Car still heats up badly.

[tkoforpresident]

i crap you not, if i don't have the fan on (i did the manual rad. fan switch) and i'm cruising and the temp is right at about 160-170 degrees, if i stop at a stop light for 45 seconds it will jump up to 215-220 degrees and it seriously infuriates me.

there was an idea floating around that my underdrive pulley was underdriving my water pump as well, but even when i throw the car in neutral at a long light ( upping the rpm's to almost 1k) it still heats up, meaning i'm throwing out that idea.

listen to what i've done to try and fix this problem:

1. brand new upper and lower radiator hoses
2. 160 degree thermostat
3. full coolant flush and refill


and it still heats up like crazy

it will heat up to that temperature within a minute and then even with my radiator fan on, and cruising at a solid 40 mph it will still take 10 whole minutes for the temps to come back down, so not only do they go up fast but they never seem to come down. Hell, i've even had times when i've had the radiator fan on and it still creeps up over 220 and all this on a cool day!

i've only got a few other thoughts on what it could possibly be and they both sound pretty stupid (what do you expect i'm picking at straws here?)

1. the headers i had installed have increased my engine bay temps dramatically as they are not ceramic coated.
2. maybe a bad water pump?? fins broken or deteriorated?

I"m replacing the water pump when i do my cam install this spring so we'll see how it helps when the time comes.

i'm running out of ideas here, any thoughts?

btw, both coolant temperature sensors are brand new, thermostat is brand new and is a fail safe one, rad. hoses are brand new, and i just got the whole system flushed and refilled.

[kristen]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

waterpump

[Frechles71]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

Yea sounds like it could possibly be a water pump. How many miles do you have on your car?

My old man has a 95 with about 110,000 on it now and has to put two water pumps on his.


I dont know about anyone else but after cruising around and comming to a stop light its not abnormal for mine to creep up in temp. My fans are still temp controlled instead of human controlled so it doesnt usually get too out of hand. But on a nice night at a packed taco bell drive-thru, it not uncommon for the temps to get pretty high and stay there the entire time until I am driving down the road again. And it takes a little driving time for the temp to come back down

[steddy]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

TKO, not to sway off topic, but how's the hood doing?

[ssms5411]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

Do you still have the plastic air dam, down from the radiator still on the car?

[techsan23]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

your car is acting exactly like mine. I replaced a 3yr old water pump to see if it would help, but it did not. The old water pump looked fine coming off. Im planning on installing a universal aftermarket aluminium radiator for about $170. I figure it couldnt hurt since there is no telling how much dexcool sludge is built up in my factory radiator.

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

hmm sounds like this is a pretty big issue on our cars.

kristen are you just saying water pump cuz your selling one? lol jk

steddy- the hood is in it's final paint stage and i've decided to put it on in the spring when i do my cam install ;)

ssms, yes i do have the air dam on, its the first thing i checked.

techsan- no dexcool here, i'm all original baby.


i've had some more advice saying put the stock 195 thermo back in and also to try bleeding the cooling system by taking off one of the throttle body hoses.

whatchall think?

[cam98aro]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

those are possibilities, but i would say the pulley on the WP has something to do with it..

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

what about the water pump pulley?

[95astrovan]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

i dont think it's that you need to bleed the system, simply because the 3.4's cooling system doesnt require it. you could have some gunk or buildup in one or more of the cooling passages that's limiting the coolant flow.

[Blizzard242]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

Just a thought but.. when you say you increase your RPMs to 1k at a long light to increase the serpentine belt speed to effectively turn the water pump faster.. Wouldn't the increased rpms contribute to the heat if the pump wasn't turning fast enough? I just think you should put the factory pulley back on there since the benefits from an underdrive pulley don't really seem worth it imho.

I just don't think your water pump is turning fast enough in relation to the heat your rpms are creating. That's just a guess but it could make sense to me.

Or it could be as simple as your pump going bad or a clogged passage.

Eliminate the possible but more probable causes then if your stumped, hey you know where to come.

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

i dont think it's that you need to bleed the system, simply because the 3.4's cooling system doesnt require it. you could have some gunk or buildup in one or more of the cooling passages that's limiting the coolant flow.

had a full flush done.

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

Just a thought but.. when you say you increase your RPMs to 1k at a long light to increase the serpentine belt speed to effectively turn the water pump faster.. Wouldn't the increased rpms contribute to the heat if the pump wasn't turning fast enough? I just think you should put the factory pulley back on there since the benefits from an underdrive pulley don't really seem worth it imho.

I just don't think your water pump is turning fast enough in relation to the heat your rpms are creating. That's just a guess but it could make sense to me.

Or it could be as simple as your pump going bad or a clogged passage.

Eliminate the possible but more probable causes then if your stumped, hey you know where to come.

this is a good point.


it would be easy enough to put the stock pullies back on during my rebuild, i may just go that route, as well as a new water pump of course. :)

[Blizzard242]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

this is a good point.


it would be easy enough to put the stock pullies back on during my rebuild, i may just go that route, as well as a new water pump of course. :)

That sounds like an excellent plan.

[landj]

Re: Car still heats up badly.

220? is that in the red? If not in the red, that's completely normal. Everything is functioning completely correctly and NOTHING IS WRONG. Here's the step by step diagnosis to see if anything is actually wrong:

1) When stopped, does the temperature go up to about 220 before the fans turn on?
2) Do the fans eventually turn on when the vehicle is stopped?
3) Do the fans keep the temperature from increasing much above 220?
4) When idling, if you turn the manual fan switch on does the temperature gauge drop back down?
5) Does the temperature go lower when at driving speed (corresponding to the temperature of the thermostat)?
6) Does the temperature reach the red mark when stopped and idling?


IF #1-#5 are answered in the affirmative (YES) and #6 is answered in the negative (NO) then your vehicle is operating IN A COMPLETELY NORMAL MANNER. NOTHING IS WRONG. EVERYTHING IS OKAY and nothing that you merely replace will "FIX" it because NOTHING is broken.

IF you want the temperature to stop fluctuating you MUST:
Replace the thermostat with the FACTORY 195 thermostat (muy facil) OR,
reprogram the computer to turn the fans on at an earlier temperature (muy dificil) OR,
install an aftermarket fan thermostat (Such as made by Hayden, the guys that make all sorts of aftermarket cooling gizmos).