I've had some issues with my car getting really hot. I first replaced my 180* thermostat amd cap - had no luck. I just put in a new aluminum radiator because my car was overheating at 250*. After riding for 30 minutes today, it reached 240*. What could be my issue here?
putting in a lower temp thermostat wont cure cooling issues. if the cooling system cant cool to a higher temp it sure wont cool to cooler temp.
take note if it overheats no matter what... or if it cools at cruising speed but will overheat at idle. thats a fan issue.
you replaced the radiator.... which means the cooling system was drained.
its very easy to get a huge air pocket in the engine.
i had overheating problems that turned out to be big air pockets in the cooling system.
best way to burp the system is jack the drivers side up real high to make the radiator cap the highest point in the cooling system. start the car up and let her warm up with the cap off. keep the radiator full and wait for the thermostat to open. if you get coolant puking out as the tstat is about to open. dont freak out and shut the car off. let it puke, its air bubbles trying to get out. i usually keep a bucket under the car and dump the spilled coolant right back in.
once the bubbles get out the coolant level should drop quickly. keep it full and i usually run it for another 10 mins or so and keep the rad full, then pop the cap back on and shut her off.
Thanks for all the replies:
It's a mechanical fan with no shroud. It's running slightly hotter at traffic lights.I'm not using dexcool. I can try to burp the car later, but since I flushed it out is here still a chance it needs to be burped?
Thanks for all the replies: It's a mechanical fan with no shroud. It's running slightly hotter at traffic lights.I'm not using dexcool. I can try to burp the car later, but since I flushed it out is here still a chance it needs to be burped?
There's your problem right there. Get a shroud, throw it on, and call it a day.
Without a shroud, the fan does not actually pull air through the radiator at lower (under 45 MPH) speeds - it just sits there and spins uselessly, the only air it moves is mostly outward instead of from front to back. I had this same issue when I first bought my '84 - some fool threw on a flex fan (which are junk, BTW) and got rid of the shroud, and he couldn't figure why it wouldn't cool worth a darn. Given, by '84's problems lie deeper than just the fan issue (I need a bigger radiator, 3-core at a minimum), but not having a shroud around the fan was about as useful as not having a fan, at all.