New heads, still runs hot

[foreman72]

Ok, thank you to all who helped me in the months prior.
I have a 95 LS 3.1L, and i just put on a set of reman. heads, new t-stat, new fluids and water pump and temp switch. The car still seems to run hot. It's mainly affected when the weather gets hot(obviously) but the gauge goes past halfway and starts making me nervous. The one fan will kick on, and if i turn on the air, both fans will go, but the gauge takes a while for it to go down, and you can smell it's hot. I'd say it runs hotter than my old accord, but i can't say for sure. I bled the hell out of the system, but i never did a full on flush--and the car sat for 2-3 years before i got it. Any idea why this thing loves to run hot? It doesn't overheat, because i won't let it---as soon as it gets toward the higher side of the gauge, i turn on the air---but sometimes, even with the air on, it will go high like that----Any ideas at all? I'm lost.

[richtazz]

check the radiator to be sure it's not clogged up, and look in the space between the radiator and A/C condenser for debris that could be blocking airflow. If the guage doesn't get above 220-230 when sitting still in traffic on hot days, and then goes down as soon as you start to move, then there's no problem, as that is normal.

[kevinb70]

my first thought was bleeding the system, but you did that

maybe something is wrong with teh engine causing it to run hot, and nothing wrong with the cooling?

if your engine is running lean, it will also run hot


im sure my temp gauge isnt calibrated exactly like yours (needle gauge is meant to show relative temp, not absolute, is why there are no numbers on the temp gauge)
... but running down the highway, the needle is a bit left of straight up.. not sitting at 11 o'clock but maybe 11:30

when sitting in traffic in warm weather, no ac... the needle will move to the right, past straight up, and sit at 1:00

putting on AC will move it back to 1130 or 1200

[maxwedge]

The right way here is to get a scanner on it and see what the actual temp is and check for the fans coming on at 222, no guess work then.

[frank6060]

Yeah I think that temp. gauge is just messing with your head. If you can get a hold of a digital thermometer with a strap on sensor you can get a close temp reading too. Just strap it on to your upper hose. I dont run my 90 3.1 in the winter so I installed a lower 180 temp. t-stat.But one of the best things I did that relieves excess heat in hot weather is installing a trans.fluid cooler. We can forget that rad. coolant cools tranny juice and that's a lot of heat to asorb. My tranny shifts so much better because of this especially on those hot days. They're cheap and easy to install.

[foreman72]

Actually, i just picked up a lazer thermometer, i guess i'll see if i can get a close reading with that. Maybe it is in its proper range, it just seems like its cooking.

[kevinb70]

If you have access to a scantool (OBD-I??) when you check your temp with the laser thermometer, can also see if that reading matches what your ECM reports.

Would the most accurate spot to measure temp be the thermostat housing? Basically where the coolant sensor is measuring