lt1 overheating
 

97 lt1.. ive been driving it for about a month and it suddenly started heating up, ive had my water pump changed along with a couple hoses that were clogged from the car sitting. my mechanic put new coolant in and said he burped all the air out.. so idk what it could be maybe the thermo? itll run for about 10 minutes before going into the red, and my black plastic airduct thing under the bumper is still there. any help would be appreciated. thanks.

Could be the thermo but I would bleed it yourself to be sure. LT1s have a specific coolant bleed procedure that many people botch- even the pros.

If its really quick and every time, I would guess he forgot the waterpump coupling.

alright, ill get on it today after work.. you think thats all it could be?

the day i got the car back i drove it around town for about 25 minutes before it started to watch the needle rise. but after that its been about 10 minutes.

Also, check the fluid level in the radiator, too.

A just be wary, a SBC thermo, is NOT the same as an LT1 thermo, no matter how much the parts jockey may want to tell you.

Also, there is no advantage to getting a colder than stock rated one if you do not plan on tuning to run the fans sooner.

flued level in the radiator is good. i check it

i want to eventually make the fans kick on sooner, one of them wasnt turning on for some reason so had it directly hooked up so when the car turns on so does the fan.

Stock fan activation temps are high. You need to get your PCM programmed to turn them on sooner, and then run a cooler thermostat with that.

yeah thats what i plan on doing.

Is it heating up when on the move or just sitting and idling? If this is happening at low speed or idling, I would make sure both the fans are coming on. During the summer, my car would get toasty pretty quickly when the one fan was not working and the other was barely functional.

its heating up when i drive, i havent let it sit long enough to see if it would overheat at idle. and im pretty positive both fans are on, the one is wired to turn on as i turn on the ignition.

As mentioned, I would follow the proper procedure to make sure the air is out of the system. We have bleeder screws to help with this so if the mechanic just opened the rad cap, that likely wouldn't fix the issue.

This is a good read.

http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#cooling

bled the lines again, yet still over heating took it to a new mechanic..just want to make sure its nothing like a cracked head or anythnig..

sorry for stupid question, but I ve seen it done before....Did you make sure fans that you wired up are wired to correct polarity? if not, than one could be pushing hot air from engine back towards radiator instead of pulling it through as it should.

there is no reason for this. My experience is correct the issue and make it work as the engineers designed it.

if a mechanic just did all this cooling system work, why not just take it back?

Definitly check the Thermostat, had a few lower temp ones fail on me, reverted back to the original, no issues.

the mechanic i brought it to had my car for about a week and a half. i didnt feel like having no car again.

well the problem was one of the fans wasnt turing on at all. so it was wired to run as soon as the car was started..but i brought it to a new mechanic today who said hes had much experience with f bodys before.

Did you fix it yet?

Kinda off topic but what'd ya buy that's LT1 powered? Been seeing a white TA floating around.

I've been wondering this same thing. Haha. I've seen a red mid 90s formula a lot and there's a white anniversary lt1 in newton all the time. Also a white firehawk but that's the ls1 style. Lol

White Firehawk (I believe, might be a WS6 though) sits at that gas station (Exon or w/e) on 521, right past Muffler Dan's in Newton.

See this white LT1 Trans Am floating around Stillwater all the time. I was patching potholes on Middleville Road and it went past on Friday. Guys at worked asked me if I had a chubby when it passed. I can't tell if it's a guy or a girl driving :kneeslap:

Yea that's the car I'm talking about. Been sittin at the gas station on a donut for the past few days

i would do the old boiling pot of water trick. take out your thermostat, and drop it in a pot of boiling water, see if she's opening up. also as LT said, the SBC and LT are different.

Worst case scenerio, could have intake or head gaskets that went bad. check your oil/coolant, see if there's any oil in the coolant, or the oil is tan.