Engine running much, much hotter than normal.

[Atreus21]

Hi fellas.

My 98 Camaro has, as of a few days ago, been running quite hot. Very nearly into the red. I've never run it long enough to see if it overheats. Usually, the engine will start to flirt with the 210 mark on the thermometer if I'm stuck in traffic, but this happened while I was doing 65 on the interstate.

What happened was I glanced at the temperature guage (which I watch like a hawk ever since I blew up my 4 banger mustang) and saw I was nearly into the red, so I pulled over and turned off the car. Instinctually, I poured some water from some water bottles I had into the reservoir, then sat and let it cool back down to below 210. After that I started her back up and resumed driving, and the temperature dropped pretty quickly. After about 5 minutes, however, it started creeping back up, until eventually it was again flirting with the red, so I pulled over again and eventually limped home by feeding water into it whenever it got too hot.

I thought certain I was leaking coolant. But I took it to the shop on Friday, and they said today they let it idle for hours and it never got much past 210, and also that they observed no coolant leakage.

As I was driving it back from the shop, sure enough, the temperature started to skyrocket again. So for some reason it only threatens to overheat when I'm not idling.

The car hasn't actually overheated, as I'm too scared to let it get to that point.

Anybody got any ideas?

[Bird_Of_Prey]

Re: Engine running much, much hotter than normal.

I'd start with the basics. check for any debris on the radiator, swap the t-stat (10 minute job, $8 part). Do you still have your air dam on? Coolant look good? No oil mixed in? Oil look good? No coolant mixed in?

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Engine running much, much hotter than normal.

are your coolant temp sensors functioning properly?

[Atreus21]

Re: Engine running much, much hotter than normal.

I'd start with the basics. check for any debris on the radiator, swap the t-stat (10 minute job, $8 part). Do you still have your air dam on? Coolant look good? No oil mixed in? Oil look good? No coolant mixed in?

Oil looks good, coolant looks good. What's an air dampener? How do I know if my coolant temp sensors are functioning properly?

I'll switch out the thermostat and see what happens.

THanks.

[Bird_Of_Prey]

Re: Engine running much, much hotter than normal.

The air dam is the piece of black plastic under your radiator that directs air up towards your radiator. It's about 4 feet wide and 5 inches tall.

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Engine running much, much hotter than normal.

The air dam is the piece of black plastic under your radiator that directs air up towards your radiator. It's about 4 feet wide and 5 inches tall.

hey you might be on to something there. I bet he doesn't even have one anymore. It would make sense with the overheating happening at those speeds.