It was nice out the other day so I just went out for a casual drive thru a few local towns. After about 20-30miles of in town driving, the car just didn't feel right and I thought sounded louder (exhaust wise) not sure though this could have been my imagination. I immediately brought it home since I wasn't far away to begin with, and once I got it home it spilled out a lot of coolant under the front of the car. I came out the next day and checked the coolant from the front cap and it was full, so I decided to drive it about a mile to the grocery store. The temp guage went up pretty quickly and went as far as it could go red, yet the car didn't overheat or loose fluid. It probably was about to but I shut it down as soon as I made it to the parking lot. It then dawned on me that I hadn't replaced the coolant it lost the day before. So I let it cool off and filled it with water for now. I didn't want to keep putting coolant in, if its just going to come back out by the time I drive 1 mile home.
Oh and the whole time I had the air condition on to make sure that the fan was running.
Before I made the cross country trip the water pump was replaced thinking that was the overheating problem, it wasn't. On the trip it overheated every 200miles or so. Once I got to Alabama it was looked at the fiero factory. They found the radiator to be bad and replaced it with a better one. (not brand new, just better), here they also replaced both caps with the correct ones and replaced the thermostat as well. The car was fine from then on. Now suddenly here is this overheating problem again, and I barely even drive the car just to the local store.
It probably isn't related but they also told me that I need the neutrally balanced 88 flywheel in this car being it has the 3.4 pushrod in it.
Suggestions please. It would be great if there was someone close enough to check it out for me. I am in NJ 07026 zipcode.
------------------ ------------------ "what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul"
[This message has been edited by Gecko (edited 04-17-2006).]
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07:55 PM
PFF
System Bot
The Poopsmith Member
Posts: 1154 From: Portland, OR Registered: Mar 2005
I thought I would mention this as I was having overheating problems kinda similar. Did you fill the system correctly with coolant. My fiero was overheating a lot and I was positive that I had enough coolant in it but just to make sure I followed a procedure where you park the car on a downward slope nose pointing downhill and then open both the radiator and thermostat caps and fill from the thermostat and then the radiator. When I opened mine my engine almost emptied it self towards the front of the car I put so much new coolant in i couldn't believe it. Since I haven't had any over heating problems but I do need a new radiator as it is leaking.
One comment, I don't know this for a fact, but I would not check the coolant level with the front cap. Since it is the lower of the two I believe it would be better to check the back cap.
As far a the overheating. The usual reasons would be bad new water pump. (did it have a plastic impeller or metal, the plastic are known to slip). Is the belt tighten correctly? Have any of the coolant tubes been crushed? Is the air dam under the noise, didn't get ripped off? Is all the air out? Try the fill process to the T. Could any of the rubber hoses be collapsing because they are spongy? Are you sure the stat is good. They have been known to fail after only a couple months.
actually after having a few of them overheat I got used to the procedure you mentioned however the ground was probably level instead of downward slope. When I took the front cap off the coolant was right up to the top. So I didn't leave the cap off, because I didn't want it to just come right out the front. I put the cap on the front, filled from the rear, then started the car for maybe 10 seconds to let it go down, and filled again, I repeated this until it was showing completely full at the rear. It took about 2 gallons each time I did this.
Did I make a mistake in that procedure somewhere?
------------------ ------------------ "what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul"
As far a the overheating. The usual reasons would be bad new water pump. (did it have a plastic impeller or metal, the plastic are known to slip). Is the belt tighten correctly? Have any of the coolant tubes been crushed? Is the air dam under the noise, didn't get ripped off? Is all the air out? Try the fill process to the T. Could any of the rubber hoses be collapsing because they are spongy? Are you sure the stat is good. They have been known to fail after only a couple months.
Water pump was replaced by a shop that I had trusted and they were familiar with fiero's so I assumed it was metal. (but I can't be positive) Belt tightened? I don't know anything about this part..do you have a picture of it or how do I check it? Coolant tubes - The car hasn't been on a lift or anything and I don't think I have done any driving that would have crushed those. Airdamn is still in place and seems fine. I think I got the burping process right I was wondering about the hoses, how do I check those and what should they feel like? How do I check the Stat? It should be good because it was done by the fiero factory in Al
Since I don't know how your conversion was done. (I'm working on a 3.4 switch but don't have the engine yet) I'm not sure what your belt tension system would be like. It would either have a spring tensioner or be done via moving the Alt.
As far as hoses check for spongy feeling hoses. They should feel firm and consistant. Hopfully whoever did the conversion would put on good hoses. Since it is a conversion be sure the hoses are running correctly and don't have any twist or slight kinks in them as can happen with a conversion.
The stats are easy to change. When you take off the rear cap there is a handle for pulling the stat out. (sorry if this is not what your asking) The stats can stick in and be hard to get out sometimes. Think Cliff said to put a little water proof gease on the O ring on the stat to make them easier to remove. If you even suppect the stat put in a new one. They don't cost that much but get a good grade of stat. There are cheap one out there.
[This message has been edited by Dodgerunner (edited 04-17-2006).]
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11:27 PM
Apr 18th, 2006
ka4nkf Member
Posts: 3702 From: New Port Richey, FL USA Registered: May 99
[Get A Stant #45819, This a new thermostat from Stant is called a superstat. Don
QUOTE]Originally posted by Dodgerunner:
Since I don't know how your conversion was done. (I'm working on a 3.4 switch but don't have the engine yet) I'm not sure what your belt tension system would be like. It would either have a spring tensioner or be done via moving the Alt.
As far as hoses check for spongy feeling hoses. They should feel firm and consistant. Hopfully whoever did the conversion would put on good hoses. Since it is a conversion be sure the hoses are running correctly and don't have any twist or slight kinks in them as can happen with a conversion.
The stats are easy to change. When you take off the rear cap there is a handle for pulling the stat out. (sorry if this is not what your asking) The stats can stick in and be hard to get out sometimes. Think Cliff said to put a little water proof gease on the O ring on the stat to make them easier to remove. If you even suppect the stat put in a new one. They don't cost that much but get a good grade of stat. There are cheap one out there.
How do I check the heater core? I haven't had this car very long, atleast not on the road much. The heat never really came on strong, the best way to get heat was actually using the defroster. How do I check the heater core?
thanks everyone
------------------ ------------------ "what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul"
The heater core being plugged won't cause overheating. If you can feel warm air blowing somewhere with the temperature set on hot then the core's fine. With a functioning front pressure radiator cap and a function thermostat, the system pressure should never be higher than 15 PSI, and that pressure is generated by the thermal expansion of the coolant. If large volumes of coolant are being pushed out of the overflow bottle then there could be several causes. A bad radiator cap will prevent pressure from building properly in the system and allow steam pockets to form in the cylinder heads, the steam pressure will forcibly push coolant out of the system via the overflow reservoir. This will only happen after the coolant warms up, if it happens within seconds or minutes of starting a cold engine then the pressure is likely coming from a blown head gasket that is pumping high-pressure combustion gases into the coolant. Replace the radiator cap with a known good one, look in Ogre's cave for the right Stant number if you want that brand.
JazzMan
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01:11 PM
86GT3.4DOHC Member
Posts: 10007 From: Marion Ohio Registered: Apr 2004
Originally posted by Gecko: The temp guage went up pretty quickly and went as far as it could go red, yet the car didn't overheat or loose fluid.
That is overheating. Just because it can run doesnt mean it should, lol. Hopefuly the engine has some miles on it, running a newer engine that hot will often cause the crank to expand to the point where it wipes out he bearings. You are also seriously tempting fate with warping heads and or blowing gaskets. Never under any circumstances unless your life is in danger, run a car when its in the red. Its horribly hard on it, if you would have had aluminum heads youd be in trouble. Check the thermostat and make sure its opening. Also, turn the heater on, if it blows hot, coolant is at least circulating inside the engine, if its cold, you have no circulation.
Also if you are running an externaly balanced FW on a 3.4, you need to stop and change it now, it will damage the main bearings.
The caps were both replaced with the correct ones when I was at the FieroFactory, that is about 2-3 months ago. When I first start the car it seems fine. I should time it to find out how long or IF it will overheat just sitting there. When I took it out the other day I drove it 1 mile away and it was fine, but as I tried to come back that same 1 mile, the temp guage quickly went right into the red and lost the coolant after I parked it, even though I left the ignition/air conditioning on to keep the fan on.
------------------ ------------------ "what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul"
Just wondered, have you run it without the stat in place? If you can drive it without the stat and it does not overheat I would guess you might have a bad stat even if it where new.
It's a very quick check since you can take it in and out in 30 seconds.
Well I took out the stat today and drove about 3-4 miles and the car never came close to running hot. Matter of fact it made me wonder why it was staying so low. Does anyone have a picture of where the temp guage should read? I thought it was supposed to read just under 200? I don't know why I think that, so I could be way off.
I didn't drive it anymore because I don't want to push my luck right now.
------------------ ------------------ "what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul"
Well with a good 195 stat it should stay at 195 while driving at a moderate speed. It would of course get warner in stop and go traffic.
If it's not overheating without the stat put in a new one but that will fix your problem
Without at stat the engine should not reach operating temp unless your driving slow or stopping.
As far as the gauge, they are unreliable unless you have check the calibration on it and even then they are more of a general indicator and not completely accurate. If you have never done the pegging fix (which I highly recommend if your able) you don't know if the needle has moved or not.
You can check to see if it is close by pulling the wires from the temp sender for the gauge and placing the correct resistor across the plug to see what the gauge reads. That would tell you if your even in the ballpark.
1365 ohms = 100* 55 ohms = 265*
[This message has been edited by Dodgerunner (edited 04-20-2006).]
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04:18 PM
86GT3.4DOHC Member
Posts: 10007 From: Marion Ohio Registered: Apr 2004
Well I took out the stat today and drove about 3-4 miles and the car never came close to running hot. Matter of fact it made me wonder why it was staying so low. Does anyone have a picture of where the temp guage should read? I thought it was supposed to read just under 200? I don't know why I think that, so I could be way off.
I didn't drive it anymore because I don't want to push my luck right now.
Yea, the engine will not reach operating tempature when moving without the T-stat. Sounds to me like thats your problem, Id toss a new one in and you should be fine!
