Running Hot

[DocG]

Hey all....hope you can give me some ideas.


A little backstory to cover the basics.

Before surgery....my car ran at 180.....always....no matter what.

Was leaking coolant. Thought it was my t-stat housing. Thus I pulled it and replaced the gasket. Still leaking, realized it was the lower manifold gasket. Pulled the top end apart and replaced upper/lower manifold gaskets and valve cover gaskets.

Started running hot. I pulled the t-stat and actually replaced it that time with a new one that was 180....well that's what they told me

I have no leaks. But she runs hot.

Drive for 15 to 20 minutes and its at 210 and seems like its still gonna climb.

So you can see my problem. Never above 180 before.



I've drained my coolant 3 times now....but will do what I must to get her running normal again!

 

[DocG]

Oh....and the t-stat is opening....the upper hose is as hot as the lower.

 

[HISSIN50]

Is there air in the system?

 

[DocG]

Might be.....but shouldn't be. Forgot to mention that step too.

Burped it via a small valve I have near the fuel lines to the heater core.

My mechanic bud brought me a burping funnel for the coolant opening. Ran it......kept adding coolant....watching it gurgle....etc. He told me that should have taken care of it.

It has to be something since opening the coolant system. He's afraid it might be a head gasket....gonna bring something home to check it.

Might still be air though. Not sure how else to burp this beotch!

 

[strtrcr50]

Try getting the front end up as high as possible on jackstands.

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

210° isn't necessarily hot. The stock setting on my 95 doesn't turn the low speed fan on until 208°. Put the front end on jackstands, so the radiator is the highest point and burp it from the radiator cap.

 

[DocG]

Try getting the front end up as high as possible on jackstands.

I'll give it a shot. I had it jacked up when I was burping it, but could have got it higher.

210° isn't necessarily hot. The stock setting on my 95 doesn't turn the low speed fan on until 208°. Put the front end on jackstands, so the radiator is the highest point and burp it from the radiator cap.

Yeah, I know. I haven't run it long enough for it to keep climbing....but I'm pretty sure it would.

What irks me most is that I know its capable of running at 180*. I can't imagine that anything that has changed that it shouldn't still be.

I'm gonna probably flush it this weekend too. Maybe all the gasket scraping and work...something got caught up in the system.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

1) what size tstat came out of it?

2) what radiator/fan setup do you have?

3) this is an aftermarket coolant gauge right?


Remember that if you have a 180 tstat, the temp is gonna rise above 180 before the rad/fan can cool it down to 180 so you may have to run it for a bit to see if it stops climbing and drops back down. Does it smoke any? Have you driven it and got on it a bit to see? If you have a blown head gasket, you'd know because performance would suck and it would likely smoke unless it blew out between the cylinders like mine did.

 

[DocG]

The tstat was a 180....and so is the new one.

The fan and radiator are stock still.

Yup, autometer gauges.

 

[DocG]

Wrap up.

We had to use a tool that hooked up to an air compressor and sucked the air out of the system. Quite a bit still in there.....had to add almost a gallon of coolant to fill it back up.

So if you're having cooling issues and think it may be a bubble....and have tried the conventional methods.....try something like that!

Runs at 180-190 again!