308 Overheating?

I think half the overheating problems have to do with owners not knowing what the bleed screw is for. The other half is just the problems of old 25 year old radiators, water pumps and clogged coolant hoses.

 

I haven't managed to get my water temp past the 190 degree mark, even when driving spiritedly on steep mountain roads or when stuck in bumper to bumper on a hot summer day in LA. When properly working the 308 cooling system is more than adequate.

Rocco

 

In another thread, there's photos of the two 5-foot long underbody coolant hoses disintegrating. The rubber bits from that disintegration can lead to plugging of the radiator which can lead to overheating and burst hoses. On my Mondial QV (and my former '82 GTSi) I never ran into a cooling problem, but I also made sure the hoses and cooling system were in good shape and I use Redline Water Wetter.

 

A lot of overheating problems can be caused by air in the system. After doing any work on the cooling system or topping up, you need to bleed at both the radiator at the front of the car, and the thermostat housing on the engine. Fortunately both locations have easily accessible bleed screws/bolts. Another common problem is the fans not cutting in when they are supposed to which causes overheating in traffic.

 

bleed the system 2-3 time's between drive's also check your fans are cutting in ok

 

I think that the cooling system is designed correctly with a good safety factor. If I compare it to any of my earlier 5 or 6 liter corvette or jag v-12's it would be overdesigned. The 308 has a 19 qt. capacity which is the same as the 350 cu in vetts . I only had 1 overheat problem with mine in 9 years and that was caused by the WP dieing. Other then that it runs at around 175* all of the time with the minor exception of 95* days with the AC on in traffic. But once the fans turn on you can watch the temp go down. In fact ever year I need to do a manual check of the fans because the very rarely come on. So from my point of view the system is good. just my 2 cents

 

They require maintaince
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Exactly.

This plus the QV design.

To answer your question, the short answer is "yes" there is something wrong woth the design but it really only appeared with the 4V cars. They simply need more cooling. That's why you never hear the carb owners complaining of this. Add this to the fact that EVERY radiator in these things needs a good rodding today and the air thing...

It will drive you crazy sometimes.

 

I've been wanting to replace my radiator cap. I've noticed I get a small amount of coolant from the overflow after drives and in a previous thread it was said a weak radiator cap could be the cause. At the local parts store there are several different caps. They look very similar but have different model numbers (if I recall correctly they were something like #37's, 38's and such??) So does anyone know which cap from the local pep-boys is the correct cap for the 3x8? Joe

 

small amount? - don't sweat it, that's natural, the automotive version of having the spit every once in a while (maybe someone will write a post about backfiring so I can use a fart analogy...)

(but be prepared to get a serious F-Chat schooling on what "all those numbers" mean....)

 

Has anyone put a coolant recovery system in their cars?

 

you've posted this thread too early. overheating threads should not be placed before memorial day and they should coincide with a/c problems, except southern hemisphere posters. ;-)