adamwbennett

I finally have the old 1988 swapped Camaro with the LT1 driveable. the trouble I am having is getting it to run cool enough. At idle it seems to be fine, when I hit the road its gotten as hot as 230 and seems to wanna keep climbing. I am running the original lt1 radiator from the camaro the motor came from. Its clean and clear for a fact it was only about a year old before I got it. I am running an electric water pump and have good pump pressure at my hoses. I have a new thermostat in it and not one of the cheap ones either. The themostat was a 180 degree opener. I thought maybe the lack of air dam was causing it so I installed that but it didnt seem to help. I thought maybe I had a bad sender for the guage but that wasnt the case. I replaced the guage with a new guage as well. I am lost and frusterated. I wanna take her to Ls fest in bowling green this coming weekend and need this fixed. My ONLY other thought is I am not running any exhaust beyond the headers right now. Could the computer be leaning out the motor due to the lack of exhaust? Might add I am running the original camaro cooling fans as well. they are running constant right now from a 12+ source.

adamwbennett

HELP PLEASE!!! I had exhaust put on today and that made no difference. I have been bleeding the system everytime I get it up to temp and then shut it off. We are up to around 5-6 times I have bled it now. I am going to get another thermostat and see if that fixes it. Maybe I grabbed the wrong one or something.

Maeryk

Got any pics of the engine compartment? I'm wondering if you just aren't getting airflow through the rad for some reason, either it's not getting TO the rad, or it can't get THROUGH the rad.

adamwbennett

I think I got her figured out mostly now. I went and got a new thermostat that was the recommened one for the motor. Its a 180 degree stock. I was using one from the performance isle for a regular small block and not for a lt motor. I swapped them out and refilled flushed the syte, etc and took it fir a ride in town. I drove stop sign to stop sign for about thirty minutes and it never rose over 210. It still seems hotter than it should be to me. I am running everything factory original except the electric water pump and theres no heater core. I checked around the front of the car and can see the radiator clearly and it doesnt seem obstructed though I thought for sure you were on to something there. What does everyone else cars run at on a 85 degree day through town traffic? I have read theses LT motors tend to run hot. What should my temp range be as far as too low or too high of temp? My old 6.5 diesel runs hot like this but I expect it from it.

Maeryk

210 is fine. 220 is avg, in my experience. 240 or higher and you are looking at issues.

adamwbennett

I have antifreeze and water wetter in the radiator with very little water. Would that make a difference in the temp at all?

Maeryk

Read the bottle. You should be running it at the mix reccomended (more or less) by the anti-freeze manufacturer. They spend a crapload of money engineering and testing this stuff.

adamwbennett

Wow a 220 average seems insane to me!! I am used to the old small blocks that with a good rad. and good fluid and a electric fan you can make run 160 easy. I guess I will order the fail safe 160 degree that they didnt have in stock and see if that helps me any furhter as well.

Maeryk

Hey, I'm going off my gauge. Where my gauge gets into the red, I worry. Below that, I don't.

I figure the engineers had some idea of what they were doing when they designed the engine and cooling components, and gauges.

xpndbl3

iTrader: (5)

should be 50/50 water/antifreeze with the water added if needed. It's more for drag racers who run straight water and add the water wetter only. 210 is typical for a stock thermostat, if your fans don't kick on sooner, the motor will run hotter