Just a brief background.

We (my girlfriend and I) just got her old 96 Z28 from her mom's house. Her old car was totalled. Rather than buy a new car, she decided she wanted the old camaro and would put some money in it to make it a pretty good car.

So yesterday, we headed out at 4am in the morning on our trip from College Station, Tx to Wichita Falls, Tx (300 miles away). I wanted to get an early start in case we had issues. We drove up their in my prius and the plan was for me to follow her back in the camaro.

We made it before lunch time when it was relatively cool (haha 95deg is cool in Texas these days). I checked all the fluid levels (oil, trans, cooling). Everything looked good. Started her right up and let it idle. Sounded great. A passengers side exhaust leak at the manifold, but no biggie. Idled around for about 10minutes, and everything looked great. Had good voltage at the alternator. I took it out for a little test drive and everything checked out.

So we set out to head home. Filled it up with gas and set out. She ran great. I was going down the highway and 65mph felt like I was hauling some a$$. I called my gf and we were doing 80! Anyways, about 20miles into the trip, the low coolant light came on. I was like great, here we go....The temp was reading about 190-195. I am guessing that I can assume that each mark is 25deg and it was a little past the first mark. It sat there the whole time. We had a stop in Ft Worth to visit some family. So as we were getting into town, the ambient temps had risen from when we started. coupled with the fact that we were now in traffic and getting off the highway. I had to go through neighborhoods in stop and go traffic, so I knew that this would be the test. I had noticed when we were pulling into town, that the temps were starting to rise. then when we were sitting at the light, the temp got up to 210F. I never let it go higher than that. I turned the A/C off and the heater on. The temps then dropped about 10F. This really sucked as both window motors were shot, it was 100F outside, and I was nice and sweaty from a 2 hour ride in the car with the A/C only blowing out the floor and the defront (I actually fixed that when we got there. I discovered the 2-way check valve was cracked. Easy $5 fix for some nice A/C).

Well, she made it to where we were going. I popped the hood up to let it cool while we visited with everyone. After a few hours, I check the overflow and it seemed to read correctly. It wasn't full, so I filled it with some water. Before we left on our fiinal leg, the coolant level in the radiator was at the top. I checked the fans and they were both working. It was full in the overflow. About 5 minutes into the drive, the low coolant light came on again. Yet, the temps held fine at 19X the whole way home.

This morning, I checked the radiator. Full. The overflow was pretty much full. Yet the low coolant light is still on.

My questions,

1) Is 210F overheating on this car? How reliable is the guage? I think the first mod for this car is a real temp guage.

2) What could be the problem with the coolant level?


Sorry for such a long post. I like to give as much detail as I can when describing problems at it seems like it make it much easier to diagnose.

Facts about the car...

1) I don't know much. Her father passed away a few years back. I remember he once said that he bought it from some guy that did a bunch of mods to it.

2) Has Richmond gears. Not sure the ratio (automatic)
3) Has flowmaster that goes to single outlet.
4) Underhood looks pretty clean. Almost like someone has done some internal work, but I don't know. Seems like they could have done something as it is pretty strong from what I remember the old LT1's to be.

Thanks for all the help and cheers!

 

No problem, 210 is "normal". And that temp ain't bad, considering you were stuck in hot weather traffic. The low coolant light could be from a bad sensor in the reservoir tank, or a broken or disconnected wire to it. BTW, turning on the A/C switches on the secondary radiator fan, so I think you would have been better off with the A/C on instead of the heat.

 

Thanks. It did help though by turning the heat on. It's sad that I know that since I have blown more than 1 engine up from overheating. I guess that's why I'm so **** about temps.

so does the secondary fan not kick on from temp too?