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97 CHEVY VENTURE VAN___OVERHEATING

If anyone could help i would greatly appreciate it so much.....my van was leaking antifreeze....so we found out it needed the intake manifold gaskets replaced...and the head cover gasket...we also put in a new thermostat...had to put a hole in it to work..water pump replaced last august....the radiator was taken off and cleaned...heater core is fine...had 3 diagnostic tests on it done...come up with nothing...had a pressure test done...nothing showed up....just took it to the chevy dealer and they had it for 2 days...he called and found nothing wrong with it...put it up on the racks...no leaks he could find...he said he drove it for 21 miles and it never overheated...ok..so i get the van back drive it for about 35 miles...it did good....temp got up to the middle...went to friends and parked it for about 20 mins...came out and started van...and dang if it didnt overheat...the water light came on...the temp gauge was all the way in the red ...so i let it sit for about an hour...came out and it was fine again...seems when it overheats...the radiator stays cold...the engine is hot and the water is all backed up in the overflow tank...i seriously need help if the chevy dealer cant find anything wrong with it..and this is the 2nd time they have looked at it....1st time for overheating as well...said too much air in the radiator..so they let it out and it keeps overheating on me....help me...i dont want to be stranded with my 3 girls somewhere i dont know and cant get help....i appreciate it very very much...

Reply to
southernheart72
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You should check the clutch fan because it is likley bad and not cooling the radiator. Also check for a lower radiator hose that may be collapsed internally and blocking water flow.

Reply to
SnoMan

A Venture van does not use a clutch fan. It uses electric cooling fans. It's a front wheel drive vehicle.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_kai

Who did the original work to the vehicle, the dealership or someone else? If I were you, I would take the vehicle in to where you had the work done and demonstrate the problem to them. That's if you can duplicate the problem consistently.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_kai

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Your statement "had to put a hole in it to work" is a strange one. This engine uses a thermostat that, when open, will shut off the coolant by-pass flow. The by-pass allows coolant to flow thru the engine, but not radiator, when the t-stat is closed. Some people will put a 1/8" or so hole in the t-stat housing to allow a small coolant flow thru the radiator when the t-stat is close........ but it is not required to get it to work. When the engine is completely cool have you checked the coolant level in the radiator? It should be completely full.

Reply to
DonW

Small problem, make sure it is working correctly. My mistake as I have never owned or worked much on anyones FWD van. I never did like electric cooling fans.

Reply to
SnoMan

Brillant!

So how many of your other posts are based on a complete lack of knowledge of the vehicle involved?

I can understand this as they are so complicated, lol.

Reply to
Battleax

They must be complicated. I see all sorts of hillbilly rigs done on them. Either a thermial switch, CTS, or relay goes bad, and billy-boy starts hacking wires.

A good example of this is Lumina APV (van) a girl I know has. Someone has rigged the cooling fan hot wire in to the wires for the remote mounted coil. About three inches from the coil is a bare splice where they wrapped the hot lead from the fan around the inginition on hot lead to the coil.

If the thing wasn't junk I would fix it for her. I just don't know why people thing it's so difficult to do a proper repair on a electirc fan system. Charles

Reply to
Charles Bendig

It's beyond me too. Electric cooling fans and their circuitry might just be one of the simplest things on a modern vehicle.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_kai

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