hey guys i replaced my thermostat, and its still overheating like a bitch. could it be a clogged radiator? it seems it only overheats on longer trips id say above 20 miles. but then again it only overheats randomly. i replaced my thermostat and coolant, could it be anything else like a clogged radiator? its been sitting for 6 years like i said before. any help is appreciated.
May be the heater core
how do you figure?
Well really its just an educated(sort of) guess. I dont really know why it would be but i had a '92 taurus that acted up like that and someone had mentioned it could be the heater core so i just bypassed it. Never had that problem again. But as you said it could be a clogged radiator. An easy way to check is to pull the top and bottom main hoses ( they are like inch and a half or 2 inch) from the water inlets in the engine ( dont remove them from the radiator) take a waterhose and run water through the top radiator hose and let it come out the bottom - you will know if it is clogged and it will half ass flush it too.
Then again sometimes parts from the autostore come faulty, try another thermostat
oh thank you
also today i just opened up my radiator, it was very low, bu then again i just replaced the coolant and all that, could it have "burped" out the air and all that space needs to be filled up again?
Possibly. What I usually do when I replace my coolant is fill it, then let it run with the cap off and if it goes down I fill it while its running to help get rid of the air pockets. I'm sure theres a more proper way but this works for me.
well when i do that, it spits all the antifreeze out of the top of the radiator, well more like pours it back out, could there be a hell of a lot of air in there?
Yea same here seems to work fine
alright cool
took it for a test run, does something interesting, it seems to cool down when the rpms go up
rpm or speed?
rpm i believe, but when it sits and idles it gains a lot of heat, but when i start moving it cools off and when i turn the car off i hear it bubbling in the reservoir
check to see if any water is coming out of the wheeping hole in the waterpump. It could be a blown head gasket, or radiator as well. I would bypass the waterpump all together just to make sure its out of the equation. If you have a clutch fan, stick a bolt in it. If the clutch is screwed then the fan could not be working as well.
i certainly hope its not a headgasket lol
and like i said before, it only overheats on occasion, doesnt backfire that much if at all anymore either
Not trying to be an ass, but are you sure you put the thermostat in the right way - Brass cylinder goes towards the engine its an honest mistake, beleive me...
the spring is pointing towards the engine
Really? Huh mine doesnt do that. I wonder if the t-stat being open or closed has anything to do with that.
thats why im thinking its a clogged radiator
its very hard to get a radiator cleaned out. All those horizontal flat lines of copper are actually smashed hollow tubes running from one tank to the other.
I have had luck cycling out all the coolant, then do up a simple batch of water with a quart of bleach. just let it sit there for a few hours and cook the insides of the radiator.
with a meter, disconnect the coolant temp sensor found on your lower intake runner up front. there is another like device which only has one wire. The coolant emp sensor gives you the ability to measure the resistance so measure what it reads with a cold motor per my diy link above my signature. Take it for a drive and then measure the resistance.
Does water bubble out the coolant fill tank when you take these longer trips?
when you shut off the car, do you hear water bubbling?
Other than your guage, are there signs that it is actually overheating?
what is the reisstance of your coolant temp sensor cold and hot?per my diy link.
fan cluch- on a cold motor and with all your might, you should not be able to spin the fan more than 3/4 turn. There should be no play whatsoever when you try and wobble the fan on the clutch shaft.
yes i can hear the water bubbling when i turn off my car, and yeah it does bubble out of my coolant fill tank when im doing these longer drives.
I would guess head gasket... I'd throw in a waterpump pull the t-stat out altogether and bypass the heater core. That way you only have the radiatior and the head gasket to worry about. All the parts are cheap too.
oh joy, replacing that headgasket can be a bitch i heard, am i right? any1 can post a how to? ima just tear down the engine and rebuild it
If your gonna rebuild it, you may as well get a new radiator. The heads can be done in a day or two with only a couple hours a day. Sometimes it goes easy, sometimes it dosent. Just do it within a decent amount of time so you remember where everything goes. Overall, head gaskets are as easy, if not more so then a waterpump. You just have to take more stuff off to get to it.
thx so much, any other tips?
somethin also odd, it seems to have started overheating ever since i got an oil change, yet the oil is full according to the dipstick
its prolly unrelated I would guess. Just bypass your heater core, take the thermostat out, and get a new radiator. Then do your water pump. Other then that, all you have left is head gaskets or a warped head/bad seal.
i seriously feel retarded, i cant find the fuse box on this car
my 85 cougar always ran a little warm on the gauge and one day it got really hot on the interstate and I had to pull it home. I took the radiator in and had it flushed the thing was probly 10-20lbs lighter when I got it back and the guy told my that the t-bird and cougars need to be flushed every 80k to keep them flowing well. Ran cool ever since
ah thank you, so i guess buying a flush kit is well worth it?
It's been mentioned, but getting hot at low speed and cooling off while moving would make me think fan clutch as well. Did you check it like someone suggested?