When I rebuilt the 3.4 in my 94 I was really anxious to fill the cooling system and starter her up. I did so with the radiator cap off and waited patiently for coolant to circulate. Nope.
All of a sudden coolant started to spew out the cap like Old Faithful! I tried a couple of things like keeping the revs up a bit and turning up the heater to max. Nope. I started to worry about damaging my newly rebuilt engine so I hotwired the cooling fan relay terminals in the underhood fuse box. With the fan running constantly I was able to fill and bleed the system.

The problem is that the PCM won't turn on the damn fan until coolant temp reaches something like 225F. With that situation the coolant in the block will always boil and spew before the fan starts.

I installed a new 180 tstat in my car last fall because I didn't like the way it behaved with the 195 part. So long as you keep moving the temp is fine but in stop and go traffic that temp needle swings wildly. With the A/C on, however, the fan always runs so the temp is very steady.

One thing I hate about this car is how long it takes to get heat in the winter. In my other car, an old Mercedes, the heater starts working literally two blocks from my house. With this Camaro I'm several miles from home with a death grip on the steering wheel and chattering teeth before the needle moves off cold and I have heat. How about you?

 

i just put my fan to a switch so its always on. and i just like my camaro to stay cool since i know they have cooling issues so the 195 had to go and the 180 went in. once i redid my whole cooling system in my old camaro, the car was fine just sitting around, didnt even need the air dam underneath. my old tiburon used to blow heat near instantly as well. the camaro takes a little longer, as in not until it reaches operating temperature. basically, im learning when you get the 3.4l camaros, just rebuild the cooling system, or plan to, and it will be perfectly fine.

 

I deleted much of that post to illustrate the 2 salient points

now where is that sarcastic rolling eyes smiley?

seriously, do you realize that you caused your own heating problem?

 

so you don't need the air dam?

please do yourself a favor and get one.

 

Im going to say you need a water pump. You didnt list it as being replaced. You did say sitting in city driving it heats up. My guess from the muddy color of your coolant (this means rust) that the impeller fins on the pump are very possibly worn away. When moving, theres enough left of them to keep the water moving. When slowing the rpms down, the fins are too short to move enough water which could be why youre overheating.

 

ok, you must not be very popular on this forum. you dont seem to know very much, you just like to be a critic. also, you dont read well do you?! my OLD camaro didnt need the air dam. and i DIDNT need to get one because it didnt need it AT ALL. I plan on doing all the same stuff, and did plan on keeping the air dam just to push more air in, but now i might take it off just to spite your smart attitude.

sum up - i know what im doing and I know how to analyze problems. i do ask for help when certain problems that end up mind boggling me like this happens.

also, if you arent actually going to put in some educational input and just criticize me as well as someone that was just being polite and having a conversation, then dont bother commenting, delete your profile, and get off this excellent forum. We dont need people like you making this forum just as bad as all the other ones.

 

that is actually a really good idea. my only question is I am noticing the coolant slowly but surely disappearing. Now I havent gotten a chance to check it out yet for any leaking, I just cleaned out the engine bay and will check it tomorrow. But unless the gasket is slowly leaking which Ill look at tomorrow, Im not sure where its all going.

 

Well, I would look at the underside of the waterpump at the weep hole. When the shaft seal starts to go, the weep hole will start leaking. Also, if you have coolant disappearing, it could be because the water is evaporating to the atmosphere when boiling out into the overflow bottle.

If you have no water in the oil, and theres no exhaust smoke (white), and you cant see any obvious leaks, the the next problem to look at would b head gaskets or intake gaskets.... other than that, Im not sure what else I can offer....

Good Luck to you!!

 

thank you. i was thinking maybe intake gaskets. if it was the head gasket, i should see a lot of white smoke. also, this camaro doesnt have an overflow oddly enough. the return line feeds straight into the radiator on this model. Ill check everything out tomorrow and let you know what happens. thanks

 

Just to clear up a few facts for anyone following along.

It is normal operation for a car to run until the fan kicks on (225 degs?) then cool down till the fan kicks off then the cycle starts all over. You really want to monitor this with scan tool as your factory temp gage in your dash is complete crap.

Your 180 Thermo will slow down how fast your cars heater blows warm.

The brown in your radiator is not rust. It is residue for the original orange Dex cool crap the factory put in the car. The brown “mud” setting in the bottom of your radiator can cause up to 50% of your radiator to “not work”. Even on cars that have had all the proper service and their coolant changed every 3 year can have a buildup of this mud. The mud can also gets in your heater core and cause you heater to be less effective. In worst cases even radiator shops cannot flush out the “mud” and radiators/hearter cores are scraped.

Any coolant leak can also allow air into the system. Air pockets can cause all kinds of coolant issues.

Step one: pressure test your system, find and fix leak,
Step two: Flush your system
Step Three: borrow a scan tool and verify your fans and cooling system is working as it should.
Step four: Ignore factory gage, did I mention they are crap? They are barely better then a dummy light.

FYI: Personal attaches will not be tolerated.