I am about to just give up and sell my car, i have an overheating problem that never seems to go away. I have replaced all the coolant sensors, waterpump and purchased a new radiator cap and new lower temp stat. the car still overheats when i drive it on the interstate or during semi long(30 min or more) trips in the middle of the day. The gauge will just about hit the H and when i pull over coolant will come out of the overflow tank hose. Any ideas on what is left for me to try? I am guessing possibly buying a larger radiator? The car has a star stage 2 turbo kit could the intercooler be restricitng too much air flow? but i have seen guys with way larger ones on their cars and they don't seem to have this problem. ANY help would be great! I am just frustrated!!

Originally posted by phatface83
The car has a star stage 2 turbo kit could the intercooler be restricitng too much air flow? but i have seen guys with way larger ones on their cars and they don't seem to have this problem. ANY help would be great! I am just frustrated!!

This could be yes. Have you tried flushing out your radiator and heather hoses to make sure you dont have something floating around in there that could cause it to get stuck or something? I see this happen a lot at my work and we end up flushing the shit out of these radiators. I would start off by draining all the coolant, flushing the whole system for like 30 minutes over and over and get some fresh coolant and new thermostat. Get a good thermostat from Howell Automotive or something. Then see what happens.

What ever you do, dont sell your car because of this. I am sure its something simple and easy.

Also, can you hear it boiling when it starts to go up and it comes out of the overflow tank?

:whoa :whoa :whoa :whoa :whoa
Glad to see I'm not the only one about to give up and sell the car due to an overheating issue. I too have replaced just about evertying there is to be replaced other than the fans and radiator itself. ugh

Originally posted by CrazyEclipse
:whoa :whoa :whoa :whoa :whoa Glad to see I'm not the only one about to give up and sell the car due to an overheating issue. I too have replaced just about evertying there is to be replaced other than the fans and radiator itself. ugh

Michelle, you will need to put a better radiator like a fluidyne to keep your car cool. My car will try to over heat in this hot weather, the temperature will slowly rise especially with the A/C on. I wired the fans toughther and put them on a overide switch, so now I can run the fans continously if I am not on the highway. This helps keep the temps down quite a bit.

I think what is happening is that the radiators are getting older and are some what getting clogged up with corrosion and sludge. Also if you are running a turbo (especially if you have water cooled it like I have)and have a front mount IC. The radiator is not getting a lot of air flow because of the IC and the turbo is generating alot of heat under the hood that is soaking over to the cooling system. Also if the turbo is water cooled it is dumping extremly hot water back into the cooling system which is just to much for it to handle.

I am putting in a fluidyne this week which should fix the problem along with keeping the fans wired together.

Also, can you hear it boiling when it starts to go up and it comes out of the overflow tank?


yes! The gauge will jump up near the H level and then i will pull over and hear the boiling then woosh is starts coming out of the overflow tank and all overthe engine bay spilling out on the front passenger wheel. thanks for your advice! I already have the Howell automotive 160 stat, think i should still buy a new one when i flush the system? thanks again.

Yes, get a new thermostat.

Do you hear your fans running at all?

Pop your fuse box under the hood and look for the 20 fuse, it will be yellow.... It is your radiator fan fuse, sometimes there is a short and will cause it to blow, therefore making your radiator fans not come on... You can get them anywhere even at wal-mart... LOL My car is having that problem and I have to find the short, because I'm going through fuses like there's no tomorrow :wallbash

checked the fuse it was cool, thanks for the idea though! Yeah the fans come on, i drove the car tonight and it wasn't overheating at all, but i wasn't boosting and driving at a top of like 50mph. seems to only during a hot day and/or driving at interstate speeds for any period of time.
so i will try flushing the entire system and if that doesn't work i suppose i will have to splurge on a new radiator. any reccomendations on brands? i know of fluyidine but any other good ones out there? again thanks to everyone who has helped me.

I have a C&R for sale with a Spal fan. OR a Fluydine soon.

You can actually have your radiator pulled and cleaned too.

another thought, have you tested the coolant for signs of Hg leakage? Do your coolant levels go down?

Same thing happened to me, I flushed it out and it was ok for a couple days then developed a crack and I dumped fluid everywhere. New radiator and no overheating, although I haven't had it out in this summer heat yet.

Joe, if my shit cant be fixed soon, I most certainly will be tossing in the towel despite what anyone says. I'm tired of dumping in money that dosnt fix the problem. Ive never come across such a problem as this when I replace x amount of things and it dosnt fix the problem.

I'm sorry to the original posted of this thread, I'm not hijacking it, I'll start my own when I get the fuggen motivation.

Originally posted by CrazyEclipse
Joe, if my shit cant be fixed soon, I most certainly will be tossing in the towel despite what anyone says. I'm tired of dumping in money that dosnt fix the problem. Ive never come across such a problem as this when I replace x amount of things and it dosnt fix the problem. I'm sorry to the original posted of this thread, I'm not hijacking it, I'll start my own when I get the fuggen motivation.

You just dont have the right tools Michelle, you need to make a trip down to my garage, I will fix it for ya :)

coolant level doesn't seem to go down. it still reads close to full on the overflow tank. i think it only lost the coolant when it was coming out of the overflow tank and spilling all over the place. Don't see any leaks aswell. how is fitment of those radiators with the turbo? any rubbing issues?
thanks and CrazyEclipse no problem! you seem to have a similar problem and if you can get any info, it may end up helping me too.

Here in las vegas I had the same problem. I invested in some exhaut wrap and wrap the down pipe and turbo. The temps. have never went over the middle yet. I also found that the down pipe was right against the coolent line that goes back to the block. Hope this helps you like it has for me. I am running the stock radiator with both the fans running too.

Did you try burping the system? I've had overheating issues also but had it solved after changing the sensors, thermostat, and then burping the system to make sure to get all the air out. Just wait until your engine is completely cold (maybe the next morning), take the radiator cap and overflow tank cap off and let the engine run until it reaches normal temperature. Cap them back on and see if your meter continues to go up? Does your temp gauge ever fluctuate?

Originally posted by eclipse982nrRST
You just dont have the right tools Michelle, you need to make a trip down to my garage, I will fix it for ya :)

Perhaps I dont have all the tools to fix it, havnt run into that yet.. <wink> All the information I ever need is right here on the website, yet I still cant seem to fix this ongoing issue. I cant go anywhere without the car overheating, at IDLE; nevermind Ohio. LOL

Originally posted by bokchoi
Did you try burping the system? I've had overheating issues also but had it solved after changing the sensors, thermostat, and then burping, the system to make sure to get all the air out. Just wait until your engine is completely cold (maybe the next morning), take the radiator cap and overflow tank cap off and let the engine run until it reaches normal temperature. Cap them back on and see if your meter continues to go up? Does your temp gauge ever fluctuate?

I tried this earlier this evening after being conned into renting a coolant pressure tester... Not sure what i would have got out of it, regaurdless it didnt fit. Eh. After contending with myself for like 20 minutes to turn the car on without the radiator cap on, I finally did. I have a thing about that radiator cap being off while the car is on... a childhood thing. I watched the coolant level not move at all for about 90 seconds while the gauge read 1/4 and the level starting rising to top of the housing. I shut the car off before it started spewing all over the place. Screw doing that. I noticed too that the coolant itself didnt look like it was moving at all, like cycling thru, it was just stagnant. Weird thing tho is that eventually the gauge read ALL the way to the top, above the icon above H, and still the radiator fan didnt turn on. I tested it and the a/c fan from the relays, both worked just fine. so wtf?

Man I'm sorry here I go again hijackin. I'm sorry. You can slap me at anytime.

did you make sure the pin on the thermostat was on top when installed? I managed to get it installed upside down and therefore wouldnt work, like you said no coolantt flowing.

Nobody has said headgasket yet, so I will.

Originally posted by thedawg
Nobody has said headgasket yet, so I will.

Dunno about Bryan, but blown HG isnt what my problem is. The symptoms dont point toward it.

If in the event it is, I will shoot myself in the temple. :dark

Originally posted by CrazyEclipse

Originally posted by thedawg Nobody has said headgasket yet, so I will.

Dunno about Bryan, but blown HG isnt what my problem is. The symptoms dont point toward it. If in the event it is, I will shoot myself in the temple. :dark

I've been thinking headgasket the whole thread.

Symptoms? Like what?

I don't care what anyone says, the *only* symptom I ever had when I blew a HG was overheating. Odd, intermittant overheating that eventually grew into overheating all the time if the car was sitting still. No fluid mixing. None. Ever. Minimal if any loss of compression at first, it was probably noticable by the time i changed the gasket, i didn't check. Coolant pushing out of the res under high boost.

Check it people. COuld be the solution to all your problems.

Originally posted by DarkOne

Originally posted by CrazyEclipse

Originally posted by thedawg Nobody has said headgasket yet, so I will.

Dunno about Bryan, but blown HG isnt what my problem is. The symptoms dont point toward it. If in the event it is, I will shoot myself in the temple. :dark

I've been thinking headgasket the whole thread. Symptoms? Like what? I don't care what anyone says, the *only* symptom I ever had when I blew a HG was overheating. Odd, intermittant overheating that eventually grew into overheating all the time if the car was sitting still. No fluid mixing. None. Ever. Minimal if any loss of compression at first, it was probably noticable by the time i changed the gasket, i didn't check. Coolant pushing out of the res under high boost. Check it people. COuld be the solution to all your problems.

Yep I wasn't even losing compression with mine. But there was some oil in the coolant. There was a leak between the passages. Anyways as far as a radiator, www.radiatorbarn.com is where I got mine. It's held off the heat so far.

is all i have to say right about now.

I think I lost even more motivation now.

Originally posted by thedawg
Nobody has said headgasket yet, so I will.

I hinted at it...

Mine also never did anything but over heat once in a while. No smells, no mixtures nothing. Just pushing coolant out like Dino Said.