Okay, so my '84 GS is overheating in the cold, just like the title says.

I started it up this morning, and it is 32*, choked it a bit, let it warm up, brought it to life, etc... well, after about 30 ft, I noticed the temp was high, but assumed it was from not moving, so I drove a little. The temp skyrocketed. I don't know what to do.

I was having this problem before, and assumed it was the thermostat, and I just installed a new OEM one last weekend and followed the FSM to the letter.

I just don't know what it could be.

I'm also afraid I may have hurt my baby.

 

How high did it go? Is the fan turning ok? And last dumb question, is the coolant full?

 

Did you verify that it was indeed running hot, and not a malfunctioning temp guage?

 

Put your heater on full blast and see if that makes a difference, it's one way to check if the guage is working.

 

It went high, in a few seconds, it went from the little picture of a thermometer to beyond the little red block with the H over it.

How would one do this?

Put it on full, no effect.

Luckily, I was only a half mile from home and it was after work, and a guy I work with was nice enough to take me home. After the car sat for about an hour I ran my fat **** there, in the cold, and brought it home. No problems. Temp was nominal, heat was good. No problems. WTF?

 

Mine used to do that, 79 SA. In the cooler night time, I would hop in with it cold, start up and drive home, but the needle would go straight to the hot. Stopped the car and waited 30 minutes, then repeat. Took me 3 hours to get 5 miles. Thing was, when I repeated it the next afternoon, all was well. Swapped a new gauge cluster in and it never happened again. My guess what bad sensor/wiring.

 

Maybe I'll hide an aftermarket gauge somewhere that I can see, but not easily seen.

I like the fact that my odometer has less than 50,000 on it.

 

If the engine indeed was that hot the water in the radiator would be starting to boil.
You would only have to begin to slowly remove the radiator cap(With a rag to protect your hand), you do not remove it fully. Just enough to see if coolant wants to start spewing out.

 

I did remove the radiator cap when I got to it, after it sat for 45 min to an hour, and everything was fine, no bubbling, or anything...

 

I had this same problem.. "overheating" but not really..

Check the coolant temp sensor near the oil tower.. my problem was the insulation was stripped out and it was contacting the block and giving false reading

 

I had changed the thermostat, clutch fan, and coolant before checking the obvious.. haha..

well at least thats all done now they were bound to fail and overheat for real some time

 

If the temp gauge is shooting up within a few seconds of starting, either the sender wire is grounding or the gauge is bad. Are you sure the new sender is grounding to the block, you didn't use too much teflon tape on it did you?

 

Well, I drove the car around for a bit and it got all heated up again. I opened the radiator cap and the coolant burbled out.

Now what?

 

Check the waterpump, thermostat, fan clutch, the inside of the radiator for blockage and the radiator cap.

 

Did the coolant start shooting out of the radiator and was steaming?

 

Indeed.

 

Were you doing lowspeed driving, stop and go when this happened?

Also recommend you remove the T-stat and put it in a pot of water and verify that it is opening all the way when the temp gets to 180 deg. If you do not have something to measure the temp just let the water boil and make sure the T-stat opens all the way. Also just making sure that you installed the T-stat with the pellet(sensor) down towards the engine. :-)

 

No stop and go, just warmed up and went 25 for a few blocks, in 32* temps.

Is it wrong for me to expect that my OEM thermostat works right? Also, when I installed it, I installed it exactly in the same position as the original.

 

even though it may only have 50k, it is over 20 years old....its a real easy check

 

Test the T-stat as I have stated in my other post. It may be defective. You atleast need to eliminate this possibility.

 

here ya go

 

I just didn't want to replace my gauges.

If there was a bad wire, it would be hot all the time, not after 5 minutes.

 

This is true... and it sucks.

I seriously just did it. I need more antifreeze and probably a new gasket... again.

 

Getting information from you is like pulling teeth,lol. Did the T-stat test good or bad.

 

For the temp to rise that quickly, I believe it would have to have absolutely no coolant flow. Either the water pump is not working, or the thermostat is not opening (or maybe opens only sometimes, which would explain why its okay at times), or the radiator is blocked.

A faulty fan clutch would result in a slow rise, and no issues at any decent speed...