I took delivery on my first Corvette last week - a 1996 Collector Edition and of course I couldn't be more pleased. I'm working what I think might be an overheating problem and could use some advise.

I am basing my comments here on the stock temp. guage in the dash - the guage has a 185 & a 260 degree marker indicator with two equally space tick marks in between. I'm assuming each one to be 25 degrees so I'm assuming 185, 210, 235, 260 on the guage.

The day time temps. in Dallas have been about 90 degrees as a reference.

On Saturday night while driving to the IRL race - country road, no AC, driving between 65 - 75 MPH the temp. seemed to reach around 250. Leaving the race, in idling traffic to get away from the track it almost pegged the needle. Sunday I looked things over and found what appeared to be a bird nest pressed into the radiator cooling vanes. The same for the AC cooling unit (the radiator looking thing in front of the main radiator). I cleaned all of that off with my shop vac and a brush.

Today while driving to work without AC it went to above 235, coming home in 90 degree temperature, and AC ON is also got close to 235. There does not seem to be any overboiling into the overflow tank.

Coolant level seems fine with plenty in overflow tank. Fans come on with AC turned on. Fans also come on once the guage reads somewhere around the 235 degree mark. I've read in a service manual that the primary fan should come on at around 219, second at around 230 or so.

I could sure use some advice on this. Thanks in advance.

 

I live in North richland Hills my temp stays between 190-215 in high traffic with ac on with 90 deg outside temp. You might want to ck to see if the fans turn on when you turn ac on. Also is thier a connector between the #1 and #3 pluga front drivers side you can pull that connector off and ground the pin inside plug to see if secod fan comes on.Verify fans and then dig deeper.If you want you can allways put a digital temp gage in so you can see real temp I never trust needles.I was at races all weekend in infield and my temp was staying around 226 crusing the infield before and after races.

 

Great question! I just purchased my father-in-law's 94 C4 coupe. He had a stroke 5-1/2 years ago and it has rarely been driven since. He finally passed away last month and the wife wanted to buy for sentimental reasons....

Anyway, I took it in today for an oil change and checkout. They told me the radiator needed flushing as well, so I gave them the OK. I noticed afterward that if I idle for more than a couple minutes, the temp kicks up to around 236 degrees. Once I start moving again, the temp drops to anywhere from 205F on long stretches to around 225F in stop-n-go traffic. Is this normal? If not, what are the typical temp ranges and what could be causing the high heat?

BTW, thanks for the great forum. I'm a true neophyte when it comes to Corvettes and this place is a wealth of knowledge!!!

 

Sounds like its time for you to replace the thermostat, it might be stuck. The stock stat is 180, but you can go to 160 with no problems. I run a 160.

The first thing you need to do is remove the radiator shroud, and clean that space between the radiator and condensor, i bet its fully blocked up with road debris. That itself should lower temps 10-20F. Flush the radiator and refill, add a bottle of water wetter and you should be fine. Edit, i see youve done that. So Id suspect an air bubble in somewhere in the system, or maybe a failing water pump.

They run rather hot normally, but yours sounds too high.


[Modified by vader86, 10:46 AM 6/10/2003]

 

Well, took the time last night to search the forum on this issue and, after a couple hours of insightful reading, I think I've got this figured out...

There were several posts on running the A/C to get the second fan going. I was driving yesterday with the top off and the A/C turned off. Another post mentioned the air filter cover being warped and not getting good airflow because of lack of vacuum. Double-checked it and found when they checked the air filter, they didn't tighten the screws down at all which could have been another source of the problem.

End result -- by running A/C and tightening down the air filter cover, coolant temp ran at 194F on highway, around 203F stop-n-go driving, and after sitting in parking lot idling for 10 minutes, never got above 209F. I think we got htis one licked! I am going to take Vader's advice and get a bottle of water wetter for a bit more protection.

Amazing what a little research can do, ain't it? :yesnod: