Overheating fault

[fang83]

Hello fello dunny door lovers,
I have a 97 S2 V6 ute and have had a temp issue since getting it. I understand that the temp display is a uncalibrated thing and can display differently from car to car(within reason). I have resently had sometime up my sleeve and changed out the Rad, hoses, thermostate, thermostate housing & belt. I have primmed the system using the bleed screw and left it out until (car running) a steady stream of coolant was coming out. Now my grip is this, when I would go driving on a 20-30 degree day cruising i would have the gauge sittting on the third bar. When I hit traffic and/or condesgion the gauge would head to 3/4 easly. Only to slowly fall when cruising at 80-100kph. So now with the new Rad, same abent temp range. It takes a good 10-15kms to warm to th third bar but when I hit traffic again it went to 1/2 and stayed there for the rest of the trip. When I got home I ran a raytec gun over the thermostate housing and go 90-92 degees (is this to hot foe the conditions).I did break open the the tanks on the old rad to justify my purchuse of the new rad and found the water inlet side of the rad lower section had about 100mm of rust and ****, blocking the bottom section tubes solid. I am now thinking more about the fan cut in temp. Or whether because it has been stable there is nothing to worry about. What do ya think?

[VS_Pete_1]

When u bled the system did u have the heater open all the way??
I did mine and ran my heater open for 3 days and bleed it when I got to work each day short drive.
On day 3 no air came out.
They are a hot motor and mine runs the same as yours all normal.
Your car is running right mate.

[hako]

If there was rust and crap in the old radiator that would indicate that the correct coolant has not been used by the previous owner. The correct coolant mix plus the tablets (factory not Disprin) will ensure no corrosion. Apart from that as VS_Pete_1 says, your car is running right.

[alien]

90-92 degrees is a good range. Thermostats are genrally set to open at 96 degrees. Which is good. It's troubling if your engine gets to 120 like mine :P 130 is REALLY bad!

[TUF UTE]

i have a slightly colder thermo in my ute, they run factory on half and if they start overheating at that temp its to hard to stop it so i dropped it 10 odd degrees and it runs on Quarter and thats a vs 304 ute

[fang83]

Sweet info, cheers guys found me overflow bottle full of **** too. not good start for the new system, would like to know more about the tablelets I do have them was not sure what they were for, Ya say they are anti corrion are how are they added?

[BlackVXGTS]

The coolant is for anti-corrosion. The tablets are to plug up any microscopic holes in the aluminium parts of the engine caused by casting faults.

[hako]

Sweet info, cheers guys found me overflow bottle full of **** too. not good start for the new system, would like to know more about the tablelets I do have them was not sure what they were for, Ya say they are anti corrion are how are they added?

This is from the VS Owner's Handbook:

"Coolant Specs: 50% water and 50% long life coolant conforming to Holden specification number HN 2043, part number M40236 (1 litre) or M40307 (5 litres) in addition 3 pellets, part no M40124 must be added when the coolant is replaced."

Thats it.