Hello, newbie here.

Went with my son to look at a 95 camaro, 3.4. I thought it was running a little hot at idle and went to see if the fan was running. It wasn't. I turned on the AC to see if that would kick it on, but the AC clutch didn't kick in. And the fan did not turn on. Shouldn't the fan turn on anyway? Eventually the fan did come on.

 

The 3.4s run hot. Very hot.

IIRC the fan trigger switch is at the front of the left cylinder head and turns on the fan when coolant temp reaches 235F. Yes, 235F. Crazy. I hate seeing the gauge on my 94 with a recently rebuilt engine go to 3/4 of max before the fan turns on and the temp drops.

Also, when the a/c system is completely discharged (or even low on refrigerant) the engine cooling fan will *not* turn on when an a/c mode is selected. My 94 has a refrigerant leak and once the "Freon" level dropped enough the compressor stopped running and the fan stopped running.

I preferred running the a/c last year whether i needed it or not. When it is working the engine coolant temp stays at about mid-scale and is very steady.

 

Thanks for the reply.
Well turns out it was low on coolant. We couldn't pull the cap the first time we looked at it because it was hot. ran at about 190 on the way home. never saw a coolant dipstick before, but I'm sure they are not supposed to be covered in gunk. I'm hoping it's stop leak (previous owner had a radiator leak) and not oil. Didn't see any bubbles coming up through the coolant while we had the cap off and engine running, so I hope the head gaskets are cool.

Had to limp home like a pilot in a beat up B-52 out of Berlin because the brakes were grinding so bad. Pads were worn down and one pad had lining missing. Not sure if they just wore down so bad or if the one caliper is bad.

Amazing how my son wants to come play in the driveway now that he owns the car, lol.

 

Yeah, funny how that works <grin>.

As for the gunk, I think these cars had the dreaded Dexcool as the factory fill. It holds up okay if the cooling system is airtight but if air gets in there, oh boy. You'll find gunk, sludge, and deposits of stuff that look like someone poured sand into the radiator.

Be very, very careful... A couple of years ago I bought my 94 for $800 knowing that it would need an engine. Right headgasket was blown and cylinder #5 was dead. It did run but smoked like a cropduster.

Rebuilt engine quality is spotty (by professional rebuilders, even Jasper) and you do *NOT* want to pull a bad rebuilt engine even if the warranty gives you a new one. Book time for R&R is, I think, 15 hours and you're dropping the whole engine/trans/crossmember/front suspension/steering.

After looking at rebuilt engine prices I went with a used 3.4 that supposedly had 67k and discovered that is was junk even before installing it.

About $3500 later my original engine was bored with new pistons, bearings, cam, lifters, etc. and rebuilt heads.

I've been driving it for over a year and it runs great but I'll have to put a *LOT* of miles on the car to justify that rebuild outlay.