So before i put in my new aluminum radiator my temperature gauge was workign fine. now my car still gets hot but after traveling over 45 mph for 5-10 mins the guage starts to slowly drop till it reaches the bottom. Now winter is here, when i warm up my car for 10 mins my gauge goes 1/4 way up a lil higher normal needle position after warm up. but as soon as i start driving it goes down slowly till it reaches the bottom. temp here lately is below 40 and unless i let my car sit with it on it barely ever gets hot. now is my thermostat messed up (but works fine when i let it sit or when its hot out) or does teh radiator really taht good at heat desplacement? oh btw my heater works ok now...but as soon as i stop for 5 mins it get hotter cause teh car gets hotter adn the needle works or at least its up to where its supposed to be. what could be wrong? its getting cold and the above luke warm heat isnt doing me any good. dotn really want to put on old radiator so i can have normal hot heat.....

 

There might be to much capacity causing the coolant to travel to fast and not warm up at all. Unless your running a turbo there is no reason for a bigger aluminum radiator. You might want to try a different thermostat.

 

the radiator is teh same capacity as the factory. its driving me crazy..

 

So lets get things straight.

The car warms up fine ? Or does it take really long to ?

When you drive your car at 45mph for a while the temp needle goes all the way to the bottom ?

And your heat does not get hot enough to your liking's ?

How is your coolant level ?

 

car warms up fine. after 10 mins needle is 2/8th up to where its supposed to be temp wise.when i drive my car faster then 45 mph when its hot or when i drive it around 25mph now since its so freckign cold now teh temp slowly goes back down. like the air is cooling the whole system down or rapidly cooling down the radiator and the coolant??? so the heat doesnt get as hot as it should be when im driving (this is when teh needle is at the bottom). When i let it warm up its burning hot. btw my hood is reverse vented to help air flow not sure if taht helps or not. Coolant is all the way full

 

As an experiment put a piece of cardboard of part of the radiator and see if it will substain its temp and not drop

 

The aluminum radiator is not your problem. I have an aluminum radiator and the temperature indication is slightly lower than when I had my stock radiator due to more efficient heat dissipation. The way you are describing the fluctuation in temperature would lead me to believe it may be your thermostat. If you are talking about a major fluctuation in your heat inside your car it may be your heater core. The other thing you may want to check is that there is no air in your cooling system, This may also cause your problem. The air needs to be bled out of the cooling system using the bleeding screw on the left front side near the valve cover. I would try that first before doing anything else. Hope this helps!

 

bleed the vavle last night still same ****. stuck a card board blocking some of teh radiator and it works sorta of dotn really want ot block the whole thing. today after 30 mins of hard driveing i parked my car. popped the hood got out and felt my radiator which was not even luke warm. The cap was basically cold didnt want to risk it by opening it though. my vavle cover was only luke warm, even my block was touchable. in fact nothing is even remotely hot to the point where i cant hold my hands there for more then 1 min. in other words...this radiator is doing to good of a job and i dont have heat now well i do but not HOT heat unless i want to park my car and let it get out and drive for another 15 mins before it gets cold again

 

Your thermostat is bad.

Even if your radiator had a super cooling abilities your car would still maintain normal temperature, your thermostat would just open less often.

Coolant gets trapped in the motor, and isnt let free to cool untill the thermostat opens (when the fulid gets hot enough). Even if it rushed into your rad, got ice cold and went back into the engine the thermostat would quickly close whenever it got colder then the temperature it opens at, so its impossible if you thermostat is good.

Replace it.

 

so now your saying that its a continous flow? not letting my car heat up? but in theory isnt this a good thing? that my motor doesnt get hot? besides me freezing my *** off

 

Are you sure your thermostat is not stuck open ? And no in theory its not good, people think it is but these people are just misinformed.

 

yea i just read up on it thermo effienecy(sp?) its probally stuck open. going ot test it this weekend before it really freezes

 

Test?

There like 12 dollars, just replace it. And use sealer on the housing. Clean it with a wirebursh first too.

No engines are designed to run at a certain temperature, its what makes your oil flow better, and your engine burn cleaner.

 

welll that was a pain in the ***..i tried to cut corners by not taking the hose off. everything got in the way. what should of took 10 mins took about an hour...but now car is hot my idle is 300 rpm lower? i even think my mpg is better. and i dont have as much smoke come out of my tail pipe.

 

your idle is probably lower because you have air bubbles in the coolant or did before. Did you properly bleed the system?

 

yea i bleed it it was 1100 idle before now its 800. car shakes a wee wee wee bit now too

 

Specs are 750-850, no biggie.