Running hot

ShawnSC1

Registered User
The temp gauge goes just under the H while driving on the highway, and stays there in idle. I have the low speed fan on all the time and I replaced the rad, 180 t-stat, and still doing the same thing. Also it takes just under 5mins. to boil up from being cold.. The car backfires the odd time when I gun it in idle. Could a slight timing problem cause this to run hot on me. Please in need help, I am getting very upset with this SC.. Thanks
 
Sometimes the 180 T-Stat can have negative effect due to the coolant constantly cycling. This is a common problem, might help to do a thorough search of the board.
 
The 180 t-stat works fine because the top hose is solid and its blowing heat from the vents. Nope I am getting no codes.
 
Not the T-stat itself but the way it stays open if the coolant never reaches a temp below 180, thus it never closes and the coolant is in a constant cycle. If this is the case your fluid might not have enough time to cool off in the radiator. This is more than likely NOT the problem but just some FYI
 
90coug said:
Not the T-stat itself but the way it stays open if the coolant never reaches a temp below 180, thus it never closes and the coolant is in a constant cycle. If this is the case your fluid might not have enough time to cool off in the radiator. This is more than likely NOT the problem but just some FYI

Good point. Has anyone proved this happens?
Would my timing be the problem if it was off 5-10 deg?
 
we have the same problem. my car overheats, and then when you floor it, it backfires and bucks on you. if/when you find a solution for it, you should tell me.
 
ill tell you what

mines used to buck and overheat.

1. i put arctic silver 5 heatsink grease under the DIS
2. Used seafoam to clean out the injectors, and added new fuel filter
3. cut the #14 wire on the IRCM
4. new motorcraft PCV

my car would buck because the injectors were dirty and couldnt supply to engine when hot

my car also got hot becasue the fan came on way too late

the dis is for preventitive measure, its fairly new, and the white stuff is more or less rap compared to arctic silver.


but then again this was my sc
some people have to replace the cam sensor.
some people clean out the maf
some people have bad fuel pressure
some people need better wires and plugs
some people like to rant:D
 
The thermostats function is to make the car warm up quicker, it being open alot would NEVER (on its own) make the car hotter, never.

I see three root causes for why your car runs hot: It runs too lean/rich, your fan/water pump's fubar'd, or you've got an obstruction in your cooling system somewhere.

Be careful about your fan, if u cut #14 on the ircm and it gets above 228*F, the high-speed fan winding will kick on and actually make the fan run slower.

Try replaceing the coolant temp sensor to the left of the blower, and your rad cap. tried opening the vent plug while its cold? could be some air in thier. A koeo or koer test couldint hurt.
 
Last edited:
In our car, the thermostat closing is very critical to keeping our cars cooler. Mainly because the rad isn't big enough and the coolant needs to hang around in there to be givin the chance to cool down before it gets pushed back into the motor.

If the tstat is open all the time the coolant goes through and is still hot when its back in the block and things will get to the point that the temperature just keeps on climbing. Also, IF your intending to run a 180, it is highly recommended to get a chip burned that will lower the on temps for the fan as well as a few other variables so the car can run properly at the lower constant temp (alot of folks don't do this and several of those run into problems and wonder why) Take your chance on this.

I've run my car hard in +40 deg C temperatures with a stock rad and stock tstat and the temp gauge hung around the O in Norm... normally it sits just below N. I flush the coolant every year and back spray the rad and a/c condensor, add a bottle of water wetter, and take both temp sensors out and clean them up. I've also custom built my own air dam that goes underneath the front to help deflect the air up into the rad which helps huge time on the country roads/freeway. The one that comes with the car was gone and discontinued. Now supposedly an air damn from a pontiac grand am is suppose to fit, but I had some conveyor belt so I used that instead.

My low speed fan kicks on at around the M and the high speed kicks on about another letter width up.

The idea of running a switch to run the fan scares me, cause if you forget that once you could end up replacing H/G's cause of overheat, as some folks can attest to.

Frit
 
I had a problem with running hot awhile back. Turns out, the cause of my problem was some rad 'stop-leak' that some previous owner put in the cooling system. I drained, and flushed about 4 times. I also cleaned out the resivoir and the hose.

Tuns out, the 'stop-leak' was actually stopping a leak, so i had to pull the rad and fix it. After it was all done, i filled it up with pure water and added a container of Purple Ice. I've used Water Wetter, but i like the Purple Ice better, its probably just me.

Anyway, the stuff in my cooling system was nasty. After 3 flushes, it was still murky brown. Afterwards, the car ran cooler.

-Nick


heres some pics
100_0788.jpg

I thought anitfreeze was supposed to be green...
100_0790.jpg

mmm... chunky
 
Well I installed the 192 t-stat and it now runs at the M and when driving it goes to the R. Seems beter but every part in the motor seems hot. Is this normal for these cars. The washer fluild tank, master cylinder are also very warm, IC tubes are very warm to.
 
Yup..... these cars generate alot of heat under there, and cause everything is packed in, there's not a lot of air movement under the hood to take the ambient heat away quickly.

Do you have an air dam? It should be located under the bumper and just behind the openings up to the front of the a/c condensor so it deflects air up there.

Frit
 
fturner said:
Yup..... these cars generate alot of heat under there, and cause everything is packed in, there's not a lot of air movement under the hood to take the ambient heat away quickly.

Do you have an air dam? It should be located under the bumper and just behind the openings up to the front of the a/c condensor so it deflects air up there.

Frit

Does this air dam come stock, and if so it should still be there. I will check to be sure.


Well I am going to try and drive the sc for a bit the way it sits. Hope I don't blow a HG.
 
The car comes with the air dam. Most people probably have lost their's by now, but unfortunately its the typical thing where its discontinued. Some folks have replaced their's with one from a Pontiac Grand Am I think, but you'll need to search on that to confirm it.

Frit
 
Back
Top