Motor Overheats
 

i have a 94 1.8 with a 2860 turbo and and upgraded radiator (dont know which kind it was in when i bought it). it tends to run hot or overheats when im sittin in traffic or stopped at a light for a while and the temp gauge goes way up to where i have to sometimes shut the car off. i drilled a few holes in the thermostat and it didnt seem to help. do you think its because i have a fmic or because the underhood temps are too hot? both the fans work but it doesnt seem to help and i already searched for an answer but didnt find any good answers. the temp seems to go down when i rev my engine up though. i also have the splash guard under the car and the fmic isnt the big either.

You need to burp your system. You have the common symptoms of air bubbles being stuck in your engine. Lift the front of the engine as high as you can in the air. Then take off the radiator cap and idle the car. Let it run for a while and eventually air bubbles will come out. Once they have stopped put on the cap and the over heating should go away.

ok thanks for the quick response ill go do that and see if that fixes it

do i lift the whole front of my car or unbolt the engine from the motor mounts and do it that way

The car. You can just park on the steepest hill you can find facing up the hill.

ok i will try that

well i got all the air out of the system and the temp slowly creeps up but not as fast now.

Location?

Put in profile.

oceanside ca. it gets maybe high 80s at the most in the summertime

What's your ratio of water to coolant?

Does your fan work?

He said in the first post that both fans come on.

So now to the OP, do you have AC? Is it running when the car overheats? Or do how do you have both fans setup?

I still think there is air in the system. When you burped the system did the single fan come on and then eventually shut off?

no fans came on when i burped the system. im using 50/50 mix right now and i dont have ac either. when i put the cap back on and it idled for like 5 minutes after i was done the temp gauge moved up to like 3/4 of the way to hot. i burped the cooling system for probably like 20 minutes is that not long enough? i have both fans wiring to the same circuit for the computer to turn them on.

that should be long enough.
chances are, it's not air in the system at this point - time to start replacing shit.

well the motor was just rebuilt 2000 miles ago and its been doing this since i got the car with the original motor in it.

Get better fans? Are they both (or just one?) coming on before the gauge starts climbing and stay on while the gauge climbs? Also, drop your coolant/water ratio to 70water/30 or 80water/20...or even try all distilled water with a bottle of water wetter and like 2 quarts of coolant.

ok i think i might need some better fans because there kinda cheap ones. the fans come on right before the needle starts to climb. ill also try to remix my coolant

So thay're not stock fans?

I don't think you burped it well enough. Basically you need to do it until the fans turn on and then turn off again. Then put the cap back on. I have seen it take 30+ min before to get everything out. Also squeezing the upper hose helps get rid of bubbles.

well the fans didnt come on when i burped it but coolant started coming out of the radiator so i thought i was all free of air but ill try burping it again