Suspect water pump

Z_ealot

One other symptom I'd like to add is that while either going downhill or down a flat road the car cools off fine, the moment i hit an incline the temperature starts climbing upwards all the way to 221 is the highest I've seen it go on a relatively short hill climb and this is with the ac off

Dreadnaught

While the car is moving air is helping cool the engine and coolant before it goes back into your engine.

While you're going uphill, there is more load on the engine than if you are on a flat road. So your engine is working harder to get up the hill which in turn is producing more heat. And if your coolant is that hot your fans should be on even if the A/C is off which I know you said they do.

Wish I could diag this car in person.

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Z_ealot

I ran a block test on it today and block testing fluid did not change color so as far as I can tell the head gasket is fine, while I had the coolant partially drained I decided to take a look and see if coolant was flowing as it should with the thermostat open....as far as I could tell the coolant wasn't really flowing so much as it was just collecting in the fill neck even after revving the engine up to about 2500rpm....seems like pressure just builds in the system, but coolant isn't really flowing much.

Jhill

When fully warm with a non touch temp gun is heat fairly even between upper rad hose and lower and is it fairly even across the radiator? Also may test at heater core hoses too to see if flow is getting through the system. With everything flowing then temps should be fairly close to each other.

Z_ealot

Unfortunately dont have one of those, the only thing i can tell you is just by touch both the upper and lower radiator hoses feel about the same temperature with the lower radiator hose feeling very slightly cooler. Any chance of an inrared temp reader being rented out by someone? Lol oh and as for the radiator as far as i remember the temperature feeling by hand was pretty consistent across the entire radiator

SouthArk370Z

You can find IR thermometers for less than $20 on Amazon. If in a hurry, most hardware stores (eg, Home Depot) will have one for a little more. You may be able to borrow/rent one from an auto parts store.

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Z_ealot

found one at lowes after they had already closed, will have to pick it up after I get off work tomorrow and check things out, thanks for the tip though

phunk

what are you using to monitor your coolant temps? I dont believe you have mentioned where the indication of over-heating is coming from.

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Z_ealot

Using an obd2 scantool, more specifically one of the bluetooth scanners paired with obd fusion on my iphone. Have also used a higher end actron and they both read the same when it comes to coolant temps

phunk

what temperature do you consider to be overheating, and what temps are you reaching?

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Z_ealot

If i let it sit with the ac on idling for long enough the temps reach upwards of 240 is the highest I've let it get which is almost 3/4 of the way up the temperature gauge inside the car

phunk

will it ever reach 240 under normal conditions or is that just the highest you can get it to go worst case scenario?

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Z_ealot

If i let it keep going with the ac on and idling it will eventually hit the red zone of the temperature gauge in the car, but under normal driving conditions with and without the ac on it usually stays within the 190 to 214 range...as soon as i hit a hill though it climbs pretty quickly up to about 221 where it seems to stop...not sure if it will go higher as i dont have a really long incline to test it on and the 221 temperature was seen on a pretty short hill climb.

phunk

Without a water pump it would overheat very rapidly even while cruising at speed. I cannot imagine a VQ water pump going "weak" due to its steel impeller design. But who knows.

Sounds like an airflow issue though since it seems to act up the most at idle when there is none naturally.

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Z_ealot

Cools itself off fine without the ac on, will consistently keep the temps between 203 and 214