Hey folks, first off- sorry if this should go in drivetrain. Wasn't sure, since it isn't part of the drivetrain but certainly helps keep it cool!
Recently, just before moving to Colorado I got an electric fan installed on the front of my radiator to supplement the mechanical fan that was already in place. I have serious cooling issues in traffic because of the mechanical fan and the electric fan was meant to alleviate that. On the way to Colorado, my father and I noticed issues with cooling sometimes and we pulled over with the car running at about 190 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Popping the hood, the fan hadn't kicked on at all and wasn't even running when the car was idling in place. It is thermostat operated- I do not know the model or type of fan nor do I know what temp the thermostat is designed for. What issues am I looking at? Where do I start looking? I can provide pictures tomorrow of the setup when it's daylight again- but unfortunately it's already dark out at 5 PM here.
Thanks in advance guys- just a few ideas to get me looking in the right direction will help me immensely.
There should be codes on the thermostat. You need to get those. Also, if it is a 195 degree thermostat, running 190-200 would be normal. So, there may not be an issue at all, it may have been just fine.
Note that Ames sells both a 180F and 195F thermostat.
1968 400 Coupe, verdoro green, black vinyl top 1968 400 Convertible, verdoro green, black top 1971 Trans Am, cameo white, auto 1970 Buick Skylark Custom Convertible 350-4(driver)
An electric fan in front of the radiator, along with a mechanical fan won't net you any better cooling. Pick one or the other and if it has to be electric it needs to be on the backside of the radiator. But like Wovenweb said, that temp reading is fine...guys on this site would kill for fwy engine temps like that.
It will depend on what temps the Thermo switch is set at to come on and turn off. Some are adjustable. You could hook it up through a relay to a switch under the dash so you could turn it on and off when you want to. 195-200 is not overheating. You shouldn't worry until 230+ if the rest of the system is up to the pressure.
190-200 is not really hot for a Pontiac engine.... Mine was running 230--235 F when I bought it...previous owner had also installed a "pusher" help fan in front of radiator, I took it off, it blocked more air flow....by doing water pump impeller trick, adding rubber fillers on sides of radiator, one was missing...and eventually getting a new radiator ( Champion aluminum) I got car to slowly reduce hot issues//one was also timing, another was it was running a bit to lean....in the end I was running 195-200F , and I was happy about that.....
I'd say either your power wire to your fan has an open break in the circuit, loose wire, connector came apart, blown fuse or whatever. Or the thermal switch that turns the fan on and off has failed. The thermal switch operates by completing a circuit [closing] when reaching a certain temp-180,190.195 ... then turns off [opens] when the temp at the sender goes below a certain temp. Some are in the radiator fins, some in the water jacket. Usually the power goes to the fan and then grounds through the switch to complete the circuit. If yours has one wire going from the fan to the sender at the water cross-over, you can disconnect the wire at the sender and connect it to ground and your fan should fire up. If your circuit has the power going to the switch and the on to the fan you can disconnect the two wires from the switch and connect the two ends to get power directly to the fan. Or maybe the fan itself has given up the ghost.
Always a good Idea to have a toggle switch someplace to turn the fan.fans on manually, just in case the thermal switch goes kaput. When I bought my car the fans came on when the ignition switch was on. Didn't like that so I put a switch in the water cross-over. While driving up Vancouver Island one day the car over heated, I pulled over and the fans were not working. the thermal switch failed. I did not have a toggle switch at that time and had to scrounge a piece of wire from a passing motorist to by-pass the thermal switch and get the fans to operate.
