93Euphoria

What's up guys. Well I got a strange one but my coolant has been running hotter as of the past few months 220-240* Way too hot. Just above the middle mark and goes up halfway between the red and middle mark almost everyday in traffic and goes back down just above the middle when I hop on the turnpike.

2 years ago I put in a new ac/delco radiator in and she never got above the 2nd/Quarter mark no matter what for about the first year. For the past year the needle slowly creeps up farther as the months go by. Wtf???
Things I've done repeatedly and checked:
Air in system
Blead
Checked fans with and without A/C on
Air dam and the plastic insulation around.
Pressure checked the system
Checked radiator for cracks
Checked for clogs & cleaned the system

And all is 100%. Only thing left is to check if the gauge is reading right because once in a blue moon I'll be on the highway and the needle will drop from middle to about an 8th for a couple of seconds and go back to the middle and won't happen again for weeks. I would use a scanner but our shop doesn't have OBD1 scanners. Only OB2.

Any ideas?

Thanks

guppymech

iTrader: (7)

I hesitate to ask but do you have a EWP or the stock mechanical pump? There was a recent thread you may have seen (17 pages!) about a stripped waterpump drive coupling that caused the subject engine to run hot.

93Euphoria

Stock Pump being a mostly highway car. Yeah I stripped mine last pump 4 years ago and replaced gear and coupling but I guess only way to find out if that's the case this time is to pull & replace the WP that isn't leaking the weep hole. This pump has about 45k-50k on it.

Btw haven't seen the thread yet

hrcslam

Usually low speed and stop and go cooling issues are related to air flow. If you cool right down at high way speeds you can pretty much eliminate the water pump as a culprit.

That being said, if you used garden water with your coolant (instead of distilled water, this depends on the quality of your tap water), you could have build up inside the radiator causing heat transfer issues and the higher air speeds on the highway over come that.

More likely, you have debris clogging up the condensor and radiator fins limiting air flow through them when the fans are doing all the work. Then once you get on the highway all that extra air is pushing past the debris and cooling you down.

I'd start with removing the radiator and cleaning it and the condensor fins out. If you have access to someone that does AC work, maybe have them acid wash them.

If that doesn't work and you used garden hose water, maybe the rads getting clogged up inside.

ahritchie

iTrader: (1)

How old is the WP? You could have a slipping spline drive which results in overheating as described...

Of course, EWP's don't have this issue.

93Euphoria

I actually did this not too long ago. Both have been degree free and I check for leaves and stuff every once in awhile.

As far as the highway it cools down but once I go over 100mph for ever 10mph increase the coolant raises about 5-10 degrees. It didn't use to do that. When my rad was new, the faster I went the more the incoming air cooled the engines rpms heat increase. I could stay between 4-5k Rpms for 5 mins and would go down in between the halfway point of the first and second mark. But that's ofcourse 130-140mph wind cooling everything down. Now if I try that it would be halfway to the red and half mark.

My water pump has about 40-45k on it and has been on since 2010. I just would find it strange the gear & couplet to be a problem with only 5 years but I guess anything is possible. I'm not a fan of the EWP because my car is more of a highway car.

hrcslam

Have you tried flushing the system out yet?

Also, did you put the grease and orings on the spline drives when you installed the water pump coupler?

93Euphoria

For the first question read my OP. I jot down all things I've done. But yes I flushed it.
As far as the o rings no, but I didn't see any o rings on the original pump that lasted 133k. When I replaced the gear and couplet my kit didn't come with the o rings. I guess I'll pull the pump just to be safe and check but where can I get the O rings themselves if it turns out the gear and couplet is fine? Is it possible to use AC fitting o rings or it has to be the ones made for the gear?

hrcslam

Not sure where to get the orings. I got mine at work. The water pump does not come with new orings, and they eventually do dry rot and crumble out. If you look through the thread linked previously (first few pages, the rest is crap) the part number for those orings are listed. AC orings should be alright I'd imagine, but they might not last as long due to being a different material

guppymech

iTrader: (7)

The o-rings fit in the grooves in the engine driven spline and WP spline. The FelPro timing cover gasket kit (TCS 45953) includes the o-rings (FelPro p/n 407). Lube the splines with some moly lube.