im running hot (updated)

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im running hot (updated)

June 21, 2006, 12:56:59 AM

ok, so heres the deal. recently my themostat went out while i was 50 miles away from home. really sucked to be me because i could only drive a mile every 15 minutes. i ended up being in a walmart parking lot at 3 in the morning pulling the themostat out and gasket sealing it so i could get it home. i changed the themostat the next day and it seems to run fine, but the temp needle sits between the "n" and "o" in "norm" ( its an 88 tbird sport 5.0). today i noticed that when i was driving slow threw town it was up near the top of the "n". what should i look for? I replaced the upper and lower radiator hoses and the radiator looks fine. help me out please.

im running hot (updated)

Reply #1 – June 21, 2006, 02:00:23 AM

sounds like your running very cool to me but maybe you meant to put the letter M in quotes instead of the N.

If so,,,,,,,,

FAN CLUTCH TIME

makes perfect sense that it would run hotter in town due to the lack of air moving across the radiator. The fan clutch might be slipping a little too much and not blowing enough air. Highly likely possibility.

second,,, is it possible you have too much of a ratio of water to coolant in the radiator? try and see if you can get it to a 50/50 if you think your guilty of adding water a little too often.

Do you loose coolant? are the weep holes on the water pump leaking? does your windshield fog up when you turn the heat on? Does the engine bubble coolant over the the overflow ect,, does it actually over heat or is it possible you have a defective guage?

yeah

Reply #2 – June 22, 2006, 01:05:59 AM

i was thinking fan clutch possibly.
no my temp guage is fine, i just put a new sending unit in right before this all happened.
and the weep holes are also fine, that was the first thing i checked.
is it possible i got a bad thermostat?
and i do not see any leaks anywhere, my levels are fine.
im hopeing i didnt do any permanent damage when it got so hot, but i dont think so, i shut her down quick.
any thoughts?

and no

Reply #3 – June 22, 2006, 10:58:53 PM

I NEVER use just straght up water. I ALWAYS use 50/50 or straght anti-freez. and no I did not mean "M". on my bird the guages are set up
"N"
"O"
"R"
"M"
everything seems fine except it runs hotter than it did before.
Please, for the love of 5.0's everywhere, help me out.
it happened again tonight as i was driving 65 on the highway comeing home from work.

im running hot (updated)

Reply #4 – June 22, 2006, 11:31:46 PM

did you put the thermostat in the right way?

im running hot (updated)

Reply #5 – June 25, 2006, 01:45:45 AM

yes, the thermostat is in the right way. In fact, I just pulled out the "New" thermostat and replaiced it with another new thermostat and went for a drive, by the time i got back home it was topping out again.
I thought maybe my sending unit wire was ground out, causing it to jump up for no reason. I checked it with a voltometer and it had continuity to the ground when it was off. I then checked it with the ignition on and it would jump to different readings. this is really driving me nuts, i miss driving my car everyday. lines dont seem to be collapsing or anything.
please, any ideas?

im running hot (updated)

Reply #6 – June 25, 2006, 10:22:40 AM

To check your fan clutch is easy enough. Open your hood and with the motor off and no key in the ignition simply place your hand on the fan and give a spin as if you were a contestant on Wheel of Fortune. A fan in good working order should not make 1 full spin. 1.5 full turns is acceptable, but that's about the limit. Any thing more than that will cause high temperature issues.

Also, have you checked your cap to make sure it's holding good pressure?

im running hot (updated)

Reply #7 – June 27, 2006, 03:50:54 PM

You need to make sure that your wire going from the gauge to the sending unit is o.k. an easy way to check is to do an ohm check from end to end on the wire and then check another piece of known "good" wire the same length and gauge. They should be close
(as I don't know what the resistance value of that wire should be) The connection on the end of the wire could be coroded causing excessive resistance. Just because you have continuity between wire leads doesn't tell you how much resistance you have in that wire.
(anybody know what the value's for the sending unit and gauge are?)

im running hot (updated)

Reply #8 – June 27, 2006, 11:29:12 PM

Well.... Ok, I had my radiator flushed and the guy said that it looked great, untill he started boiling it and found that someone put stopleak or something in it. as soon as all the was out the upper part started leaking. He fixed the leak and all is now well.
i know it isnt over heating, but now i have a new problem.
Now, every once in a while, like every 15 min or so, the temp guage and the fuel guage top out, at the same time.
What could cause this?

im running hot (updated)

Reply #9 – July 22, 2006, 12:43:14 PM

Quote from: outofnothing5

Now, every once in a while, like every 15 min or so, the temp guage and the fuel guage top out, at the same time.
What could cause this?

http://www.turbotbird.com/techinfo/ivr/improved_design_solid_state_IVR.htm