Overheating. Ideas?

[97gstjosh]

So about a week ago I was driving And my check engine light came on. It was good old DSMLink telling me my car was overheating

It was about 3/4 the way up the gauge. So I pulled over at a gas station and let me car cool a little. I let my fan run to see if that would help. So I went to leave and my temp needle kept climbing. By the time I got to my friends the needle was pegged and had some smoke coming out from under the hood and overflow bottle spraying like crazy. The next morning I replaced my thermostat with an autozone failsafe one ( heard thats not the best choice) but its supposed to work even if it malfunctions so I thought ok insurance. Flushed out as much coolant that would come out. Filled back up with 50/50 and some water wetter and it seemed fine.

Now about a week later tonite I was driving home and noticed it sits on the little wavy line or a little above. I give up.
It flucuates though. On decel after speeding up it drops a little and upon accel it goes up a little. Fualty thermostat already?

I dont know when the water pump was last replace. I bought the car with 84k and it now has 104k on it. Could that be the problem or has the thermostat already gone bad. All mods are in my profile. I have a Mishimoto radiator a 12" electric fan and a 14" electric fan with the 12" pushing. The 14" is hooked up to a switch and the 12" comes on normally and I checked it is working

So any help would be greatly appreciated

Also I cannot see coolant leaking fro mthe head as I thought maybe my headgasket blew. I dont believe that is my problem bec coolant would leak all the time and its full and my radiator overflow bottle is also full. I thought originally my radiator had a leak so I used leak stop. I thought I got it all out but I didnt could that be causing my problem? I know I need to flush it again to get it out. Whats the proper way for draining it all? Also how about a low temp thermostat like Gates Racing 170 deg one?

[Artago]

I got the same problem. Except I only have one 12" Mishimoto fan and the rad. I was overheating within 20 minutes of driving. I removed my thermostat (temporarily) and the AC cooler in front of the Rad and it helped a lot but the car still runs high temps at idle. I'm going to be getting some more fans to help with the air flow and I'm also going to be heat wrapping everything I can and building a cold air induction pipe where in stock SMIC was.

I'm know this doesn't pertain to you but it may give you some ideas to get started. If you have none functioning AC then remove the AC cooler and get more fans and heat wrap. Worst case scenario you can remove the thermostat as a temporary stop gap so you can address the problem. Good luck.

Tom

[97gstjosh]

Thanks but I dont have any A/C components in my car at all
That was the first thing I did when I bought the car.
Im planning on heatwrapping everything soon Im upgrading to a
56 trim

As far as removing the thermostat I hear the car will run in open loop. I dont
know if thats true just what ive heard from local DSMers.

I dont really think that its going to help if something is wrong
which is the case. I dont want to band-aid I just want to fix the problem.
Thank you for your suggestions though much appreciated

This setup ran fine for 7 months and is just now giving me problems IDK what
the deal is at all.