Well, I decided to pull the radiator out today, as I have to do the plugs and wires anyhow due to a high RPM miss (lousy taylor wires arcing all over the place, and they're roughly a month old).

The coolant, which was drained and replaced a month ago, was a bit murky when I was draining it. I pulled the knock sensor and the plug from the block and drained out some muddy looking crap. I kept washing out the block as best I could until I got clean water.

The radiator looked clear through the neck, but when I was flushing it with the hose, only about 1/2 of it actually got cold from the water flowing through it. Well, no matter what I tried, I couldn't get it cleaned out and the local radiator shop was closed due to the weekend. A bit of frantic scrambling about got me in touch with radiator.com. Fortunately, they had a warehouse right in town, and they had one in stock. Drove over and picked it up... Problem solved, right?

[Old radiator]


[New Radiator]


{Quick question - Is something missing from the area circled in red? Looks like something should be there.}

Nope. The next issue was the 14 year old radiator fan motors. The fan always seemed a bit loud when it kicked on. One motor was relatively smooth, the other sounded like it had rocks in it. So I tore the fans apart, then tried to open up the bad motor. Sounded like a dry bearing, and I thought I might be able to buy myself some time if I greased it. Got the housing apart, but I couldn't get at the front bearing due to the pressed-on sprocket for the fan blade. When I tried to use a puller on it, the damned thing broke. So, off to the parts store to pick up two new motors... Bad news, they can't get them until tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, I killed some time waiting for UPS to drop off my new coil, MSD wire kit, and plugs by scrubbing the fan assembly down with some simple green, and repairing a broken off mounting tab.

[Shroud Fix]


I checked with the local junkyards and they didn't have any available, so I decided to be creative and replace the missing tab. It might be a bit crude, but it's strong and it works.

[Garage]


[Disassembled!]


Why does my car keep ending up like this?! Heh.

UPS get here pretty late with my ignition components, so that's a job for tomorrow morning.

 

why is the car jacked in the rear ?

those temps seem normal to me, if youre that worried get a lower t-stat or have the fans programmed to come on earlier or get a manual fan switch

 

^^^^ i think he was worried abotu the temps. seeming as he was on the highway and they were getting that high. those are normal temps for sitting at a stop light. not crusing down the highway at 65mph. but either way. thats definitely not the way to spend the weekend. lol.

 

Blubird: The car is jacked up front and rear so I'd have room to work under it. If you read what I posted, I do have a 160 thermostat *and* the fans reprogrammed.

More great news: The parts store only got one motor in today, the other one will be in tomorrow morning. Guess I'll be pulling the fans out a second time, then... I need to get to work tomorrow, and I don't feel like taking my truck on a 110 mile round trip.

 

Got everything done today; NGK plugs, MSD wires, MSD Blaster coil, ICM cooling mod + new thermal paste (Arctic Silver Ceramique for those fellow computer geeks), new radiator, fans, etc. With the car 3/4 in the garage (tailpipes outside) and idling, the fans cut in at low at about 170, which is where they should. And they actually cycled below the temp cutoff, and shut off. Next test was idling with the AC on high, windows open and fan on high - Biggest load I could place on the AC/cooling system. Fans cut in as expected, around 170 or so. Would slowly drift up to 180, where the fans would kick on high for a bit before it cooled down enough to go back to low. This is with the garage being about 115 degrees, according to the wall mounted thermometer, thanks to the engine heat hanging around.

So, everything works as it should, no leaks, and the car has noticeably more torque thanks to the non-misfiring plugs/ plug wires. I'd steer clear of Taylor wires, mine were less than a month old and were arcing everywhere.

 

Sweet man glad you got everything figured out. Its a good feeling when your car is running good. Hopefully itll be the same case for me.

 

Wellll....

Maybe all is not well yet. Yesterday, driving home from my second job, (a 52 mile run. mostly all on the highway, no traffic) with the AC on, my PCM (via my scan tool) was saying the motor was at 210-215 degrees. After a lot of WTF, when I pulled up my driveway I immediately get my infrared temp gun and started getting the temps from a few parts of the motor while it was still running and hot. The cylinder heads were at 185, the water pump housing was about 180-182, the radiator inlet was about 165 and the outlet was about 155. Fans were on high.

Well, I figure that my coolant temp sensor has gone a bit 'off'. After a quick run to autozone, (Yes, I know about the "GM only" sensor rule but this was the only one available on short notice) I let the car cool off overnight so I could install it this morning without the excitement of third degree burns.

Today, on the same ride, the PCM was showing, with the AC on, 190-192 and sometimes 195 degrees. I know the fans are working, my scan tool shows the relay status and it concurs with what happens with the hood up. Both fan motors are new. Both fans were commanded to 'high' and were actually running on high when I pulled over to check them. This should not matter on the highway at 65 MPH, though. I'm of the opinion that those fans should never come on when you're at speed on the highway, period. Or am I wrong?

All the plastics are in place in the nose, including the air dam. It is not broken, either. The AC condenser and the radiator are *brand* new. No debris in either of them. Air temp, according to my AIT sensor was about 92 degrees.

I'm thinking that maybe the thermostat isn't opening all the way, which will 'mix' the recirculated engine coolant with the coolant from the radiator, resulting in poor cooling.

After looking at the thermostat, I was wondering if I have the cooling system figured out right. This is what I *think* happens:

Thermostat closed, inner valve open: water pump recirculates the coolant from the heads to the block via the inner 'valve'.

Thermostat open, inner valve closed: The water from the radiator through the thermostat enters the heads, travels through the block, then exits the water pump towards the radiator.

Am I right, or am I confused? (Or just more confused than normal? )

 

Well, my SLP 160 thermostat showed up. Pan tested it first; started opening at 161 degrees and was full open around 168.

Installed it.

The one in the car was a Motorad (Hypertech, I guess?) 160. Pan tested that one, it didn't start opening to about 170, and didn't hit full open until about 187. No idea how old it is, it seemed very 'lazy' about opening.

Well, hope that solves the problem this time.

 

Annnnd, to hopefully conclude this story:

My electric water pump is out and sitting on my bench and there's a brand new mechanical one in it's place. Took the car for a 10 mile run on the highway before and the temps were still creeping up. Within minutes of getting off the highway, the temps would drop. This led me to believe that the electric water pump is not moving enough water when I'm on the highway at 65 MPH, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 2400-2500 RPM. That's 3120-3250 mechanical pump RPM, which according to the chart is about 35 GPM. What I can say with absolute surety is that at 2500 engine RPM the mechanical pump is moving *WAY* more water than the electric pump, and it's about equal to the electric pump at idle from the way the water flow in the radiator looks.

I decided that I'd rather have the cooling system running at it's peak than a few horsepower. We'll see what happens on my commute in to work tomorrow. I'm willing to bet it runs a lot cooler on the highway. If so, I might have a meziere wp118 (43 GPM) for sale pretty soon.

 

Odd. I never see past 185F on the highway with my Mezeire wp. I just have a bolt on lt1 though with stock 3.42 gears. I'm usually turning 2k-2.2k max on the freeway.

 

I was suprised, too. Today, on the way to work at 65 mph (right around 2500 rpm) the car sat right on 169-170 degrees. I think I'm going to stick with the mechanical pump, and tomorrow I'll be listing my Meziere for sale, with a couple other odds and ends I have laying around.

 

I dont have the same problems as you running an electric waterpump, but I do know that I do run a little warmer on the highway than idling in traffic. All in all 190 isn't that bad, stock they got up to what.....225?