Hey guys. My 1996 3.8l v6 camaro overheats when it is driven harder than street driving. The thermoter was about 3/4 of the way up!!! I had this problem b4 but i had it fixed (had blown a gasket). I noticed smoke from the engine area too!!! Now i had gone thru some water and some gravel type stuff. please help!!

 

If you drive it hard, you could have possibaly blown another head gasket. Remember we're not race car's, our V6's are basicaly just regular car's with the name "Camaro" on them. If it's not the headgaskets, do your cooling systems kick in? your fan, thermostat?

 

i replaced the head gasket b4 already i drove it pretty hard today and long longer than yesterday and it remained fine. I think it was just the thermostat messing up do to the steam off the engine from going over the puddle.

Btw ur theory on v6 is wrong. Our v6 camaros a little less than are z28 counter parts. While not saying much in its own we can still out manuevar most rice on a road course.

 

sounds like a bad thermostat! These engines shouldn't overheat no matter how hard u drive them! As soon as the water temperature reaches a certain level the cooling system (fan) should kick in immediately, and it will cool the engine even if u're racing (it'll just take longer).

hope that helps

 

oh, i forgot to mention things like cooling fluid level , and make sure that the radiator is clean , otherwise it can cause overheating.