IROCaholic

Ok, bare with me here people. So a friend mine buys an 88 camaro sport coupe a few weeks ago and it is in decent shape but needs some love. He drives it for a few days and starts noticing orange stains in his driveway.We inspect it and see that the water pump is leaking from the top hole. He noticed the temp getting around 250 or 260. So we change the pump and while flushing the rad we see clumps of what looks like oranger rust and all kinds of nasty stuff coming out of the radiator and the motor. Change the pump and all is well for a week and the cars starts to overheat again. I take out the thermostat just too see how that would help and the car is doing fine again. Well one week later the car finally over heats all the way. It gets to 280 or so and he shuts it off and the fluid is spewing everywhere etc. We change the fluid and drive it and the car gets up to 210 degrees in like 3 minutes. Then it slow increases to the 260 range and above until it eventually overheats after about a 20 minute stop and go drive. What do you guys think. This is a stock L03, the fan works, the air damn is fine and it has a new radiator cap and no visible damage to the radiator. Heater core seems fine as well. We are also using a mechanical guage so we know its good. Help me out here guys.

xbcrguy182x

Interesting...did you flush out the radiator 100%? Chances are, their may be more crap in there that wont come out. You say the fan is working, but is it working properly? Meaning, it turns on, then turns off when its cool, but when it gets hot again, it should turn on again. Maybe the fan isnt turning back on. Just an idea. Good luck!

scorchmaster

iTrader: (6)

don't take out the thermostat unless you have a super thick radiator, the reason being is that the coolant will travel too fast through the radiator to properly cool down. If you have a massive radiator, this will counter the effect and you would want to keep the speed of the coolant up. So get a thermostat back in the car, try a 180 degree one. Also, it sounds like you have air in the system somewhere, or some of that gunk you were talking about is clogging a passage.

IROCaholic

Yeah, I went ahead and put a 190 degree thermostat in and it is getting even hotter faster. I thought about the air pocket thing, but I dont know what to do to get it out. I am thinking the radiator is jammed up somewhere do they make a solution I can put in the coolant to help clean it?

Also the fan is running full time so thats not a problem.

scorchmaster

iTrader: (6)

There are a lot of products to clean/flush the radiator, any autoparts store will have something. When you did the thermostat swap and added coolant, and you left the radiator cap off and turned the car on, how fast did the coolant level drop?

ryan91rs

iTrader: (1)

wow you should never let it overheat that bad but...
I would by some flush meant for a system with rust and extreme scale.
Then TEMPORARILY put on one of those hose flush systems you can get from autozone for like 2 bucks. put in the flush and run it for awhile. then after the system has circulated install that plastic piece. run the car and run the hose with the drain opened. run it until the water comes out clean. then repeat again. That should do it. then refill with distilled water so you don't have the problem again. Good luck!

IROCaholic

The coolant level dropped pretty slow.

scorchmaster

iTrader: (6)

if it's slower than it normally is, you either have a block in the system or the water pump you got was a dud. Do what Ryan suggested first and see if that clears the problem up. You dont have an underdrive pulley on do you?

IROCaholic

Ok, the weirdest thing happened today. I went and got some of that radiator cleaning solution and put it in the radiator. Before I put it in the car was running at around 230 degrees and getting hotter. I stopped the car opened the valve on top of the radiator cap to let the hot water into the overflow tank and then I added the stuff. I then turned on the car and started driving down the street. All of the sudden the temp drops to around 210 and just stays there. It holds all the way home. Then an hour later I decide to take it out again just to make sure that it wasnt a fluke and again it gets to 210 and doesnt get any higher. I thought that my gauge must be broken so I popped the hood and opened up the valve on the cap and nothing cames out and the radiator was only warm to the touch rather than blistering like it had been all week. So I guess my prob is fixed.

89RS_82Z

iTrader: (2)

210 is higher than i like to see (personaly) mine runs 160 - 170 with a 160 stat in it, it will get up to 195 or so with the AC on a hot day, i went through alot of cooling problems, make sure your air dam is on there, the black plastic hanging down infront of the rad, under the car, im also running water plus water wetter, and just a tiny bit of anti freeze, only protection to like 10 but it never gets cold enough here and the car stays in a garage

jayk2k3

iTrader: (2)

make sure u didnt put a reverse water pump on. i did lol

IROCaholic

Yeah 210 seems about normal for his car (this is my friends car) mine stays between 180 and 190 with my griffin rad and high power fan. It was always hovering in the 230-240 range before I changed everything over.

ryan91rs

iTrader: (1)

yep the good old clog. now drain it! and spend the three bucks and get distilled water so the scale and crap does not build up again.

glad to hear all is well!

IROCaholic

Yeah, thanks for all the help guys.

6SpeedsofFun

I just sent you a pm Irocaholic

ryan91rs

iTrader: (1)

"I just sent you a pm Irocaholic"

okay 10-4

89RsPower!

kinda curious since I've never used it, where do you get distilled water?

scorchmaster

iTrader: (6)

grocery store

Da Grim Reaper

my car was doing the same thing when i bought it. check your fan to see if it is blowing more on the radiator or the engine. it needs to be blowing towards the engine. if not then just swith out the two connectors on the fan. this will cause it to spin the other way. it needs to pull air in from the radiator towards the engine. you will notice a big change if its wired wrong.

Da Grim Reaper

it is best to use 50/70 water/ antifreeze. this helps your waterpump and saves the scale buildup. the water in the motor gets hot enough to distill itself. the buildup is from hard water. distilled water from the stores has a softner in it from the company. that is what keeps the lime and scale away. and use some water wetter to help keep it even cooler. use two bottles.