So I uncovered the car and put the battery back in and did all my usual spring check list on the car before firing it up. All seemed well and she fired up without too much grumpiness. I took it out for a few laps around the block to get everything moving and flowing properly before going out for a cruise. Again all was well and everything was normal. Later on in the afternoon I loaded the wife and kids in for a nice cruise and heading down the road I noticed the coolant temps to be sitting in the 195-205 range and up to 210 at a stop light. Which is odd since last season it never went over 195 ever. Last season I flushedvout the block, put in a new aluminum 2 row 1" tubes rad and a prestone 180 Tstat, I had to bypass the heater core cause it sprung a leak. I have a new in the box TA 1537B water pump and was going to pick up a Mr Gasket 4364 180 Tstat and put them in today and see if that helps? How long do I have to let the gasket sealer set before I can road test the car?
My timing is good Larry you walked me through it last season over the phone and help me set it all up.
**INFO EDIT** The trans is on its own cooling system so no extra heat from my leaking and failing trans which is going to be rebuilt in the next few weeks.
Yeah, but is the vacuum advance still working? Have you verified it with a timing light? You know what the say about the word Assume.. Wouldn't be the first time a VA canister went bad.
True enough Larry! I'll check it before I take anything apart. I'm taking the Tstat housing off regardless since I bought a billet one from the board here. Do you know how long the sealant has to cure before driving?
I'm going to be using these newish aluminum pullies from TA, is it normal for the crank pulley to be smaller than the stock steel version??
The pullies that are on my 72 GS 455 block now are: Crank: 1235777 Water pump:1375146 Power steering:1386935
Most RTV has a full cure time of 24 hours. "The Right Stuff" by Permatex has 1 minute cure time. You would know if you bought that one from the price tag. Give it a day to cure imo.
So a few weeks back my timing checked out fine as Larry went through it with me again, new Mr Gasket high flow thermostat installed along with my new billet aluminum thermostat housing and aluminum pullies. I've had the car out a few times and the same problem persists. I have not put the TA1537B (short body) pump on as of yet because that's what is on the engine currently and is only approx 5 yrs old. I was thinking of putting the hi flow TA1537BHP unit on to see if that helps at all?? I've replaced most of the cooling system besides the pump, temp sensor, gauge and hoses and I've flushed out the system numerous times. Anybody have any ideas as to what I can check or change? I feel like I keep throwing money at this problem.
What about too much antifreeze and not enough water? Water actually cools the engine, not antifreeze . I've run 70% water and 30% antifreeze for many years with no problems. Get an antifreeze hydrometer. If you're good to minus 35*, that's about a 50/50 mix.
I'm pretty confident that's not the issue. I mix 2 jugs of antifreeze concentrate with 2 jugs of distilled ionized water to make a 50/50 solution and fill up the system and I added 1 bottle of water water last season. Maybe I could add another bottle of water wetter and another half jug of straight distilled ionized water and see if that drops the temps down?
Ok let me throw this out there.. any chance you have air trapped in the top of the engine instead of coolant. I recall someone on here having issues like this as they could not "burp" the engine. Even I think this sounds a little crazy but one delta is that you have flushed the engine and the issue appeared after that...
The engine and old rad was flushed out when I first bought the car then again last year when I put the new rad in. I changed the Tstat and housing last week, topped up the system and let it run up to temp with the cap off letting the air escape by bubbling up. I let it boil/pour out over the filler neck a few times and as the Tstat opened and the coolant level dropped I would fill up the rad again. So there shouldn't be any air in there.
If it ran at 195* last season and after changing the radiator, thermostat, and coolant it's now running 15* higher, more than likely it's one of those three items. Maybe the thermostat is faulty, the radiator may not be as efficient, or the new radiator changed the fan shroud relation to the radiator or distance between the fan and radiator. I've never used Water Wetter, but isn't that supposed to be used instead of antifreeze? Maybe using that along with antifreeze is in effect, making the concentration of antifreeze too high.Is it possible that the new radiator is slightly smaller, allowing air to flow around the radiator instead of through it?
Have you checked the electrics? A little corrosion on the chassis ground from engine (or any ground point) will make the gauges go a bit off. Or at the connector to the temp sender.
No, WW can be used with 100% water or any concentration of A/F. They tell you as much on the container, and also mention the less A/F you use the better the heat transfer. Had a neighbor that was chasing an overheating problem is his Toyota Camry wagon. When I asked him how much A/F he was using, he looked at me and said 100%. We found his problem. Look on the back of the container, they tell you no more than 70%. If you suspect the stat, either test it in a pot of water with a thermometer, or watch the coolant level with the cap off. The stat should begin to open at the rated temperature, and you should see the level in the radiator drop a bit as the stat opens. You should be able to see it on the gauge as well, the temp should drop as the stat opens.
Everything was changed last season THEN it ran 195 no issues. The aluminum rad is the same size as the original I took out other than it's a 2 row 1" tubes. I have dual 14" electric fans mounted to an aluminum shroud on the rad. My first thought was the Tstat was faulty that's why I changed it last week. Issue still the same. As for the water wetter I've read on here about guys adding a bottle to help cool things down a bit nothing mentioned about it raising the level of antifreeze too high though?
