Are there any fancy ways of lowering my coolant temperature. it seems as if my vette runs cooler in traffic than on the freeway. At freeway speeds it sits at about 220 after about 15 minutes of driving, while idling and in traffic it rarely gets above 210. I'm running 50/50 green antifreeze, I have a stock radiator that i had tested at a radiator shop and he was shocked at how "well it flowed." Fan is a clutchless flex a lite flex fan, which is the biggest size i could fit in the stock radiator shrowd. No ac, manual tranny, small block. Stock water pump. Any thoughts?

Does water wetter actually work?

Thermostat is a 170 or 180, i can't remember and is virtually new.

Thanks, Mike

 

Try running little or no anti freeze using just distilled water and water wetter. I noticed WW is now adding a line in it desc that is has corrosion fighters but you could add some to be safe. I think those flex fans actually cause an air blockage when they flatten out at highway speeds thus not allow air to flow through properly.

 

Do you have the foam padding around the radiator?
That makes a huge difference.
Make sure it is sealed or the air will go around.

 

yes all the foam padding is in place. Its running cheap brand antifreeze and tap water. maybee i switch to a better coolant and see if that helps.

 

What is your temp range for your part of Cali? If nothing below 40 you can run almost all water but make sure it is distilled so it won't gunk up your rad. Water dissipates heat better than antifreeze so it will run cooler with less antifreeze and more water.

 

WW makes the water stick to the metal and cool faster. 220 is normal at cruise speed without overdrive. Change your radiator to alum and add the dual fans.

 

The problem is most likely your airdam. I'll bet it's either not there, broken or flimsy. Mine is flimsy and my temp slowly rises on the freeway. I've got a pace-car spoiler waiting to go on this winter. Someone here posted once about how they lost their pace car spoiler and noticed that the freeway temps were a lot higher.

Brett

 

Water Wetter broughtmy buddies temp down 20 degrees with no modification to anything...we were both impressed with that.

 

if you elect to go with water, make sure to add a corrsion inhibitor/lube like zerex or water wetter. Straight water, even distilled will cause corrsion.

 

Mike,
Is it an auto? My '81 was doing exactly as you describe but would sometimes run even hotter at sustained high speed. Water pump & rad were new, block was flushed out, new 180 stat & it's got the front end that pushes more air through the rad, so it didn't make any sense at all. I'd given up on it as a lot of people here were complaining of the same thing.
As part of fitting an OD tranny I had to fit a trans cooler & after I'd done that the coolant temps dropped dramatically. It now hovers around 180, sometimes I can get it to 190 & very rarely does it hit 200. It only needs a small cooler (otherwise it'll overcool the trans fluid), hooked up so that the trans fluid passes through it before the rad (so when cold the coolant helps warm up the trans fluid).
In the stock setup the coolant is being cooled in the rad, but one end of the rad is being kept hot/heated by steaming hot trans fluid. The rad is trying to cool both the trans fluid & coolant so has a tough job to do. Fitting a trans fluid temp gauge has shown me just how high the fluid temps can get at high speeds. With a locking converter the temps drop right down, but if you're running without a locking converter there's a huge jump in temp due to converter slip & it easily gets well above 200 in the pan (AFTER it's returned from the rad!!!). I don't know what it'll be when it's pumped to the rad, but it'll be even higher. Putting this hot fluid into the rad is'nt going to help at all in trying to cool down the engine coolant, so using a cooler to take the heat out of it before pumping it through the rad makes perfect sense. Not only will it drop the coolant temps, it'll also keep the trans fluid closer to it's ideal running temp (heat kills auto boxes).
If yours is a manual (stick shift) none of the above will apply, but nobody has mentioned the A/C system. If you've got the condenser(???? the rad thing!) mounted in front of the coolant rad check that it's not restricting airflow.