C4 Tech/Performance L98 Corvette and LT1 Corvette Technical Info, Internal Engine, External Engine

Overheating cause

Old Jul 24, 2011 | 09:34 PM
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Default Overheating cause

Hey guys,

My 93 vert had been running 15 degrees hotter than normal. I thought it was just the heat. Last Wednesday it hit 255F and it puked coolant. I got on the forum yesterday so i could learn all of the possible causes. Needless to say I was discouraged about the possibility of minnor cracks or a blown head gasket. Anyway spent today draining and flushing radiator and engine. I was contemplating using steel seal product, then thought I would check the thermostat. I have never seen one fail but this one failed shut. It must have been partially closed for the last several months.

A quick fix and the car is running a cool 195 F.

Great forum!
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Old Jul 24, 2011 | 09:43 PM
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Originally Posted by 93cruiser
Hey guys,

My 93 vert had been running 15 degrees hotter than normal. I thought it was just the heat. Last Wednesday it hit 255F and it puked coolant. I got on the forum yesterday so i could learn all of the possible causes. Needless to say I was discouraged about the possibility of minnor cracks or a blown head gasket. Anyway spent today draining and flushing radiator and engine. I was contemplating using steel seal product, then thought I would check the thermostat. I have never seen one fail but this one failed shut. It must have been partially closed for the last several months.

A quick fix and the car is running a cool 195 F.

Great forum!
Glad to see you got it cooled down. Did you clean out the area between the AC condensor and the radiator? I had two bread sacks full of leaves, feathers, hot dog wrappers, etc in there. It was almost 6 inches deep. To clean it out right, you have to pull the radiator shroud off and loosen the radiator (or take it out to clean it right) to get down to the bottom. Made mine run 15 degrees cooler.
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Old Jul 25, 2011 | 10:24 PM
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I did. Did not find much. Just a handful of leaves. It is always good to check, you never know what it will vacuum up next.
93cruiser
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Old Jul 26, 2011 | 08:45 PM
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Nice job, but always start with the simple stuff first. Turns out I had a similar problem, a partially closed stat. It just kept climbing with time.

Wish I could follow my own advice sometimes. I at first ordered a radiator but before it arrived I found the bad stat. But with the new radiator which was about 1/2" larger, it ran cooler before the problem started.
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Old Jul 26, 2011 | 08:49 PM
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a fan may be going
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Old Jul 26, 2011 | 09:16 PM
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Originally Posted by 93cruiser
Hey guys,

My 93 vert had been running 15 degrees hotter than normal. I thought it was just the heat. Last Wednesday it hit 255F and it puked coolant. I got on the forum yesterday so i could learn all of the possible causes. Needless to say I was discouraged about the possibility of minnor cracks or a blown head gasket. Anyway spent today draining and flushing radiator and engine. I was contemplating using steel seal product, then thought I would check the thermostat. I have never seen one fail but this one failed shut. It must have been partially closed for the last several months.

A quick fix and the car is running a cool 195 F.

Great forum!
Please !

never ever unless its a matter of life or death, use any form of stop leak in a radiator/motor that you want to run next week !

What happens with these products is that they often fail to seal the tiny leak because the pressure is so high in a small pin hole that they cannot gel or solidify. May, may not work. As soon as the car is shut down the stuff WILL turn solid in a water passage in the head and close off an entire water jacket...so you're flirting with disaster from then on and never know it because you don't see a rise in operating temps, the water just can;t flow to half the cyl head so it fries. And it gets solid too. Like a rock and theres no flushing it out. Last time I ran into this we used a chisle to chip the stuff out of the passage in the rear of the head. Block passage was caked as well.
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