oiLS1

when i install my cooling temp sensor that is located in one of the heads, the car over heats! why does this happen? i dont get it...i have to drive with the cooling temp sensor disconnected and its not cool because now something else happened that caused it to over heat and it didnt show on the interior gauges, so i found out when i saw smoke comming out lol, please help.... also the car was running perfectly with out the thermostat, since my uncle removed it , but i read that will also cause the car to over heat, but why did it took several weeks to do so? thats also my question...that maybe its not the thermostat, the cooling temp sensor, ...and maybe the car has air and needs to be bleed, or something? if the water pump goes out, im guessing i was suppose to see some water leaking from it, but i dont see anything! and also the reservor water container has a whole.. could that be the problem?


help me, i will help you when i sell the car 98 bpm ls1 t/a, thanks!

the cooling temp gauge sensor is new, when it works...it marks the temperature inside the cars gauges, BUT for some reason it over heated! therefor that made me drive it with out it being unistalled...this is weird! could be something electrical???

help

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

First of all....the Coolant Temp Sensor.....has NOTHING to do with the way the engine cools or overheats. There is absolutely no relationship between the sensor and anything else on the engine that has to do with a normal running engine. All it does is read the temp of the coolant inside the drivers side head......then tells the PCM, which then displays something on the gauge needle.

The only electrical part of the cooling system....are the fans. Everything else is mechanical (t-stat) and works from HEAT and from a spinning water pump, thats the whole system. The fans should be coming "on" together and go "off" together. They also have a low and high setting. When you get the engine up to operating temp...carefully put your hands/fingers in front of each fan and make sure they are BOTH running together.

Put the t-stat back in......some people run without them and its ok......but you need that in there to allow the HOT coolant that just left the radiator to have TIME sitting in the radiator to COOL off before the t-stat opens again and lets it back into the engine.
---Running without a t-stat will work, but there's a fine line (a certain temperature) that needs to be reached where all of a sudden you will over heat fast. If you stay on the good side of that fine line, you won't over heat. But without the t-stat in there, all your engine is, is a water/coolant heater constantly circulating coolant and heating it up.

Water pumps DO NOT stop pumping coolant. When they start to leak its just a bad seal....coolant always moves through the cooling system.

When you put the t-stat back in you probably have an air bubble in there.

Read the Air Bleeding part.....it'll work.

Best/easiest way to flush and get every drop of old coolant out.

****My power steering fluid leaked into my block, so it was bad, but this flush process works for normal maintenance flushes too. You might just want to skip the degreaser stages.****
-Cold engine.
-Remove radiator fill cap.
-Remove the t-stat from the housing. ((Buy a new t-stat housing gasket, they're like $3.00)) Leave the housing attached to the rubber radiator hose, just remove the 2 housing bolts and pull it away from the water pump to get to the t-stat. (2-3 minute job).
-Put t-stat housing back on. (1 minute) Just put one bolt in, no need to put them both in, there’s no pressure in the system during the flush.
-Take the entire radiator drain valve (petcock) "off" and let it drain, don't just open the valve itself. It'll drain faster with it off and that’s what you want. ((Buy a new petcock valve before starting this flush process, sometimes they break when you remove them all the way just because they're cheap plastic and they get briddle over time, they're like $2.00))
-Take a hose and stick it in the radiator fill cap, running medium to high.
-Start the engine when the radiator looks like its full again.
-Turn heat on full blast
-Let it run for about 15-20 minutes or until the water is running out the drain CLEAR.
-((If you want to, you can wait till it runs clear, "close" the drain valve, add some degreaser (I use ½ gallon of Formula 88 to clean mine) and let it run for 15 minutes, then let it sit for 15 minutes, then run it for 5 minutes, then drain it all again. Then open the drain and put the hose in for about 5 more minutes and run it all out till its CLEAR. The degreaser will help break up the crap thats stuck DEEP in the BLOCK that sits and swirls and doesn't like to come out.)) ***NO…degreaser will not hurt anything.***
-When it runs clear your entire system is clean.
-Remove the overflow reservoir from the car and clean it out real good. (I had to use gasoline to clean mine out because the sludge and grime was so thick inside. The gas broke it all down and then it flushed right out. I filled it about 1/3 up with gasoline and shook the hell out of it real vigorously, the black stuff kept coming out. I did that like 4 separate times with gasoline till no more chunks of black crap came out. Make sure the lines that go to the reservoir are also cleaned out. Or just buy a new piece of 3/8” heater hose and replace that line, 3 feet will do, then cut to fit. My sludge came from my power steering fluid leaking into my coolant system.)
-Put the t-stat back in.
-Put the overflow reservoir back in.
-Put the drain valve back in. Use the new one, what the hell.
-Put half a jug of Dexcool in the radiator. (Or if you live in very cold places, 1 to 1 ½ jugs of Dexcool)
-Fill the rest with water.
***You do not need to use distilled water, clean hose water is just fine, just make sure your city water is clean and not total crap quality.

**Bleeding the system of air:
Take the radiator cap off when its COLD, start it up and let it idle, and let it warm up till the t-stat opens. I rapidly squeeze the upper and lower radiator hose like 20 times each while its warming up to help move any air bubbles through the system and by the t-stat on the engine side. When the t-stat opens you’ll see the level drop as you squeeze the hoses, its sucking the coolant through the system. You will also see the coolant start to flow in the radiator fill neck, once it starts to flow the level should drop down a lot, IMMEDIATELY top it off with coolant/water. Then the flow will stop when the t-stat closes. Wait one more time for the t-stat to open again and start to flow, if it drops down again top it off again. Do it a 3rd time if you want to make sure. When the level does NOT drop down when the t-stat opens and coolant is flowing....you're system is free of air bubbles. I always massage the upper hose during the whole process to keep any air bubbles moving through. Always works like a charm. Just keep checking your temp gauge until the t-stat opens for the first time to make sure it’s not sitting there overheating from a trapped bubble. May take 10-15 minutes for the t-stat to open the first time.
If you do start to get hot while sitting there and the t-stat will not open…..you have an air bubble on the engine side of the t-stat. Shut the engine off and rapidly squeeze the upper and lower radiator hoses again. Then start the engine again and see if the t-stat will open. Sometimes you just have to work those hoses to move the air through. Even after it seems topped off after a couple cycles…check it the next time you have a cold engine…top off if needed.


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oiLS1

ls6327 thanks alot! for your help, but sounds like a long shot ill just sell the car as is for 6.5k stock unless i find someone like you that knows what they are doing, thanks! and i still question WHY did the car overheated before when the cooling temp sensor was installed? why its weird,could it be sending out malfunction signal to the fans or something? its just weird and i know for sure that it caused it to over heat, i made various test, oh god why does this happen to me

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

Well, yes, the coolant temp sensor can be telling the PCM WRONG data, which during city driving can cause the fans to not come on. That can make you overheat pretty fast in traffic on a hot day.

Did you pull over and check to see if the fans were BOTH spinning when the engine was actually HOT?

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oiLS1

yeah i assume they were both running, but another this is, i noticed that when i got on the express way bridge the temp went down as faster i drove then when i release the gas pedal temp would rise up,

ok so then the cooling temp sensor could be maybe not good, (but i bought it new since the other one was broken)

or the cooling temp could be ok, and theres some other electrical problem perhaps with the pcm?

i know theres another way to get the temp readings active, theres a tutorial on how to connect a sensor with the water pump and so, but that is for the FAULTY temp sensors? does that mean that the cooling temp sensors are bad, or the thing on the head where it connects? im confused too because i know its weird but to be honest that is what happens? the car had engine transmission swap from my other 98 but it uses the same pcm, would that have anything to do? the car also throws black smoke from muffle once in a while, like a big amount of black smoke comes out then it feels like it has released some clugged up smoke that what somehow in the exaust and then the car runs fine again and doesnt throw any smoke for like another long drive....im guessing its some type of sensor or tps which i put on new aswell
the car is driving me crazy and im about to sell it for 6k and i know it could be fixed by someone like you and resold for more but i hope i sell it on ebay

actually the car didnt released any black smoke after the tps was installed new but who knows if it fixed the issue

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

I bet without the ECT sensor the PCM faults to running
full time fans. Stock fan settings suck and will boil if the
radiator cap isn't factory tight.

Running without thermostat puts you all over the map
as far as operating temp. Tell your uncle to go back
under the shade tree and take a nap.

Crazy coolant temp input can also drive improper fueling.

oiLS1

thanks for that info covertible ss

could a computer pcm analysis show whats the problem? those machines that give a reading test while the car runs? like the ones u use just for analysis then send it back for the tuner to see the results?

RoidedSS

so i wanted to post on here before i make my own thread, this has happened twice to me now. today i did a doughnut or two...or 3 haha and then turned my car off to pick something up from work. went to go and start the car and got nothing. it just keeps running the starter but seems like no fuel is getting to it. so i went and plugged in the OBDII tool and cleared the temperature coolant sensor code and the car still had a little bit of a hard time starting. i gave it a little gas and it started (yes i know it's fuel injected don't pump the gas, but it seemed like there was no fuel getting pulled in). I let it run and the SES light came back on. Cleared the codes again and drove it home with the idle sitting around 1100-1200, but is tuned to idle at 900 RPM's. My question is, I know my fans turn on because they came on around 175 and the car isn't overheating by any means. Can i disconnect that wire that connects to the head without any repercussions. Or does that wire dictate other functions that go on electronically in the car. This also happened to me the other day while sitting in traffic, mechanically everything was fine but the cars idle started to get sporadic even though the temperature was only at 180... any answers would be great and hopefully i don't hijack the thread but i'd rather not drop more money to have that sensor tuned out...

thanks in advance

Camaroz

iTrader: (2)

If you unplug the ECT it does default to fans on.