When I first bought the car, I was holding @ 190 all the time, but lately on long drives home in heavy traffic I've been climbing to 220, even ticked 230 once for just a sec, kind of has me worried.

I'm not super-handy, so I'm not sure about pulling the radiator to clean it. Something an inexperienced person should/can do? And I'm concerned that it might be a thermo issue, having had that problem before on prior (quite a bit higher mileage) cars. From what I remember, its usually a pretty involved replacement procedure. Is its a water pump problem, then I'm totally screwed, no?

If I decide to replace the thermo, I haven't decided what temp to go with. I'm thinking of adding a blackwing or vararam (or some other CAI) and a catback system in the not-to-distant future. Would it be of any benefit to me considering these mods to change the thermo open/close temp? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks to CorvetteMark, as you can see, I'm running warm enough as it is w/out a flamejob.

 

The first thing to do is to look up under the front of the car where the air is "sucked" up into the radiator. You could have a lot of dust, grass, leaves, a plastric bag or some other obstruction that is restricting flow through the radiator. Go easy so you don't bend the fins or damage the radiator core if you have to use a brush to pull out the stuff.

If you have never looked up there you will be surprised at how much junk there can be. It narrows at the top like a wedge and everything gets trapped up there.

Every couple of months, I go up in there with a shop vac hose and remove any debris that is in there - there is usually a lot of grass clippings because in Tulsa the lawn maintenance companies have a habit of blowing all the junk out into the street to clean the side walks after they cut.

You can also hose the radiator out from the back side to the front to get any dust build up off the fins but that won't get the heavy stuff out.

No need to remove the core.

 

These cars are supposed to get to 230 in stop/go traffic w/ the stock fan settings. Putting in a lower temp t-stat will not cool the car more it merely allows coolat to flow into the radiator earlier.

That said I have a 180 w/ lower fan settings.

 

With the temperatures rising as we approach summer it is not uncommon to see temperatures in the 225 range. If your car ran in the 190 range during the summer, in the past, in heavy traffic (which would be low for a stock car) then something has changed. If it is climbing to the 225 range, and then falling back down, your fans are working properly. With the AC on the fans run more often, and will keep the temperature cooler (195 - 200 range).

Check for debris behind the radiator shroud (look up from the bottom of the car in front). There may be leaves, or a plastic bag, or something up there that needs to be removed.

If you change out the stat, you should also have your fans reprogammed to come on at lower temperatures as well.



Damn, I type to slow :-)

 

Thanks fellas, I guess I'll need to get my hands dirty after work today, but if I don't find much then I won't panic. This'll be my first summer with the vette, so I'm kind of learning as I go. if 190 is low in the summer, and the aux fan doesn't kick in 'till 230, then it sounds like I'm okay, if not optimal.

Once bitten twice shy, I've had a heater core blow up on me and got some third degree burns out of the deal so when the temp. needle wiggles I'm paying attention.

There was a guy on the parts board with a 172-178 t-stat for $50 shipped, so if necessary I may go that route, but I suppose I'll need to take her in to reprogram the fans, thanks for the info.

I understand from a debate going on on this page that there could be some issues with running cooler temps (not all necessarily positive), but I don't think that argument's over so I'll observe from the sidelines, and there's no need to rehash it here.

Thanks All!

 

Hello again! It sounds like your temps are about normal for stock setup. If you want it a bit cooler without changing the t-stat you can always find a used hypertech programmer on the forum for around $150 or less and use it to adjust your fan turn-on temps. This will turn your fans on around 175 or so and that way when your factory stat opens at 190 the fans are already running and should help keep your temps closer to 200. The factory program does not turn on the fan until around 235. And of course the a/c fan is a different topic.

 

Are there any issues with the fans running longer or more often than in the stock set up. I put a 160 thermostat and the fan is set to run at 189 degrees. I have noticed that the fan is running more than when I had the 190 and the stock settings. How durable are the fan motors? Anyone had any problems with that?

Don't mean to hijack the thread but considering we are talking about fans and thermostats I thought I would ask.

 

This is an incorrect statement... the car was never designed to "hold 190 degrees all the time" The span of normal coolant temps designed in are between 190 and 235 degrees...
PCM normal programming was written like this:

01 to 04 models:
The low speed cooling fans are commanded on when the coolant temperature reaches 108°C (226°F). They are turned off if the coolant temperature lowers to 104°C (219°F). The high speed cooling fans are commanded on when the coolant temperature reaches 113°C (235°F). they are turned off if the coolant temperature lowers to 108°C (226°F). When the A/C is on and the coolant temperature reaches 85°C (185°F), the low speed cooling fans will be turned on at vehicle speeds less than 56 kPh (35 mph).

For early model years:97-00
Low speed fans come on at 219,high speed fans come on at 228,low speed with a/c on...
Both fans have high and low speed capabilities

 

Sure amazes me how many people fool with their thermostat thinking it's actually doing something useful. Maybe you guys should put Turbonators in your intakes too. A thermostat will NOT change the steady state temp of the engine or the coolant. Eventually it will get to exactly the same temp it did with the 190, and in the winter, it will take a little longer (maybe a lot longer) to get you heat inside the car. If you want to lower coolant temps, you have to jack around with when the cooling fans come on. Remember, water boils as 212 F with no pressure, 1/2 Dexcool and a few PSI of pressure in the system, 230 is NOT A PROBLEM what so ever.

Think I'll trust the guys that designed/built/tested this and programmed the rest of the system accordingly. It would be interesting to see how many 160 Degree thermostats actually OPEN at 160. If your going to change a thermostat, pop for one that fails SAFE (open), this would be better insurance.

 

Thanks for the education Evil-Twin, this is the exact kind of information I was looking for!

Perhaps the ambient temperature outside may never have been enough to cause it to jump. And you're correct, it wasn't dead stick 190 all of the time. I don't recall ever seeing it above 220 before this, though. But traffic has increased on my regular route and with the warmer weather, a combination of factors i imagine contributed to the 230 reading. And the fans did kick on, b/c the temp declined after that, and then traffic flow resumed, and as I started moving the temp slowly lowered.

I drove my 1993 Ford Probe GT for 2 hours of highway on a cool night in April last year with a cracked headgasket, and plain old water in the system, and managed to get home w/out overheating the motor, but there were a few close calls where she got kinda hot (yeah, I burned her up, she was never the same after that, had heads remilled and $2,000 bought me another 6 months, by December she was toast). But that set in motion a chain of events that now has me driving the vette, so I'd say things kinda worked out!

This is by far the most constructive forum on the 'net, IMO.

 

Never, Ever, compare a 1993 Ford Probe to a C5

J/K

 

Two issues with this very specially designed engine.
One is running the car cool enough to get the optimum hp.
But at what cost?
While running at 160 or 170 may give you a few more hp, it will definitely cause premature engine wear... the LS/X engine was tested over hundreds of thousands of hours in the engine test lab.
The C5 has a definite sweet spot: for power and engine life..... keeping it there is the trick..
the sweet spot is between 180 and 200 coolant\and 200 to 210 for oil...
Anything lower than that for a sustained amount of time will be internally destructive.
This amazing engine is an aluminum alloy that was designed to see 200,000 miles...
Many of these 60's thinking people think this is a cast iron engine that back in the 60's was lucky to see 60,000 /80,000miles.

Some people here think their liberal art degree qualifies them to speak about this engine and its design..

What I tell most people in this forum is to be careful who you listen too...when people bring up their hot rods and engine build from the 60's and seventies... throw up a red flag because that technology went out went we got flush toilet.

So many wannabe's here, so many hero's of technology that dont know
internal stress from structural deformation under load.

Every one has an answer, but few have a clue.
BTW I run a 160 stat in my car from may until October to maintain the sweet spot. I adjust the fans to come on sooner, and I clean both the condenser and the radiator every spring..I put the stocker back in in Nov and run stock fan settings.
Many people think that when they look up under the front air diffuser and talk about all the leaves that get caught up there... they think they are looking at the radiator, which they are not, the radiator sits two inches behind the condenser and is hidden from view.,. it requires alot of maintenance to keep it like knew...I get a half a cup of sand dirt fuzzies and grass from the cleaning of my radiator , this doesn't include the leaves and cigarette buts and other stuff caught in the condensor...
the combination of the two heat transfer cores are the reason you get little air flow after the fans shut off.

Be careful who you listen too, and who has the right credentials to discuss this car.l.. BTW there are some very intelligent, tuners, engineers, and mechanics here.. I can think of a dozen or so of all the people who claim to have some knowledge.
Bill aka ET

Two issues
1) optimum hp output without costing engine life.
2) internal integrity using the right oil flow rate, viscosity, expansion factor, particle suspension.
keeping the LS/X engine in the sweet spot will insure the longest amount of engine life with the best hp output.

 

Just drove home from work (about a 30 minute jaunt in some stop & go, but traffic wasn't that bad today) with the A/C on and she stayed steady as she goes just under 200. I guess my fans are working (at least w/the A/C on). Thats the first time I've ever used it, works pretty good! Just two clicks and it was cool as the other side of the pillow in there!

I'm headed out to check the rad for junk here in a few...

And you're right, there is no comparison, I will refrain from using Probe and Corvette in the same paragraph in the future.