LONG Cooling Issues.....again/still

mlbuxbaum

Registered User
:mad: :confused:
Hey all, I have been having, sort of, ongoing cooling issues with my 91 SC. When I got the car back on the road last year, the temp gauge stayed below the "normal bracket" and all was fine. Heat worked and everything. About 2 months ago the gauge started randomly climbing to the middle of the gauge, then it would go back down to where it usually was. I checked the fluid level and it was alittle low, I could see the fins in the radiator, so I filled it back up and put fluid in the overflow. Problem continued.....I figured summer is coming and if its doing this when its cool out, summers gunna kill it. Well I changed the thermostat to a 190 degree, and it seemed fine for that day. It started doing it again the next day so I called around and found a 180 degree thermostat. Changed that out and drained the system completely and refilled it correctly, and alot of air came out. After I did that it was awesome for about a month. Now lately, after driving for about an hour the needle will go to the middle of the gauge and stay there and when ever it feels like it return to the bottom of the "normal bracket". This morning driving to work, the gauge did its middle of the road thing and would not go down, it actually went alittle higher than normal. I actually got some "smoke or steam" inside the car this morning, with that oh so sweet smell of antifreeze. I hate that smell. That got me concerned. I looked under the passenger dash when I got here and I don't see anything. I got no smoke/steam frim under the hood while sitting at red lights though. I'm confused. Howerver, I do know that my fan is coming on because I wired up 2 LED's to the fan wires to be sure it was turning on. I looked under the hood when I got to work and saw the thermo housing was, for lack of a better term, crusty, and leaking some. I'm going to go get another gasket today and change that. The only two things it could be( I think) is a clogged or bad radiator, or the water pump is going up. I really hope it is the radiator, because I have done a water pump on my other base model bird, and that was a big enough pain without having to deal with the IC tubes. Has anyone had similar issues? Any advice would really ease my mind.
 
If you plan to keep the car, I'd suggest buying one of these. If you ever have to change the WP, it makes life bearable. With 190,000 miles, my SC is on its 3rd WP.
WP #1 Original to 75,000
WP #2 from 75,000 to maybe 160,000-ish and
WP #3 from 160,000-ish to now.
None of them ever stopped pumping, but they started leaking and dumping coolant.

As for the gasket.. take your thermostat housing in with you, the listings at the parts stores are just plain wrong; you'd be better off using silicon sealant rather than one of those gaskets. But, what you can do is to have the store clerk match up what he has in his stock to the housing; You'll still need to do a bit of filing on it to get it just right, but it will work good. :cool:

At 190,000 miles of Texas summer fun, BTW, my radiator is kaput!.. My oldest kiddo reminded me of it with "Dad.. its that corn syrup smell again.." :eek: When the Dad-pride took over, I inspected it and found that the brass around the inlet is corroded to the point that it has worn through and leaks very slightly in about 3 places that I can see. So, its something to look at also. :cool:
 
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Damn.. forgot about that....

and I guess the heater core is even harder to change than the water pump? I was able to do it without removing the power steering pulley though. I remembered how I did it when I changed the HG's. Had to use a 15mm deep and insert the rachet from below. Changed the water pump out and the car is still running hotter than I would like. The gauge is in the middle but will fall then jump back up then fall again. I'm going to be changing the dash out this weekend so maybe I'll see if I can do the heater core then. :(
 
Temperature fluctuations are almost 100% caused by air pockets. Usually caused by leaking headgaskets.... Hope that heater core fixes the problem!
 
car was fine this morning...the gauge stayed down where it used to. But I'll try it for a few days and see what happens. The car never actually overheated just ran hotter than usual. I get worried when the needle is pointing straight up. :eek:
 
and it has also been my experience that once any of my cars has a cooling issue, thermostat, broke hose, low on fluid, etc,... they are never the same and I constantly find myself watching the gauge.
 
you could just loop the heater core ..undo coolant lines .. slip a piece of pipe in between cclamp and bypass the heater core ....or may get lucky with some stop leak ...or old school with pepper ....dave
 
mlbuxbaum said:
car was fine this morning...the gauge stayed down where it used to. But I'll try it for a few days and see what happens. The car never actually overheated just ran hotter than usual. I get worried when the needle is pointing straight up. :eek:
Have you cleaned the rust off of the temp sender post? My guage is all over the place whenever the contacts get dirty which seems to be a regular occurance. As for middle of the guage, thats normal in traffic. ;)
 
mlbuxbaum said:
and I guess the heater core is even harder to change than the water pump? I was able to do it without removing the power steering pulley though. I remembered how I did it when I changed the HG's. Had to use a 15mm deep and insert the rachet from below. Changed the water pump out and the car is still running hotter than I would like. The gauge is in the middle but will fall then jump back up then fall again. I'm going to be changing the dash out this weekend so maybe I'll see if I can do the heater core then. :(
If you plan to have the dash out, replacing the heater core is a good idea even if it you're not sure it needs it. Its $ well spent. Its such a job that you'll not want to do it again. I'd go as far as to say you should think about replacing the A/C evap core, but if you have a working A/C don't mess with it. ;)

OK, so in advance here's the hint of the day: The radio antenna cable runs through the bottom of the firewall into the antenna block. You have to pull the fender well splash guard back, pull the thick felt block out, and blindly grope up to disconnect two connectors and then push them back into the passenger comparment. ;)
 
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