High coolant temps with upgraded radiator and dual fans

[Undercover87T]

Got back Sunday from a 360 mile road trip to the ocean. First long distance trip in the car. On the way back I got caught in a 13 mile back up, stop and go. 70 degrees out, ac off, both fans on high, coolant temps slowly climbed from 180 to 204, ATS blinking hot. Once I cleared the jamb and started moving temps dropped to normal. Should I be concerned? Air in the system maybe? Currently having vacuum issues with my heater valve not opening also. Believe there is a line unhooked under the dash somewhere.
Coolant system details (all parts have 2000miles on them):
- 180 t-stat
- GN1 3 core aluminum radiator with oil and trans coolers
- Alradco standard dual fans
- external trans cooler in front of the condenser
- new hoses all around
- new water pump
- new TA ported front cover/high volume pump

 

[highboostgn]

You sure it's full?

 

[Undercover87T]

You sure it's full?

Rad is full, overflow at the full mark.

 

[garyk1970]

Is it possible to have one of the fans wired backwards? I use this old trick.....i put a dollar bill on opposite side of radiator across from each fan, each sould hold bill up while running...old school but works

 

[Squid4life]

Huge front mount?


Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

 

[Undercover87T]

Is it possible to have one of the fans wired backwards?

Not sure if you can wire them backwards. My local buick performance shop installed them when I had my exhaust work done. Fans came from Peter at Alradco with the Caspers plug and play harness.

 

[Undercover87T]

Huge front mount?


Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

No FMIC. Using a Gbodyparts stretch SLIC

 

[garyk1970]

Wouldnt hurt to double check....hard to tell by the feel of the air travel...you could also watch as they come to a stop to make sure they are spinning the same direction.

 

[Undercover87T]

Wouldnt hurt to double check....hard to tell by the feel of the air travel...you could also watch as they come to a stop to make sure they are spinning the same direction.

I'll do that tomorrow. Something you usually don't pay attention to.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

TT chip idle in open loop?
If so, and the vac leak is there, could the lack of O2 correction be causing a lean condition?

 

[turbo nasty]

How old is the water pump?

 

[Undercover87T]

Yes TT 5.7 chip open loop idle, O2 values usually 800-900 hot idle. Car has heated O2 sensor. Water pump is also new, added that to the list. I may or may not have found the issue. At what temp do TT chips call for hi speed on the fan(s)? At 166 the right fan comes on, spins to the left/counter clockwise. The left fan never comes on, even when temps get up to 200-205. My Ac compressor is unhooked due to a bad clutch, sliding the selector to AC doesn't turn the other fan on.

 

[getdowngranny]

Looks like you found it. I would say that's the issue. One of those fans working alone is a lot to ask for in stop and go traffic.

 

[Undercover87T]

Yea I'd say. 86 degrees out today, took the car for a short drive, let it idle for a min or two when I got back. Temps went from 180 to 200 in that short time frame. Need to determine whether I have defective fans/harness or bad ecm.

 

[Red C5]

One fan should run in low mode. In high both should run. The other way to trigger high is to turn on the a/c which automatically kicks it into high (both fans on). I asked John at Caspers how to get both fans to run in low mode, his response was connect A and B on the factory connector together to the low speed signal; if you do that, both fans will run. We've come across a couple of cars that had similar problems where the ecm was never engaging "high" mode on the fans. I doubt it's the harness or fan. You could switch plugs on the fans to see if low mode will run the other fan, to help isolate the problem.

We're also having Caspers make some harnesses that will run both fans in low mode, to help address situations like this. I'd be happy to send you one of those when we get them in.

Peter

 

[Royal-T-Ltd]

I had the same problem... one fan alone would not cool it down. What you have to do is take the middle pin out of the weather pack connector [fan harness side] and then take the the other signal pin out of the connector [A port] and splice them together and re-insert the pin into the outermost port [back into A], this way both fans engage all the time [when called for, NOT running all the time ] , works like a charm [just like my Ramchargers fan]

Its sounds a lot more difficult than it actually is. I actually switched mine and soldered the connection in less than 10 minutes [but i am familiar with weather pack connectors and stock some extra pieces.

hth
aaron

 

[Undercover87T]

I'll work on it this weekend if I can. Refresh my memory, which pin is A? I had a pair of cheap Intrepid/Ramcharger fans on there before, both came on high speed. Still ran in the 190's. Was afraid of the cheap motors burning up from running all the time so I switched to Peter's setup.

 

[Royal-T-Ltd]

I'll work on it this weekend if I can. Refresh my memory, which pin is A? I had a pair of cheap Intrepid/Ramcharger fans on there before, both came on high speed. Still ran in the 190's. Was afraid of the cheap motors burning up from running all the time so I switched to Peter's setup.

i will take a pic tomorrow for you.

aaron

 

[Royal-T-Ltd]

 

[psycho6cyl]

I use the caspers fan switch which lets you run fans on high when you want or start ioneon low or even let cpu control it..