Welcome to the Corvette Forums at the Corvette Action Center!

Heat troubles

BigRed

Well-known member
Joined
May 23, 2001
Messages
948
Location
Edmonton
Corvette
1985 Bright Red Rocket
Is it normal in hot weather (31 degress C)

For the oil to get to 236 Degree's and the coolant to 215? I think the coolants alright but the oil is sure bothering me

My Fan is Direct current now so it never turns off BUT the fan on the front on the rad is'nt Direct...

Question is how do I even tell that ones working? I may run the wires directly to the other fan so BOTH never shut off (because in my head that makes sense LOL) Can someone here give me the Thumbs up or Down pls.

And finally I noticed a Knock in the motor of Acceleration (Sometimes) also it did once when I shut her down. Is there an easy fix here? (Besides a rebuild?) and Its ONE knock it just gives me a knock and go's
 
umm

Knocking going up hill or what


215 is way to hot your car shouldn't hit that hot no matter if u are flying 160 down the road. umm, i had alot of cooling problems when i first bought my corvette. my fans stop working. so right now i have both fans wired directly ot my batery,, the bad thing about that is it drains the juice big time, but it won't hurt it none. But the reason my fans wasn't working was cuase my ECM was failling i have 230K miles on the thing,im restoring the whole thing i just got finish painting my engine to look all brand new under the hood.
if u hear a noise that isnt' a good sound at all man. but i would think u would hear the noise all the time. Are u leaking coolant? i used to have coolant leaks i took my water pump off and 4 botls was on it and 2 of them was nearly off of it and there was no gasket under it..the person that owned my car befor eme didnt' know what he was doing. cause there is alot of wireing i had to rewire back to the way the factory is, cuase i replaced every snesor in my car. My 85 is like 100 percent brand new now..so i replaced int he last 7 months my radater,water pump, the first fan is only used for your air conditioning. the guy that owne dmy car. unpluged the air conditino cause he didn't know how to fix the fan.. sigh.. do u check your coolant often, if u have a leak and u ran it empty and drove it once u could have a slighty warped gasket for your intake not enough to show smoke out your tail pipe but enough to make a noise. i blew my gasket one time, when if first bought my corvette cause i had a intake leak that was leaking coolant throught my intake as a mist form so i couldn't notice it. there is a way to test to see if u have a warped gasket i dont' have my haynes manual in side, maybe soeone here will know by heart. its really simple to replace as well, "i wrote alot on this"
 
C4 Running Hot

Hello fellow Canadian ....

On a stock C4 WITHOUT the direct fan this coolant temp is normal at 31 degrees C in city traffic
The computer will turn on your fan when the temp reaches 109 C or approx 228 F.
If you look at the owners manual that came with the car it states all information on fluid temps in there.

Gary
 
too much oil is a no-no

Make sure you do not over fill your oil. Oil retains heat, and you do more harm over filling. Make sure you have the correct tension (non-serpentine) on the fan belts. A slipping fan pulley will over heat the engine, and cause a loss of cooling efficency of the water pump and fan blade. A partially closed thermostat will cause over heating. Rust, lime on the side surfaces of the water jacket or head gasket holes, restricts good cooling. Airation of the coolant (blown head gasket) reduces heat transfer. Core restrictions like paper, mud, accessories will prevent proper cooling. Too cool of and engine will keep the oil from getting hot enough to cook off the condensation inside the block. This will cause the oil to become thick and have poor flow qualities. Just a few symptoms to look for when diagnosing an over heating problem. Hope this helps.
The engine block has a knock sensor. When working properly, the computer retards the ignition to prevent damage. I agree with Gary. You're looking good.
 
what is 31 degrees C

what is that in F's


i can't bleive your C5 runs 215 thats pretty hot man. keep in mind the C5 is a aluminum engine, his 85 is not.. his engine can take heat way better then your 85 and i own a 85 and when my 85 rusn 215 there is somethign wrong,, it should be the most at 195 or so.. c5's are a compeletly diffearnt car, u can't comparethem,r eally
 
Shadowing

First off .... C = Celcius and F = Farenheit

Secondly .... what C5 are you talking about???? BigRed has an 85 just like you and me ....

Thirdly .... read your manual and you will understand just what I am talking about in regards to coolant temps ....

Gary
 
BigRed, my 86 has been running (in 85-90 degree F weather, 30-33 c) 225-230 at idle, 180 on the road (180 tstat) for coolant and oil is around the same as yours. I have an oil cooler, but lately it doesn't seem to be working. A stock rad fan turns on at 230.

I'm told if you're using dino oil you're safe to 250 (120 c) (which is when the red light goes on) but synthetic is safe to 450 (230 c).

[RICHR]
 
wow

i have a huge loss in horse power,, maybe since i havn't fixed this problem yet is the reason i don't run as hot., plus when my car hits 215 F it looses horse power,, and at 250 the red light comes on ofcourse, i really have no hores then,, and at like 275 or so is when id start seeing some smoke,,


u said C4 i thought u said c5 hehe


and i dont' understand,, if u have a L98 engine why u calling it a c4

are those the same,, if so i had no clue they were
 
I have seen my temp reach 230 at times before the fans kick in.
 
I posted a similar dilemma with my 84 and I thought I was too hot at 200!! Apparently these cars (from the replies on mine) run up to 230 comfortably without worrying about damage - providing you have proper pressure inside the system (so that your water doesn't turn to vapor), adequate oil and coolant, and don't "rag" on it at these high temps. I have also wired my fan to run at all times but I live in Sunny Arizona. In fact, it is supposed to hit 110 on Monday!!
 
I'm a little nervous after reading these posts. My 96 LT1 oil temp stays around 215 - 220 which is on the low side on the gauge. Coolant stays about 190 - 200 on the road (again the low side) but will move up quickly at idle or in stop and go traffic. I discussed this with the dealer who said it isn't a problem until it reaches the shaded area on the gauge, 260. Never been that high but close until I get back up to speed. I checked the manual but it says the same as the dealer. I live in Arizona where it is 105 now and heading up. Any thoughts
 
well

my car reached to 250 last week

and i figure it was cuase my car wasn't timed right

im in the process of painting my enigne righ tnow going to time it right when its done

and get new spark plug wires too they need new ones bad.
also need to set my TPS sensor back to where it needs to be too. sinc ei moved it in the past.

if it still idles badly im coming on this site and asking for help. hehe. well my next step woudl be fuel pressure,, and since my engine is tore down righ tnow, i mine as well clean out my air control.

before i fixed my ICM which was not running right and after i fixe dmy water pump my car ran at 186 or so all the time. but now that i fixed some of the problems on it,, its running hot now, but i gues su guy's say 215 isn't hot, but i know 250 is,, hehe
 
Water Wetter helps. (Red Line)
I too have a touchy temp thing going on. I turn on the A/C so that the fans kick in, since I don't have a fan override.

Just a thought, is the radiator area clean? The space between the radiator and the condenser too? I have been told this area requires maintenace as well.
 
So Basicly I am not to worryed then right? Comes down to oil peference I guess (I got the Castrol Syntec in there)

It has been hot here (Around 31 degree's) but the COOLANT is around 200-210 with the fan NEVER shutting off (I made this so)

The oil (If I drive like a Mad man) can get to 236-240. But the oil I right on the mark. I may take the frontal fan and wire it so its on all the time. But in time I may opt for a Oil cooler when I do my engine conversion.

And yes I have a 85 LOL
 
my92 was running; 194F (highway @ 65-75mph),
200-205F (intown @ 0-35mph), for cooling system.
once it is good and warmed up the oil runs 210-220F.
this is moderate driving. no hot rodding.
never seen oil over 230F.
i'm running Mobil 1 Synth. i tried RedLine Synth and the temps dropped about 10F. but the oil is too expensive for general use.

GM says as long as your fans come on at 225 and the car doesn't get over 235 it is not a big deal so stop worrying. So either trust them and live with that as the design or modify it.

I think the engine compartment is just so darn hot letting it run that way and the abuse on all the parts bolted/wired to and around the engine hurts. I just put in a 160deg stat and a new chip and will see what happens. Initial test was car never runs past 185F for coolant. Did run long enough to see oil temp settle. So the new tstat/chip combo drops my running temp at least 20F.
I like this idea better than hot-wiring the fans to run all the time. I'll just have to see what happens in winter. I tried this on an 84 and in winter time the result was bad. Car ran too cold. Like as if that's possible in a Vette huh :L
Graham
 
Normally Id agree but when I bought this car the guy had the main fan already hot wired (Real bad job to) all I did was fix the "Bad Job" part, I have no Idea how to get the fan to start working how it normally does (Because factory wiring still exists and the realy is still there hooked up)

So I think because of this "Mod" the frontal fan won't work as its supposed to, so I might as well run it full time. (Hey better than it not working at all)

Later when Play-Doe permits I'll have a custom or premade PROM installed with a 160 Thermo. ATM Im running a 195 (I know I know but it was all I could find ATT)

Thanks guys!
 

Corvette Forums

Not a member of the Corvette Action Center?  Join now!  It's free!

Help support the Corvette Action Center!

Supporting Vendors

Dealers:

MacMulkin Chevrolet - The Second Largest Corvette Dealer in the Country!

Advertise with the Corvette Action Center!

Double Your Chances!

Our Partners

Back
Top Bottom