95 camaro cooling issues...

Quick question for you guys. My buddy has got a '95 camaro v6 that is having cooling system issues. The car has 125,000 miles on it currently. The temperature needle fluctuates very oddly going from as low as 185 dgrees to as high as 260 degrees. No smoke was coming from the hood area and the engine wasn't really abnormally hot--according to him. He said he did hear the coolant bubbling though from within the radiator area. Also, the radiator cap is new. Not sure how old the hoses are as he didn't know himself. I'm thinking it could be a bad temperature sender/sensor or maybe a bad headgasket. Thoughts on this??? Thanks guys.

Kevin

ummm, bubbleing bad, if he can hear it bubbling, than it is overheating, and he has a problem, check to see if his fans are coming on, and staying on. if there is an intermittant electrical problem with the fan, and it is turning off, then the coolant temp will go up, if the fans kick back on, the temp will drop. if it were a bad head gasket, you would either have a visable leak, or coolant/oil mixing. so you would be able to check that. more likely is its an electric fan problem, the fan its self, a fan switch, relay, or even the module that controls it. which could be the BCM, PCM, or other module, however if that were the case, there would be other problems as well. i would focus on the fan, relay, and switch.

you might try also posting on camaroz28.com

if it were a bad head gasket, you would either have a visable leak, or coolant/oil mixing. so you would be able to check that. be other problems as well.

that's not always true, if there's a small leak between the cylinder and a water jacket, it's gonna push hot air through the cooling system, cause it to overflow through the expansion bag, and he'd have air in the system. it doesnt pull fluid into a cylinder unless it's a really bad leak. does it idle really rough when he first starts it up? fire the engine up cold and pull the radiator cap off and see if it's bubbling. Also, a leaking head gasket generally cause's an engine to heat up extremely fast. like Iroc said, it could be that the fan isn't coming on. also, you might check the thermostat.

Thanks guys. He's taking it to Sears today since he doesn't work on his car :rolleyes: I'll keep you posted on what happens.

Kevin

good call 4onfloor, forgot about that. im used to working on the 3.4 V6's at work, keep forgetting small block stuff. :(