Today i was driving and watching my temp gauge as usual, because it rises while idling in traffic and goes down to normal (1/4 way on gauge or ~180). But today it got hotter than normal while i was at a light( a hair over 3/4 on gauge). The low coolant light also came on, but hasnt come back on again, after I cut the car off. The car has a new water pump, thermostat and heater core . The cooling system has been bleed over and over again. The last time being when i replaced the heater core. After that it never got over 180 or so degrees for a couple of months. I checked the fluid in the radiator and noticed it being rust colored. My first thought was a head gasket, but it didn't smell like exhaust and the oil had no signs of contamination.

 

My car does that too.. 180 when driving then when idling it goes up. Sometimes to 3/4 also.. I hope someone has an answer!

 

yeah, the chevy dealer looked at it before and said it was the waterpump, but I doubt it or the problem would have been solved when they replaced it. I didnt have heat and they said it wasn't the heater core and i changed it now I have heat, but still overheating. The service was guaranteed for a year so im going to take it back. I would still like some help figuring it out since the dealer isnt any good at that.

 

is coolant boiling over? It doesn't sound like you're overheating.

While driving does your temp stay pretty consistent matching your thermostat?

If so, then your system is working including the waterpump.

While in traffic, the temp will rise until the fan engages. You can do 2 things

1- turn on the A/C as the cooling fans will then kick on

2- have it tuned to engage the fans earlier

my fans on the LT1 kick on at around 200 degrees and then off at around 190. I run a 180 thermostat

I have my stang programmed the same.

 

like tig says make sure fans are working. mine did what you are saying and i blead the system and it cleared up. when the low coolant light came on were you low on coolant? it almost sounds like someone mixed the orange and green antifreeze and plugged the heater core and the radiator. have you flushed the radiator to see if its gunking up? other thing is the steam pipe at the back of the heads may be plugged.

 

Thanks. I have been using the orange antifreeze but when they changed the water pump they told us that there was green in it. The previous owner put green in it i guess. I had it flushed twice since then though. The temp also does stay consistent with the thermostat while driving though. Tomorrow im gonna heave it flushed again, but i dont think the heater core is plugged because the heat works fine. It was plugged before I put the new one in though and I didnt have heat before the new heater core was installed.

 

i would take the steam pipe off the back of the heads and make sure its not plugged. it may be that the gunk has hardened to where it wont come out. hopefully the flush will do it.

 

why??

by your own admission it's not overheating when air is coming in via the air dam

have you turned on the A/C so the fans engage and verify that the fans do in fact work and that the temp drops.

These cars, IMHO, run way hot when left to their stock settings. That is why my tune has the fans kick on at around 200

I'm putting in a different thermal fan switch in my 3rd gen as well for the same reason. In stock form, those fans don't kick on until 228 degrees which is just way too hot for my liking.

So, you may just be experiencing normal operation for stock settings. I don't know what exactly they are but when I saw my temp gauge heading upward I said .............hhhhheeeecccckkkkkk nnoooooooo and had Solomon change it in my tune.

 

The coolant is contaminated I'm pretty sure regardless. It is off colored and it's not costing me anything. Eventually if the problem continues I will have it changed too. The fans do come on when I turn the a/c on too.

 

I flushed it today and bleed all the air out of of the cooling system and the car is fine now. Hopefully it stays that way... Thanks for the help guys.