Anyone tried to ventilate the engine compartment? We've had a long string of 100+ days down here. Sit in traffic with that temp and the compartment just gets way too hot.
I'm thinking of adding a fan, finding a way to use the faux hood scoops, anything...
Any ideas?

 

Functional air extractor/cowl induction hood perhaps?

93-2002 Camaro

 

Is everything is good working order? Have you flushed your coolant system? We don’t get a bunch days straight over a 100 but that should not matter. In 100 deg weather my temps will hit 215 when stuck in traffic because I think that is when the fan kicks on. On the highway at 75 MPH it reads 180-190 deg. Yea I have a 180 Thermostat.
I did have a heck of time getting all that brown gunk out of the radiator and heater core when I put my motor in. Luck for me I have the radiator out. I could have flushed for a week and still had not gotten it all. Even with the radiator upside down and back flushing it took an hour.

 

^ How many miles is the REAL recommended flush interval for our Camaros (seems to be some big debate about GM's recommended interval) if running Dex-Cool?

Also, doesn't your 180 t-stat hurt your gas mileage a bit? Supposedly the factory temp is the most efficient for fuel economy, but potentially sacrificing some power potential...

 

Its every 2 years. Im not sure what the mileage is tho. I think it's around 60k?

 

Yes hotter is better with the stock tune, The cooler the motor the more energy is sucks out of the fuel as it expands. I was planning on getting a tune for the 180 degree stat. By advancing the timing you can make up the cooler temps and high grade fuel you get a little more power and mileage out of it. Once I got my V8 project all non maintenance work stopped on the V6. The Stat was recommended by PCMs for less. If I remember right they also support a 165 deg but it gets too cold around here for that.

No standard flushing system I have ever used would get the Dex cool mud out of my system. My car had 130K on it but miles do not hurt coolant, time does. The lady I got my car from was the original owner and she said she did everything the Chevy dealer recommend maintenance wise. The coolant looked clean I may have missed all the mud but I read on another forum that you should always back flush because of the the Dex cool coolant. Sure enough 2-3 handfulls of brown mud look crap. I would guess about 20% if the rad was not being used.

 

Wow, that reminds me -- time to flush my coolant this summer!

So when you back flush, you mean through the lower radiator hose, correct?

I'm not sure if I want to do all that (tune, stat & higher gas grade) with my V6 -- I assume you're doing a mail-order tune, not tweaking it yourself then? Do you know what gains to expect from these tweaks you mention? I am wondering how worthwhile that will be in the end. It would sure be interesting to see the dyno reports and mpg before & after.

Unfortunately most folks aren't that meticulous with modification records, and don't want the dyno costs either... But we would sure have better information about what really works.

 

The original plan was to use a pocket Dyno (AKA a Ipod) From what I read they are not super accurate but they repeat pretty well. Meaning is I measure 230 HP chance are I am going to read 225-235 as long as I don’t spin wheels or something stupid. After tune I was going to rerun the tests. While I could not assume a 230 measurement is accurate I could kind of assume the different would be pretty close. But like I said I stopped putting money in the V6 once I decided I will be giving it to my daughter.
For me tracking mileage is easy. I drive 31 miles one way to work every day and I fill up once a week. If I get under 10 gallons I am doing good. Most weekends I drive my truck. I have noticed that the colder the day the worst my mileage. During the coldest part of winter I can drop down to 27 MPG average over a week. On the hottest days I can drop down to 28 but that is just the AC working.

 

Thanks Liberty1776.
Possible other hood...
Possible extra fan with thermostat and/or timer.
Thinking about opening up the fake hood scoops but unsure what to do with the water if it ever rains here again; don't want to dump rain on the top of the engine...

 

^ You can always add a manual fan switch too:
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