Cooling issues.. PLEASE HELP!!

[Sic96]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible... I cracked my upper radiator shroud the other day, so I removed it and mounted the rad. with some aluminum brackets i made, there for it is fully exposed now. one of my 3/4" rubber coolant lines were too close to a pulley which eventually cut it and sprayed fluid everywhere, so I replaced the line... that's all I've done. Now this could be coincidental, but my car is experiencing really hot temps. right now. Within 5 minutes, it's spiking past the red! But it never actually overheats?!? I drove it 30 miles like this and it never overheated. I bled the system with the bleeder screws, topped off the fluid, and everything. Still spikes within minutes. Sometimes it will drop temp. in a couple seconds, then shoot back up in a couple more seconds. It's very erratic. Could that upper radiator plastic piece be a part of this?Could it be a sticky Tstat? I aslo removed all my A/C componets including the condensor and the plastic panel mounted in front of it and mounted a delete pulley. Please give me some ideas, this is driving me crazy!! This car never ran past 185f on the hottest days. Now 55f at night and it's sizzling. WTF?!?

[SoulTerror]

Maybe the sensor that tells the temp? Can you hear it boiling when it's running that hot?

[MP81]

Is the fan coming on?

[farmington]

since you took off the AC are you sure that the belt is spinning the water pump the correct direction?

[98blackbeauty]

those shrouds direct air to flow through the radiator. They are there for a reason even without A/C
also a word of warning if you continue to run your engine that hot your going to blow head gasket, and warp your heads.

[1BADAIR]

there needs to be a panel on the top. brackets probably wont work. f-bodys use a funnel like method to increase air velocity through the rad. without the top the air goes out the top instead of through. the eradic temps is most likely air in the system. I wont fill a cooling system with out using an EVAC

[ICEPICK]

fan, air bubbles, if its a 4th gen there is no belt for the water pump, thermastat, things like that, also did you have the heater on while bleeding the air out, and fill it slow, i just did all this crap with my 80 trans am and filling to fast will catch massive air bubbles

[Sic96]

Yes the fans are coming on.. These cars don't have pulleys on the water pump, no i didn't have the heater on while filling it, is that required?? There is no boiling that i can hear. For some reason the car has always shown the low coolant light, even when it's topped off full. to bleed it, dont you just let it get hot and then loosen the two screws until it starts spitting out coolant, then obviously tighten them back up. If not, then whats the process, i know this probably has something to do with it because i had to replace that hose, so air surely made it into the system.

[my95z28]

When you loosen that bleeder valve you want to have a steady stream of coolant coming out. Rather waste a little coolant and have it properly bled than have air in there

[Sic96]

Figured it out.. Damn air in the cooling system. Bled the whole thing earlier and filled it with one of those handy dandy radiator funnels, opened the bleeder screw on the Tstat housing, topped it all off and it ran great! Took it up to 120mph a few times and ran the hell out of it then parked it and let it idle and still never went over 180f. It's good to have her back

[00firebird]

how'd you get all the air out? I fear i will face a similar problem, as i completely emptied out the heater core, block, and radiator.

[Sic96]

how'd you get all the air out? I fear i will face a similar problem, as i completely emptied out the heater core, block, and radiator.

First, get you a radiator funnel from an autoparts store that mounts up to the radiator cap opening and mount it to the radiator. Bleed out all the fluid with the with the bleeder bolt on the radiator itself. Once bled, turn you're heater to hot with the fan off without the key on ( it opens up your heater core so that everything is filled) and then completely fill the system until you have fluid sitting in the funnel. Then loosen the bleeder screw on the tstat housing until a steady stream is coming out, tighten the screw back down. Again, fill the radiator back up until you have fluid sitting in the funnel. Start the car and run it at about 2500 rpm until it gets hot( i just put something in the throttle linkage on the motor to hold it there instead of using the gas pedal). continue to fill the radiator until it no longer sucks the fluid down and begins to basically burp fluid up and down. Once this happens, plug your funnel with the supplied plug from the kit and remove it with the fitting as well, then install your normal radiator cap. Now you can release the throttle and shut the car off. If you release the throttle or shut the car off before you put the radiator cap back on.. you will seriously regret it. You will have an explosion of coolant everywhere!! This is exactly how i did it and I just took my car out again today in our 95f heat with insane humidity and it never seen 200f. If i missed anything, feel free to add it, but follow these instructions exactly and you should be all set

[1BADAIR]

i use this. takes like 3 minutes to fill and bleed the system. most auto makers require a evac fill these days
http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item....re&dir=catalog

[Sic96]

i use this. takes like 3 minutes to fill and bleed the system. most auto makers require a evac fill these days
http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item....re&dir=catalog

For sure an EVAC system is definitely the way to go, but if you're on a budget, get the funnel and do it that way. If you have some extra loot, buy the evac and be done.