the cooling system will boil over if the coolant is over 230 or so when I shut off the car. You can see it leaking out of the cap where that little "channel"is.

 

With your fans coming on so soon they are running all the time and may be burned out. The fans on most cars will come on with the ignition off. If your thermostat was stuck closed it would over heat with in minutes to the point where you would have to pull over. The thermostat is pretty easy to test as mentioned. Take it out and throw it into a pot of water on your stove while using the good old meat thermometer to see what temp it opens at. It should be closed when you take it out of the car. The radiator fill cap has a pressure rating on it that needs to open at 15 PSI. It seems that some mechanics never check them for proper operation. You check the fill cap with the same tool that tests your cooling system to see if it holds pressure, it should. If it's not the fans, thermostat, collapsed hose, or clogged radiator it's probably a head gasket problem. I've learned that after reinstalling heads you should check the head bolts for proper torque after the motor gets up to operating tempurature a few times. Everytime I did it I couldn't beleive how much more I had to tighten up the head bolts. It's not a fun job. A compression test with all of the spark plugs out may reveal your problem. The compression test might be inaccurate with the motor cold.

 

I corrected myself in one of my replys above. The fans (high speed at least ) come on at 183 or so. Just like I was thinking, the fans dont work unless the engine is running. Shouldnt they continue to run as long as the ignition is turned to the start position. It wont overheat on me as long as I am driving which leads me to believe the tstat is working. I was thinking one of the codes from above(no comm with battery, etc..) was why the fans are not working when the car shuts off. So let me just ask this one more time. Should the fans continue to run when the car is shut off?????????????????????

 

The fans will work regardless of where the ignition switch is, so the answer to your question is yes.

 

first of all ... the high speed fans come on at 220... they sound like the roar of a atic fan...they only stay on for a few moments.. they will Never come on at 180.... unless the head pressure increases by 20 pounds do to no air crossing the compressor..I dont know where your getting your information.. but I only stopped by here to see that your as lost as you where when you started this thread.. Good Luck.. No the fans will not run when the car is off... some people have modified their fan circuit to run after the engin is off.. its easy to do but if you didnt do it... then the stock fans wont run if the motor is off

 

I have programming via ls1 edit (as well as ported, milled etc heads if that makes a difference)I assume thats why they come on then. They are definitly loud. I have a pretty good ear and I will have to check with a flash light and check the tstat when I get some time but I am pretty sure the fans come on at 170 and the high speed fans (for sure) come on at 183. I have checked this multiple times. I'm just sayin that wouldnt a faulty tstat, colapsed hose or blocked rad. make the car overheat while I was driving? As long as I stay moving I could drive around for hours, but I have to shut off the engine off sometime. Just doesent seem to make sence, unless someone could tell me that those culprits would allow one to drive in that condition. It started last year then a cooler tstat "fixed" the problem. Then it was a little hot at the start of the summer and it is gradually gettin worse. I will get to the bottom of this, just dont have alot of time at the moment and not getting alot of straight answers. I mean doent the circumstances rule out alot of the suggestions I have gotton. Thanks for your help and everyone elses though, I dont want to seem like I'm being a dick, just trying to get to the bottom of this. :banghead:

 

OK, let me help ya out here on the temp going up with the engine off. Yes it does and it does on all cars. Just a fact of life. with the cooling system in operation, the coolant is cycled and the heat is dumped out through the radiator. When you stop the engine, the water pump stops and the circulation stops. The oil temp and the residual heat in the block now takes over and the coolant now increases in temp to some degree as everything is tryin to reach an normalized state.

Now this means that your engine was really hot. I wonder what your oil temp was just before you shut off the car. You definately have a flow restriction problem somewhere, a system leak, gasket problem or major air trapped somewhere. You should not be anywhere near where you are with the T'stat you have. For example I have the 175 T'Stat and in 95 degree outside air at highway speed, I run around 181 to a high of 190 at an average speed of 80MPH with the AC on full blast. Just checked it on the way home. Oil temp was low 200s. Stock heads and cam, but all the other bolt-ons including headers.

I could not check my hi speed fans as I did not get hot enough to turn them on When I pulled in the garage and turned off the engine, no fans were running and the coolant temp went uo to 199 (coming off the highway I was at 187. I run a 70/30 mix of Water/Dex-cool with redline water wetter. The one thing that I was trying to check is if my fans stayed on after I shut off the engine, as I don't think they do, and can't remember if they ever did. Mine is a 98 rag top so the program could be different, I don't know. I remember some cars do, but why? Think about it all they can do is cool the radiator, unless there is some convection flow before the t'stat closes but it won't be much!

I would not be a bit suprised to see you find a collapsed lower hose, or a gasket leak, or something to that effect.

I think you got a lot of really good advise up above.

I just got back from a cruise across the Mojave Desert with outside temps hitting 125 degrees and running from the high 90mph up to 100+ and at no time did my temp go over 198, until I stopped or got caught in a bit of traffic. In my stay in vegas I hit the 220 once and the highspeed fan did come on, but I was caught in slow moving traffic on a up hill slope going out to Hoover Dam.

Good Luck
Jer

 

Would'nt have believed it but it was just a matter of hosing off the rad. Not just the front of the ac but taking off the shroud and cleaning in there. I am now running 190-198 and around 210-218 oil. thanks for the input guys, God knows I'll be back with more. :party:

 

:party:

 

bottom line I have the same car as you same mods to the T I think your promblem is simple it a combo of two things very simple you have and underdrive pully it slows down the watter pump especially at idle and if your heads are milled for more compression the creates more heat. I have the same problem as you but not as severe all my friends who put the pulley on have the same type of problems in traffic. PS never mind this fan crap.