a small problem please help!!
What, the car? No!
You need to relax, and start diagnosing rather than just throwing money at the problem. I cannot believe you dropped 30 bucks on a radiator cap from summit, you can use one from autozone for like 6.
You can rent (like pay for and then get your money back) a cooling system pressure tester from autozone. This can help diagnose leaks, bad head gaskets, etc.
You talk about bleeding the system after a few minutes, it takes a while for the temp to get high enough to properly bleed the air out. Then you may have to do it a few more times.
Check out http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#radflush for info on checking some of your cooling system out.
You need to relax, and start diagnosing rather than just throwing money at the problem. I cannot believe you dropped 30 bucks on a radiator cap from summit, you can use one from autozone for like 6.
You can rent (like pay for and then get your money back) a cooling system pressure tester from autozone. This can help diagnose leaks, bad head gaskets, etc.
You talk about bleeding the system after a few minutes, it takes a while for the temp to get high enough to properly bleed the air out. Then you may have to do it a few more times.
Check out http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#radflush for info on checking some of your cooling system out.
I just read this whole thread and I don't remember seeing thermostat. I had one fail in the inside lane of I35 and nearly burn up the car by the time I could get off the highway. Be sure you get the right one if you buy one. They are unique to '94-'97 LT1 cars and a regular small block thermostat won't work.
if you can locate a trusted shop-have them perform a block check. what this test does is determine if combustion gasses are in the coolant. if so, it is head gasket time. the lt1 heads are fairly sturdy and not particularly prone to cracking like some other cylinder heads are. i agree with a post above-it is diagnosis time. and if the test comes up no problem then at least you will know that the problem isnt that major-a head gasket job. are you running dex-cool at 50-50 with distilled water?
hey guys. i haven't replied in a while the car has been sitting. I'll tell you whats going on. The water pump is was replaced. The thermostat was replaced correctly! radiator cap was replaced with a 16p.s.i. cap. Yes there is heat coming through my vents when i turn the heater on. my air conditioning don't work. It hasn't worked since i got the car if that may have anything to do with it. dad says there's a leak somewhere but he can't find it. i know a lot about this car. this is puzzling the shi* out of my guys. all the hoses are very clean, engine air was bled correctly. No leaks. We think its the head gasket now because it heats up to about 240 in under 5 minutes. BUT the engine oil is clean, nothing coming from the exhaust, no backup within the engine. From what i can tell there are NO signs of gasket problems. But that's allllllll. i mean this car has heated up to all the way passed the red a couple of times so that's why we're thinking the H gasket now. fans don't come on at the right time so i made it so they'd stay on as soon as the engine is turned over, didn't help at all if not made heating problem worse. NO money to take to a shop plus i don't trust shops in toledo ohio its ghetto as hell here. and they all want an arm and a leg. i make 130 dollars a week. when the car overheats, all the water begins pouring directly from the coolant resivoiar immedeatly. i'm going to try a few more things. if they dont work engine will get pulled and just completely rebuilt (which will probably take 10 years with the money i make)
Last edited by StangCrusher350; Sep 9, 2009 at 12:08 PM. Reason: also what i do know is that ever since the car has overheated this past time it sounds like utter crap
Check the radiator when it's running. Unplug the fans and touch the radiator. If it's hot at the top and cool at the bottom, or the other way around, then the radiator is clogged which seems to address all the issues. If that's the case you can probably have the radiator cleaned, if not it's not as expensive as a head gasket....or a complete rebuild.
alright bw ill give it a shot.... but i already put a hose through the top of the radiator and water shot out of the hose at the bottom of the radiator on the drivers side. doesn't that mean the Radiator is clean all the way through??
There are a lot of passageways that go across. You'd still get water through from your hose if 50% were blocked but it wouldn't have the cooling capacity needed to keep you out of the red zone...
alright so ill wait for the car to heat up a little bit then feel basically all over the radiator for a heat difference?? and if this is the problem, how would i go about getting the **** out of this radiator?? thanks.
Anyway, let it cool down and drain and remove the radiator. A local shop will remove the side tanks (if that's even possible anymore) and clean the passages with a rod. Then they'll crimp and glue it all back together for you.
Good luck!


