'94 Firebird Questions...

All right, we purchased this car just a little over a week ago, and I've started to catch up on some maintenance that has been neglected over the years. Appearantly, the coolant hadn't been changed since purchase of the car in 1994, and just a couple of days ago, it had overheated really bad. We had shut the car off, and as soon as we did, I had popped the hood to check the coolant, and come to find out that the coolant had boiled and overflowed from the reservoir. After the car had cooled down, I drove it home, and did a complete flush on the cooling system, and replaced the fluid with new. The problem seemed to be fixed, until yesterday, the car overheated again. The odd thing is, it only seems to overheat when the car is sitting still, with the heat turned down on low. Also, if anyone knows of a good place to purchase performance parts for a Firebird, let me know. By the way, it's a 3.4 Litre V-6, if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance.

If it over heats when stopped the fans may not be kicking on, could be a relay/fuse or something. Also, it may sound dumb, but check to see if any thing is stuck to the front of the radiator (like a plastic shopping bag) happens to me about once every few months. I have a V8 so I can't tell ya where to get performance parts for the V6 but I'm sure someone else can.

Well, I don't know for sure if there is a problem with the fans kicking on, but I do know that there is nothing obstructing the radiator, that was one of the first things I had checked for. I'll do some checking on the relays and fans and stuff and see what comes up. Thanks a bunch.

Chicken kicker is completely right. Sounds like a relay or some other electrical problem or something in the way of the fans. That is the only reason it would only affect while the car is standing still because while it is in motion the air cools the coolant in the radiator which get circulated threw the block but when the car is still it needs the fans to generate that air travel to provide cooling to the radiator. Also if you do a search of the forum you will see some helpful performance mod suggestions. and Congrats on your recent purchase.

John

All right, I will check out the fan asap. I'll search around on here for some performance modifications...see what I can come up with. Anyways, thanks a million. :)

well i dunno about v-6s but in the v-8s from '94 the fan doesn't turn on till the car get dangerously hot, they are notorious for it. So much so that jet performance products sells a mod that allows the fans to come on sooner for a cooler idle. I bouht the mod, but i didn't realize i have to take half the car apart to install it. So i have to wait till i do my headers.

I just rigged up a switch so i can either controll the fans myself or let the PCM do it, helps in stopped traffic and in the staging lanes at the track.

a good place i found for v6 f body mods iswww.firebirdv6.com (http://www.firebirdv6.com/) look at there vendors good stuff

o also you might have an a pocket in the cooling system but it definetly sounds like yer fan isint working luckily the ancor under your hood is all cast iron so it can take a little heat but dont let it happen to much still will damage stuff good luck

Thanks for all the replies...I hadn't had the chance to get around to fixing it, but as soon as I do, I'll let you all know how well it goes.

All right, well I went and checked out the fan itself, it works, and I've checked the fuse for the fan. I've found the relay for the cooling fan, but I'm totally clueless when it comes to testing a relay to see if it's bad. So can anyone tell me how to determine whether a relay is bad or not? Thanks.