Background info; 1987 Coupe, factory correct radiator, enlarged belly scoop, Stewart Water Pump, Robertshaw 180 'stat, Permacool fan, B&M plated engine cooler, Hayden transmission cooler

So I was having problems keeping her cool in the summer, so I did all of these little mods, and then she stayed cool...

...then I ran into another problem, it got cold out, and now I can't keep the car warm. :mad

Cruising on the Freeway in below freezing temps and the oil temperature dies, I installed a piece of cardboard and that helped that quite a bit.

The problem is that the coolant temperature does the same thing. The carboard helped to get it from Low to ~150 degrees.

My first mod is going to be to remove the belly scoop, mostly to get less air into the radiator cavity, but mostly because I hit a BIG piece of ice and bent it up really bad.

The problem isn't the thermostat, it works right, as this summer the coolant would sit right on 180 degrees, and around town it heats up to 180 degrees and sits there.

All suggestions are appreciated.

Pics;
Scoop before I hit the ice:

Scoop after I hit the ice + Cold Weather Provisions:



[Modified by NoWorries, 6:04 PM 12/26/2002]

 

Not much you can do about that, besides letting it warm up a little more on startup and putting the stock thermostat back in for winter.

 

ttt

 

Am I seeing things or do you not have a front air damn at all? :confused:

 

You're not seeing things. I refuse to have nasty looking things on my car, and nothing is more nasty looking than that plastic monstrocity, except maybe the Antenna.

 

Youre gonna run warm in the summer unless you fix that scoop\spoiler.
Do what the other guys up North do.....PARK it for the winter!!!!
Ha ha! I'm in Miami and I was cruisin with the top off in sunny 75 degree weather today!!!!!

Sorry, dude, I just had to say it!!!! LOL! Good Luck.

 

Ok, then you can live with your car getting hot. :)

 

uhhhhhhhhh :confused: :lurk:

 

:rolleyes: If the car got hot, I wouldn't have a problem.

 

I'm going off topic, but believe what you want. You have removed one of the most important parts of the cooling system. Not to mention high speed lower aerodynamics. GM has more time, money, research, and experience than any of us will ever have. Why screw up what is there for a reason?

 

If the car got hot in 112+ degree days, I might think Cheby had a clue. But it doesn't get hot.

But the truth is, Cheby has no clue, that little do-hicky that makes the car look bad does help the car stay cool, but it can be made better, see my picture above. I don't take my car up high, the fastest she'll ever see is going to be probably 130, if I ever get a decent motor into her. I don't like high speed, but I don't think that little ugly thing down there does anything anyways.

Back on topic, I'm going to change the thermo to a 195 and see if that does anything. I don't think it will, because the 180 works around town. I think I'm getting too much air over the block. :(

 

Scorp is right, you do lose alot of downforce on the nose without that piece installed. You could put a new one on if the old one is scratched up. And i would think that it does make a difference in the amount of air that the engine gets to cool itself off.

 

Mine is in great condition. In fact, I think it was new when I bought the car. Its happily sitting in a box. My car is happily freezing herself to death.

 

My observations:

1.) Is the stewart pump blowing open the thermostat at little? This would not be noticeable in the warmer weather. My RS 180 allows enough leakage to get my coolant down to 167 in the winter, but it really does not get lower. But, Stewart does offer modified versions of the RS to avoid just this problem.

2.) You should install a bypass thermostat on the engine oil cooler as you oil is staying too cool, this can be just as bad a hot! Jegs, Summit all sell various setups for this, that do not reduce flow. You want your engine oil up over 180* most of the time.

3.) Tranny temps, same as oil temps and same devices available for the tranny fluid cooler.

How did you plumb the tranny cooler? Does it loop through the coolant radiator still: before or after the cooler? Before allows the tranny to heat the coolant, after allows the coolant to heat the tranny fluid! A peice of sheet aluminum across the tranny cooler would help as well, a thermostat as in the oil cooler above would be better.

Good Luck,

Pete

 

I have a Stewart water pump , an 87 , factory spoiler, and a 195 thermostat.
My winter coolant temps are 185-190 and it takes 5-6 miles to get there. I do like my summer temps though. I think the Stewart is pushing the thermostat open slightly and keeping the engine temps down.

 

The water pump has to be forcing the thermostat open because if it wasn't your car would be heating up no matter what the outside temperature is. There is no way for the engine to stay cool if there is no coolant circulating within the engine. :nono: First I would either get another thermostat or find out which one the water pump manufacture recommends to work with their water pump. Then secondly I would put the front facia back on, it does look better than a piece made to scoop air into the radiator. If you don't like that facia then get one of those different nose pieces that Ecklers, Mid America sells. It would be much better than running without one, :yesnod:

 

Are you driving it in the SNOW matt? LoL All things aside, I think that you should simply put a higher temp thermostat in it. (Try a 195º, which is stock) If that doesn't help, put plastic wrap over the radiator, that should do the trick :D

 

if the water pump presure turns out to be fine i would go back to the stock thermost and get rid of the big air scoop and if you have an overheating problem in summer insatll a fan temp switch to turn the fan on sooner

 

Hey everybody. :cheers:

I e-mailed Jack at Stewart Components and he said to switch the thermostat from the Robertshaw to a stock thermostat. The Robershaw is drilled in three places so that coolant can flow quicker when the thermstat is open. Hence, it never shuts. Its a race car thermostat, I didn't realize that when I bought it. It works great in the summer time.

So I installed a Stant 195* thermostat and it runs 191-196 all the time. Oil is running up between 160-182* with the piece of cardboard installed. The transmission is only running 100-120*. Is that ok? Every fluid in the car is synthetic.

The transmission is routed through the radiator first, then into the cooler, I think thats the only reason that its warming up at all. The cooler I have on the car is WAY too much for a lock-up/2.59 car.

Thanks everybody for the replies. :cheers: I need to look into getting a thermostat for the transmission, the car was never meant to drive in cold temperatures, I thought I was going to be in Phoenix for a long time, but plans changed, and now its COLD. The engine is very tight, so for now, I don't think I need an oil thermostat, but I probably will in the future.

Thanks again. :seeya

I removed the belly scoop first, but it still got just as cold, so it was indeed the thermostat.

 

http://performanceunlimited.com/docu...tempguide.html

Find the chart on the above link useful.

You will also find that the failure curve on the cold side (not shown above) can be worse than the "hot" side. Running cold ATF can be very bad, worse than very hot ATF!

Got to warm that baby up, within reason of course.