As the title says I have a overheating problem. My Vette got hot yesterday all of a sudden after being parked for approximately 2 hours. Never had this problem before. Already flushed the radiator & when changing the thermostat, there wasn't anything there!? What it boils down to is that it heats up while being on idle & cools down to 180F° when being driven. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

I would clean between your rad and ac cond. a good cleaning as it could be pretty dirty between there

 

I know you checked the tstat but you can really check it by putting it in boiling water and watching it open visually. I would change tstats even if yours "looks" good.

While you are at it, change to a lower temp tstat. You will PROBABLY,(I HOPE), solve your problem and your car will run cooler.

Theres a company that makes a tstat for all cars EXCEPT corvettes. Its a "fail safe", if it fails, it fails open not closed as our conventional tstats do.

I am pretty sure LS3's are no diff than LS1's in that respect, tstats fail closed. I called that company years ago when I was driving C5's,(2000-2004), they said currently, then, their tstat did not work on corvettes, I don't understand why ?

Maybe somebody can correct me, if I am wrong about whether that company now makes a tstat for vettes or whether LS3's fail open, this is an issue I am anxious to find out about.

Either way, a "fail safe" thermostat sure makes a lot of sense to me. Why design a product that when it fails, it destroys a $14,000 engine ?

I was in the fire protection business, engineered Halon systems for data centers, all our devices "failed safe". We didn't count on a/c power to close a door, when there was a fire detected, the power was dropped from the device and the door closed, so no matter what, power or not, the door closed.

Why not do it with thermostats ? Seems simple doesn't it ? Maybe I should have been in the tstat business.

 

Check the connector to your fans, it is a known area that starts to arc, heat up and may not send voltage to the fans. I helped a fellow vert owner cut the connector out and soldered it / heat shrunk it and no issues afterward!!

 

I've been at it & noticed the fans don't work when the car is on idle! Probably going to attempt this. Thanks!

 

I had the front end of my Vette up on jack stands the other day installing a front license plate bracket (I know, $350 fine in my County of Virginia) and as I looked up towards the top front of the radiator, I saw a huge amount of leaves and other debris, all wedged in between the radiator & cowl. At least the top four inches of the radiator was blocked. I reached up and got most of the crap out pretty easy but I had to really work at it the get the last 1/2inch of the blockage out. This might be your problem. Jim

 

sergio7,

i think the suggest that the fan is wonky is a good place to look. You can get a switch inside the car that lets you turn on the fans when you want. If my car ran over 210 hot, I would add the switch.

Good luck.

 

Agree...and if you said you don't notice them coming on at all then it probably is. Seems from what we have seen, that the main power lead can get hot and melt part of the connector. That typically will just cut off power to the fan and not even pop the fuse so you might not be able to see it there without pulling the connector apart.

Seems fairly common.....or one of the more common issues.