84number2083

Yesterday I had a bit of an overheating problem and wanted to know if anyone has had a similar experience. Let me preface this by saying that I had a problem with my fan relay a couple years ago, it fried itself and the fan stopped working, causing my temp to go up to near 300 when I finally got on the highway and got up to speed, cooling her down to 220 as long as I was moving fast. My mechanic replaced the relay and all was okay. Yesterday I was cruising in the city and all of the sudden started smelling burning coolant, looked at the gauges and saw the red light come on and the temp at 278. Fortunately I was just getting onto the highway and got up to 70-75 and she cooled down to 200 quickly. I figured it was the same problem, drove home without stopping and shut her down. I lifted the hood, looked around and then turned the key to see if the fan was coming on and it did. Now, stupid me, I should have lifted the hood before shutting it down but wanted to get it parked quick. I called my mechanic, a very honest guy who helps me out a lot, he said the fan usually wouldn't work sporadically so maybe its the thermostat on the engine block. he said sometimes they get stuck and when the engine gets hot it doesn't call for coolant because the therm is messed up. I was afraid to drive it today into the city but wondered if anyone has had this experience. thanks

MTVette

:eek: 278 degrees :eek:

vettmech

The fans CAN run (or fail) intermittently ..( guess how I found THAT out) .... on mine first it was a relay ........then years later the fan burned up...... then a year later the aux fan burned up ........the aux fan LITERALLY burned up.........I took it apart and it stunk up my whole garage!!!!!!. anyway I keep a spare fan relay in my car ......... they don't cost much ....... :seeya

rocketfinger

Good thing it's got iron heads. It does have iron heads, doesn't it?

Bones LT1

Recon the cooling system, new hoses, serp belt, radiator flush/checked, fans, thermostat, fan relays, fuses, etc. Thats only way to prevent problems down the way.
Think in terms of complete systems when doing repairs. Everything wears at the same time. If a belt wears out so might a relay, a hose.
If its rubber, every 5 years, radiators only last so long, thermostats well there sorta like women. You never know when they'll go off.
Replacing everything is more money up front, but its easier to do it now than on the road. Spot repairs are fine if your selling.
HTH.

JonM

Next time you think the fans are not on, turn the AC on. It automatically turns them on. You may also want to run a ground wire to the fan relay and ground the green/white wire with a toggle switch. Then you can turn the fans on any time you want.

84number2083

Finally got the car to my mechanic. He felt the radiator while the car was hot and the bottom half was stone cold.....so, it seems the radiator (original) is clogged up with sediment at the bottom. My choices were to take it and get it flushed which might fix the problem or to have my mechanicl install a new radiator. The cost diff is about $100 so I am going with the long term option, replacement. The electrical problem I thought I had was just a loose battery cable which my mechanic fixed while I was there. So....not to bad considering the money I though I would be spending. So, I am having a transmission service done for $70 while he has it and he'll be replacing the pan gasket as part of that to stop the leak I've had for years. All in all, not a horrible trip to my mechanics.

November Soul

Glad to hear that you got it all sorted out.

I'd recommend that you check and replace all of your hoses though if you haven't already. I had a coolant hose split on me the other day and it wasn't nice at all :( Checking the other hoses (visually and by squeezing them) showed that two more were rotting away inside, so luckily I got to them in time.

:chevy

Charlutz

What are you paying for your radiator? There were two available for the '84. One standard and one heavy duty. http://www.TLD-corvette.com has the standard one for $153 plus ~$15 shipping and the heavy duty one for $205. I ordered one for my car from them yesterday and found them to be very responsive.

84number2083

Actually a reasonable price at TLD is no surprise. My mechanic spoke to a supplier of his on the phone and he then told me $160 installed so I said do it.

Charlutz

Good deal! :yesnod:

1bad85

I would just flush it out. Alot of guys have cleaned theres to find the temps drastically drop.