a guy i work with has a 97 SS lt1 6spd the car only has in the range of 16-17k on it. :ugh2: now here is the problem. it runs for about 20 minutes and then it over heats. he had the t-stat replaced and full coolant flush. now it is still doing it. i saw it on a flatbed last saturday and i was just lookin to give him some help. i have an idea what i think it is but just wanted to hear what others may think before i put up my useless effort at saying what it is.
thanks homies.
fans working?air bubble?
fans are working it comes on and off when it needs too. mainly just on because it isnt cooling it enough to shut off the fans.
i thought air bubble at first it has been bled like 3 times now and it was done at a pretty decent shop that deals with alot of decent cars so i dont believe it has an air bubble but how can you actually tell 100%
seeing that is the low miles, could the rad be plugged from sitting. is the vehicle actually overheating or is your friend just relying on the gauge on the dash. Have the coolant temp sensors been checked?
Also there will be a code in the PCM for the overheating issue, but the actuall code i cant remember.
Overheating while sitting or driving?
i didnt think about the rad being plugged up. i wonder if this could be it. how can you check this on a lt1 camaro. i know that on alot of them you can open up the cap and look in but you cant see shit on these cars
both.
sounds like a restriction to me too. I dont really know how to check the flow of the radiator, but I would pull out the rad and sent it to a reputable radiator shop. They will check it out for you and tell you if there are any repairs needed.
EDIT: You can try feeling the temp difference between the upper and lower rad hoses. The temp should be close to the same with the outlet being a little cooler than the inlet. If there is a big difference between the upper and lower or if the lower hose is still cold after the thermostat has opened then the rad is having flow issues.
do you have heat in the car when it is overheating? that could tell you if coolant is flowing to the heater core. If not coolant may be blocked somewhere. If you do, then I would suspect a sensor or something.
he said the heat is pretty much normal.
my first instinct was that the water pump might be f’d up. basically the same idea based on the rad being plugged up. just from sitting it caused the fins to get f’d up but i guess the rad would make more sense.
Well…those cars came with that stupid dex-cool pink shit in them. If the car sits for a long period of time, that stuff jells up. I know my 96 had that problem. But it wasn’t too bad yet, and just running it and flushing it out a little seemed to help. If yours sat for a good while, it may be all gummed up inside. I guess I would take the radiator to a shop and let them take a look at it…