Unusual Overheating Problem!!!

Tarik916

Founding Member
Aug 22, 2002
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Sacramento, CA
I've searched and couldn't find an answer.

My car will run at normal temperature for about 20 minutes or so while driving at normal speeds and just start climbing out of nowhere until it's past the "L" of normal and I have to shut it off.

I already installed:

new thermostat
new water pump
new water temperature sensor
new radiator
new overflow tank

The fan works fine also. I just put new heads, cam, and rockers, so the head gaskets are good, but this heating problem started just before I made these changes. The car is Very fast right now when cool, but I won't punch it once the temp rises.

Please help.
 
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When you find out let me know.. I am having kind of the same problem. Are you still using a stock radiator?? I am thinking about a Fluidyne. Or I am taking the blower off. I have had nothing but problems
 
My guess is an air bubble. I had a huge overheating problem a month ago that took a week to figure out. My problem was part air bubble, part faulty stock temp gauge.

Some tips that I received on removing air were:

1. jack up the left front corner of the car so that the radiator opening is the highest part of the car. This will allow for air to move from the block/heater area to the radiator and hopefully get out of the system.

2. If you have the radiator cap with the pressure relief lever, let the car get to operating temperature, shut the car down and then lift the lever. This is supposed to let air out and suck in coolant from the overflow.

3. While the car is still warm, crack open the ECT sensor. This may let a little more air hiding in the intake to get out.

4. While the car is still running and the radiator cap is off, squeeze the upper hose really good. Sometimes I would squeeze it halfway and hold it and bubbles would come up. Sometimes it also helped when I worked my way from the middle of the upper hose to the ends of it.

5. Similar to the above suggestion, work the air out of the heater hoses by squeezing them while the cap is off.

6. Drill a 1/8" hole or two in the thermostat near the edge but not so far that it is covered by silicone or the thermostat housing.

It would be nice if they just made a tool that would create negative pressure in the coolant system to suck the air out....

Hope this helps.
Chris
 
Bryce'sStang said:
When you find out let me know.. I am having kind of the same problem. Are you still using a stock radiator?? I am thinking about a Fluidyne. Or I am taking the blower off. I have had nothing but problems

With the age of our cars,


NOBODY should be running a blower with the stock radiator :nonono:

RC
 
i would also say air bubble in the system...i have a fluidyne radiator in my car. very nice radiator a little expensive though. i am stil running stock 195 thermostat and it gets up to about the m and when thermostat opens it cools off quick to the point that the thermostat closes and builds up and opens again.
 
Well, I've had the same problem with my 95GT. The temp gauge has never gone past the "A" in NORMAL though. At first I didn't believe the temp. gauge, so I went out and bought an infrared temperature reader and took a series of measurements right at the block side of the elbow where the thermostat is located. What I found was that the thermostat opened up pretty close to 180*, the electric fan kicked on at about 212*. The PCM would then use the fan to regulate the temp to about 220*. Now here's what else I did; went to Advanced Auto Parts, bought a gallon of that water wetter additive and tried that. The only real difference that I could tell is that the engine seemed to cool more quickly after the fan came on then it did with the 50/50 antifreeze mix. Now, here's what else I did, followed the advice of some other Stangnet forum folks and installed a switch to the fan. It works like a champ. One real factor here is airflow. I did notice that the engine did not seem to cool as quickly when I had the bra installed. I do like the idea of the air bubble though. Might try the air bubble purge techniques myself. Oh, if you decide to install the switch, make sure you use some fairly beefy wires like 12 gauge or so. Thinner wire has higher resistance and will get real hot when you turn the fan on. The fan in my car draws more than 20A on high speed. I know this because the 20A fuse I put in series with my newly installed switch blew out. Got a 30A in there now.
 
My problem with the two most popular "fixes" to overheating problems is that they seem to be used blindly as bandaids. When someone overheats, the first two things I normally see is get a bigger radiator and try the fan switch. Although these may help cool the car, the problem could still exist. If it does and the situation causing it gets worse, you could be in a ton of trouble later on even with your nice $400 radiator or cool fan switch.

He says the fan works fine, so i dont see how the fan switch would be anything more than a bandaid. If the fan didnt turn on I might would agree that would be a good solution but the actual problem seems to be somewhere else.

The air bubble is often times the culprit and the best part is, the fix is free! Doesnt cost a thing. I would definetly try the easy, free things first that seem most logical and then if need be, go the bandaid route and just do something that will guarantee you temporary relief from the overheating until you can find the actual problem.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for all of the replies. I am going to get it pressure tested tomorrow to make sure that it is not a cracked block. If it passes the test, I'm going to remove my A/C condenser to allow more air to get to the radiator, add an electric fan, drill a hole in my thremostat and try to bleed the system. Next will be a radiator.
 
OK...

I flushed the system and installed a new 160 thermostat and removed the A/C condenser to give more direct air to the radiator.

There are no leaks, no steam, no sign of water in my oil, but the car still runs hot. I Idled it in the driveway for 30 minutes and the temperature was between the "O" and "R" of NORMAL. WHen I drove it, it ran cool until I stepped on it for a few seconds. It slowly climbed to the "A" and "L". I drove it a little longer to see if it would go higher, but it never went above "L".

Any Ideas?
I am letting it cool to see if I have to burp the system more.

Thanks
 
Find the vacuum hose diagram for the car. Go over every hose and make sure you installed everything correctly. This was the problem in my friends civic.

You pretty much replaced the entire cooling system. I can't think of anything else that could cause this. Could there be oil in the water? I don't know if that's possible.
Scott
 
One question, how are the other guages such as elec. and oil press? I have been dealing with overheating for some time now and I changed the temp sensor that turns on the fan, the ccrm, t-stat, new fluid, water pump, head gaskets (found I have at least one cyl. with a 35% drop in comp. from a leak down test at this time too) and the ever pop. fan switch that I also feel is a bandaid fix. all to still have a realy bad overheating problem.

I also always had a wierd elec. guage problem in that it would drop real low, or when I turned anything on it would drop low or lower and the oil press guage would go from its normal to pegged and I looked at everything and had it tested/ and the shop that did the leak down also looked at it and it seemed fine as far as alt. volts and batt. cond. Well long story short one day I go to start it and it seems like a dead batt. or starter. Batt. is fine and a new starter and still the same problem no starting, I then look at grounds and stuff. I find the ground from the block to chasis is bad and put a correct guage wire to replace it. Not only did it start it cooled great agian and the guages worked great. Now on a hot day it will start to heat up agian but I think the wire I used might be getting heat soked.
 
Sorry blksn955, my problem is totally different.
I'm not sure exactly what it was, but I think the original problem started when my check engine light was on for a while. It went off once I replaced the ETC sensor but the car still ran extremely hot. I haven't had the temperature problems since I continued to burp the system though. The problem is kinda still there because my car will run at the top of "N" all day but raise to "A" for about 10-15 minutes, but never go over. It's wierd, but completely drivable... even in hot weather.

I did a pressure test and it held at 13psi, but i'm installing a new shortblock anyway this sunday... hopefully. :D
 
I've been through lots of good times figuring out my cooling problems as well. Change the radiator cap just to make sure, I had a brand new one that was not functioning correctly causing the upper hose to suck flat. Bad rad cap wont allow flluid to transfer properly between overflow and radiator I think. I also drilled the small pinhole in the thermostat to help it burp. Im still not running where I want to be,,,,I'll still heat up to 212 in this FL heat, but the fan switch knocks it back down. I can only surmise that I do need a new radiator, just based on some of the crap I've cleaed out of my overflow. Fluidyne will be my next mod.