Hey guys. I'm having some overheating problems on my 97 Z28. I've changed everything except for the radiator and the water pump. My question is can you tell when you take the water pump off the car if it is bad? Can you take that front cover off and see the blades, or tell if anything is bad? I don't mind changing it, but it would be nice if when I take it off I can tell if it's bad or not. Anyone ever checked one that they took off?

 

Can you see any circulation in the radiator when the thermostat opens? If so, the water pump should be working. What about the radiator? Is the fins clean on it? Possible that it could be clogged (internally and/or externally) not allowing enough coolant circulation inside or air flow through the fins to keep it cool.

 

I can see circulation in the radiator, and honestly it looks good to me. And the radiator is clean, and the inside looks very good as well. The problem is, the temp is fine until I'm sitting somewhere with the car running, like today at a drive-thru. I was sitting for about 5 minutes, and the temp gauge needle climbed all the way to the front of the red marks on the gauge. Once I started moving, it went back down to normal. The one thing I have noticed is that my fans don't come on until right about then. I know the fans are supposed to come on at around 238 I think, but until the last 3 weeks my car never got above the middle mark on the gauge. And it seems that when the fans do come on (I've let it sit running in my yard for quite a while), they run on low speed, so low you can't even hear them with the engine running, I had to put my hand in front of them to see if they're on. On my V6 Firebird, the fans blow VERY hard, there's no doubt they're blowing. Should my Camaro fans be running on high too? Even when the temp gauge needle is right at the red marks, the fans only blow on what I think is low speed. I did put a new coolant temp sensor in, as well as new relays for the fans. This is just stumping me, I feel like I'm just grasping.

 

On our 96, the fans run wide open when they come on. You might have some bad fan motors. Check to see what type voltage you are getting at the fan connectors.

 

Water pumps don't go out and stop pumping, unless you have an unlikely incident of a shaft breaking or the impeller coming loose. Generally, when a pump goes bad, it leaks externally. It sounds like the fans are your problem. What happens if you turn on your A/C, do the fans kick into high gear then? Turning on A/C overrides your temp sensor.

 

No, when I turn the a/c on, the fans still run on low. At least I assume it's low, it's nowhere near as strong as the ones on my Firebird. I have nothing to compare it to on the Camaro, but even holding my hand in front of the fan, it feels pretty weak.

 

u totally need a belt driven fan! lol there are so many fewer things to go wrong on my 78, i love that thing, and when my pump was leaking, it took me 20min to change it and get it back on the road <3

 

you probably have 1 fan gone. Shimmy under there and check to see if both fans have their electrical connectors plugged into them. Then (do this with the car off) see if you can spin the fans with your finger or if one or both may have ceased and are hard to turn. it may be nothing more than age and road grime killed the fans.

is it a sixer or a v8? I don't know if the sixers use the same fan setup as an 8

fyi

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CHEVR...item3a567455c9

 

It's a V8, and both fans do work, they just run on low.

 

as far as i know there is no low speed for the fans. there are two fans and they do come on at different times. high would be two fans working and low would be one fan. check the voltage getting to the fans and see if the relay could be sending the wrong volts to it. other than that i would say it in the wireing or the fans are shot. it would be unusual for both fans to go at the same time. the relays are the same except the abs one so u coule change with one u know is working and see if the relay is the problem.