OVERHEATING ISSUE

HISSIN50 said:

Hey Nick,

Is this the hottest ambient temps you've seen in awhile? The first hot day will generally see the most expansion, ergo some overflowing where you had none before.
Now that would be if the only issue was the overflow dumping a little excess coolant.

If it was just bubbling after you shut the car off (and that's all), I'm with 88 Mouse: I have received a bad rad cap when brand new. Ergo, I don't put a lot of stock in the age of them.

If you are actually overheating, what temp is your gauge reading (or how do you know you're actually overheating)?

Otherwise, just ensure there isnt crap in front of the radiator and condensor. Make sure your air dam is present and that the fan clutch and fan blade are in good shape.

As you can see, any more specific info (actual temps, etc) will really help. We can only toss out generalities right now.

Good luck bud.

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HISSIN50 said:

Can you be sure the t-stat is opening consistantly? An issue with parts store t-stats is that they can suffer from hysteresis. This can drive you nuts. The only ones I put trust in are the performance variants that are balanced. The ones I use are Mr Gasket. I recall you have a parts store connection (I think). Your pops should be able to order you one. It's a solid investment (10-12 bucks). In my personal testing, I had a cooling system up to par. I had a brand new parts store 180*F stat. I ran this for a week and swapped it for a Mr Gasket 180*F stat. My operating temps dropped about 7*F across the board. The Mr G flows better sooner and again, is balanced (that's real big).

Now the cap: Here's the deal with pressurizing the cooling system. Each PSI in the system raises the effective boiling point ~3*F. A 16 PSI cap raises the boiling point 48*F. Water at 1 ATM would boil in the range of temps you're seeing. It's pressurizing the system that keeps things in check. A bad cap can keep you from achieving full pressure (or any pressure). That's why this is so important.

If you have a cooling system pressure tester, toss it on your radiator and see how the system holds pressure. You can check your cap with them too (though I dont trust the cap test as much personally. If I have doubts, I replace the cap).

Now I never like throwing parts at things but if you're going to keep the car, I see a new radiator as a wise investment. I'd go with a 3 core HD unit (from parts stores under the GDI [Go-Dan-Industries] or Modine name). Or get an alum radiator (universal, from speed shops like Summit) and do a little fabbing and make it work. I will say that I have NOT installed a universal alum radiator with a stock fan, so I cannot comment about how that works.

Does any of this sound decent? I'm sure others will have other ideas as well.

Good luck Nick.

BTW, it could be worse. It was 102*F here today.

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HISSIN50 said:

Nick, we haven't gotten into super-specifics. Just a quick run-down so you can take away what you need:

Running hot at speed: radiator issue, lack of air dam, hystersis of the t-stat.
Running hot when slowed but cool at speed: Fan fan fan.
Running much hotter in a given condition than before just because of A/C: Radiator is likely. You might have been on the edge before and the addition heat rejection from the condensor puts it over the top.

One more thing we don't know is if there is an issue with a blown HG, etc. That's where pressure testing helps.

Like I mentioned before, if you're going to keep the car for awhile, I think a new HD radiator is a cool (no pun intended) investment. It will probably be LLT so you can swap it any time you need to. And your car will thank you (and it will relieve stress from having to worry so much) over the hot summers.

Just MHO.

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