tscustoms

i have a 96 3.8L and its always ran pretty cool round 170 or so. i put a body kit vizage body kit on yesterday and ever since then its been going up to the halfway mark on the temp gauge. and it dont take about 10 mins for it to do that. any suggestions? thanks guys!

archemedes

start simple, flush the cooling system and replace the tstat. 170 is a bit cold for optimum efficiency (meaning power and fuel economy) it should run near 190. What probably happened is you blocked off where you were getting cold air, but it shouldn't make that big a difference (hence I say do the flush)

A-RoN'sZ

My 98 Z runs about 170-175 until stopped then about 185 (max 190)...problem? ok? I always thought it was ok, but after reading this...IDK.

tscustoms

i got my system flushed about a year ago. it seems like to me im not geting enough air into the car. what if i wire my fans up so i can flip em on whenever... you think that'll help out any?

archemedes

it may, but then it masks whatever the problem is, which could get worse, then you find it when you are in the middle of nowhere with no one but the extras from Deliverance around saying "boy you sure have a pretty mouth"

tscustoms

haha... that would pretty much put a damper on my day if something like that would happen

A-RoN'sZ

Trust me if something can go wrong, it will and at the most inopportune time lol.

96camaro

The kit probably just blocked off the air dam under the car so the air isn't getting shoved up into the rad.

paarman97maro

lmao

tscustoms

i just got home from town tonite and i noticed that my top radiator hose was hot and hard and the lower was fine. then i loosened up the screw that goes on the upper radiator hose hook up where the thermostat goes and coolent just sprayed out of there. what does that mean?

Bernotas05

LMAO arch

FORCE_FED_Z

Thats the bleeder for your coolant- that is supposed to happen.

I would swap out the thermostat just to be sure. I can almost guarantee that your problem is the body kit like others have said. Our cars draw air up from the bottom across the radiator. With the body kit in place it won't let the air-dam grab the air like its supposed to.

To fix it go to your local hardware store and get a piece of aluminum or steel that is about 3' long, 3" wide and about .125" thick. Drill the appropriate holes to mount it to where the air dam used to go- then mount the airdam to the aluminum. This will drop it down enough to grab enough air that it should effectively cool your motor down like it was before.

If you don't feel like doing all that, there are companies out there that sell an extended air dam for cars with GFX.

tscustoms

thanks for the help man! but with the car not geting enough air, would that make the top radiator hose get so hot and the bottom on not that hot?

and i took out the thermostat after i got home and i went riding arouund for a lil bit without it and it still done the same thing... so i know its not the thermostat...

and i nade a air dam out of diamond plate and its like a half inch shorter than the stock one... so that may be my problem. ill just make me an extension for it and see how it goes. but i still dont see why the upper hose would get so hot

archemedes

removing the tstat completely can make a car overheat (I do not know why but I have seen hundreds of them do it for some reason) the upper hose is the return from the engine, lower is suction. Was the cooling system bled when the coolant was changed?

tscustoms

thats weird that removing the stat will make it over heat. yea, i bled the system after i chaged it. it may be my radiator as well. i had it cleaned out not to long ago...