5.7LImport

FIrst, I'll start with my questions:

Question #1) I've got an overheating problem now and have an idea of how to solve it, but some expert insight would be awesome. Here's what I plan on doing:
-- Replace my current radiator hoses (upper & lower, which both collapse when the car is shut off) with coolflex hoses.
-- Replace my stock thermostat with a Hypertech 160' Powerstat (I live in Houston... no cold temps to mess up the lower temp thermostat)
-- I have my radiator fan always on the highest setting... so fan speeds aren't an issue.
-- I also have an exhaust leak in my driver-side header... would this contribute to the overheating at all? I plan on fixing it regardless.

So... if I install these new components, flush and refill my coolant properly, should my overheating problem be cured?

Question #2) I have the ls1 diagnostics port and light installed under my dash. The bright yellow light is ALWAYS on when I have the car running. I'm assuming it's throwing codes. What do I use to get these codes and solve the problems? I'm assuming there is a programmer or simple diagnostic tool that I can plug in that will let me read the codes... if so, what, where & how much!

Onto my inspection troubles (I woulda passed just fine... if my car woulda made it out of the shop!

So, Sunday I decided to take my Z to a local shop early to have it inspected so I could get a sticker and legally drive the beast... this turned out very badly.

- I brought it in and they started doing the outer non-engine, inspection... they told me the car wouldnt pass without turn-signal indicators or my missing wipers. No biggie, I talked with the inspector a bit and she agreed to let it slide since the wipers are at home and the indicators would be a lot of extra work. Cool.. everything else passed, onto the emissions test...

- They get my car onto their little emissions dyno and begin running it. I'm talking on the phone standing right outside the shop and after about 2 minutes of it running at low rpms, all of a sudden.. SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I look over and GOBS of white smoke are pouring out of my precious Z. I nearly died right there on the spot.

- Turns out the lower radiator hose popped of and spewed coolant all over everything. Grrr... so they wipe it up, reinstall the hose, clamp it down better and start putting more coolant in. As soon as they put the coolant in, for some reason they assumed it would be completely cool again... WRONG! It overheated dingbats!

- So get this, my tempgauge is sitting there reading 250'+ and they're trying to run the car again!!!! AHHHHHHHH! They start it.. it dies, and then they sit there wondering why it's doing that! SO they start it up and try to drive it real quick on the dyno thing and think black smoke starts coming out the exhaust!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH! I told them to stop immediately and just get my car off the dang thing so it could cool down. Geez...unbelievable!

- I ended up just taking it back home and plan on getting the inspection later. But now it has all these new problems!
1) It overheats like a *^%$!!!! I'm pretty sure this is due to my coolant not being totally full and it probably has air in the system, but I barely gotit home before it hit 250 again.
2) There's a mysterious power-steering leak. Dunno how that happened, but now it has to be fixed.
3) My radiator fan was shorted so I ended up having to run my own switch to the dash so I can manually turn it on & off

Just crazy that it had to happen during an inspection. I'm glad it happened there and not while I was on the highway or something. BUT it sucks that they kept trying to drive the car!!! ugh...

Anyways, with y'alls help, hopefully I can get the overheating solved, decipher these PCM codes, and have my baby all patched up again soon!

God willing, I'll have my Z running this weekend and I'll get you guys some nice pics and vids!

THANKS!

-Vann

chevy42083

My only suggestion is to check were the "highest" point in your coolant system is, and try to bleed it there. I think there is some kind of fitting you could mount on the hose to bleed it (actually I think you need to cut a section out of the hose, and this replaces it), but I can't remember where I saw them.

Hopefully you can get the drivability issues taken care of.

As far as turn signal indicators, you should be able to tap into the wires coming out of the steering column, and wire up some LEDs or some simple "snap into place" bulbs from radio shack. Not that this is the most important problem, but it's the little things that'll drive you crazy.