I just bought a 94 Trans Am. And it seems to be getting a bit hot. I am up in Canada, and there's a Temp Gauge that is in Celcius. The fans don't seem to kick in till ~110 C, which is ~230 Fahrenheit. 110 on my gauge is a little bit away from the 'red zone'

How high will your temp gauage get?

 

I just got my new engine running and the temp never gets past the first hash mark (1/4 mark)... It will go slightly above it then the fans kick in... drops back down. I used to have problems keeping the old engine below the half mark. I had a bad radiator.. with the new radiator I have no issues.

 

I have a 160*F stat in my car and it continually runs 165-170-175. It only really goes above that if I am standing in traffic on a 100* day and I have the AC on. If I sit long enough it will get to about 200*. Once I start moving the temperature comes down very quickly.

 

the cheapest and best thing to do for insurance is flush your cooling system and get a new theromo...

 

Yeh, I just flushed the coolant system. Flushed it quite a few times, and by the time I was done, only crystal clear water was coming from it.

Mabye it's time to get a T-stat. Are 160 degree T-stats something I'd have to order special, or should the local parts store have em?

 

a 160* Thermo is a good investment, and make sure you get the thermo that is LT1 SPECIFIC, otherwise it will not work right and you'll be overheating again. By the way, even on 104 degree days, my car never goes above 200. In fact, it rarely ever gets past 190* now that I think about it.

EDIT: Yes, your local auto parts store should have it.

 

Be careful with trying to get a lt1 160 stat from local parts stores. Most of them have in the computer just a standard SBC stat listed for our cars. Thats not right. Double check the other applications for that part number to be sure. Impala SS, vette, camaro, firebird, roadmaster should pretty much be it.

 

I didn't think that local auto parts stores had this...I ordered mine from hypertech a few years ago...the only downside is it takes about 2-3 miles to get some heat in the winter time...

 

Here in Texas summer 100 degree heat both of my cars with stock thermostat will kick the fans on after a long period of idle. The factory thermostat is 195 degree and the fans will not come on until 230 degrees. If you want it to run cooler you will have to do some changes.

 

hey sorry to jump in on the thread, but i just got bought a 97 ss and the temp is kind of quirky in my opinion , it will run when i am driving at the first quarter mark so at about 180 or somethimes even lower when i have been driving for a long time . is that normal ? i thought it should always stick at 210 when u are driving ?

 

It all depends on what you're doing, if you have stock programming/thermostat... You can't really say that it will stay at a given temp all the time. If you're idling up a hill in massive traffic on a 105* day, with no fan switch or 160 thermo, your car will see roughly 220* before the fans kick on and cool it off. However, if you're cruising along the highway at 80 on a 70* day, the car will probably never get warmer than 185*. It all depends on the circumstances.