2014 elevated coolant temp when idling

[VintageIron41]

Hello and thanks for taking time to read this.

My 2014 WN with a mild Texas Speed cam ( build is several years old ), has developed an issue with the coolant temperature rising from 210 to 220 degrees at idle, or at a long stop light. There is a small coolant loss over time. I've put dye in the coolant, the only place I could see any loss was from the bottom of the overflow tube. To rule out a faulty thermostat, I just put a new one in, same symptoms. Both cooling fans are working. No smell of coolant in exhaust. Before drawing the conclusion that I have a cylinder head issue, what is a good method to purge air out of the coolant system on these engines? My hand eventually got tired from squeezing first the lower hose and upper after putting the new thermostat in. I was still getting small bubbles from the upper hose.
Any tips on purging air from the system, or any other helpful tips much appreciated!

Thank you!

[s/c'd cav]

if your working area is flat , then drive the front up on ramps , you want the hose to be up higher

have you dont the headgasket test ? is the ambient temp where you are alot warmer now ?

[Mooseman]

You may just have an air bubble trapped. I've always had a hard time burping LS engines. At 220 you're not technically overheating yet. In the past, I've had to let it idle until the thermostat completely opens and the temp showing much higher than 220. I also use a coolant filling funnel, like this one, to help the process.

https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Spill-C ... 089YHW5HR/

I've also heard that vacuum coolant refill systems help with this but are a little pricier.

[VintageIron41]

Thank you s/c'd cav and Mooseman! I'm not familiar with the head gasket test, though I have checked for coolant in the oil, and oil in the coolant, negative on both counts. I just ordered the coolant filling funnel, I will combine both suggestions, jacking up the nose of the car and using the filling kit. I'm tempted to to swap water pumps, I have a friend who is putting a 5.3 Vortech into his S10 and he could use my water pump for his build I would replace mine with a FlowKooler.

[Mooseman]

If you suspect a blown head gasket, check for bubbles coming from the radiator and steam from the exhaust. For bubbles, you could use an exhaust Head Gasket Combustion Leak Test Kit.

https://www.amazon.com/Block-Tester-BT- ... 239&sr=8-1

[BluesBro]

My car had a similar issue before the engine swap. When idling in drive the temps would slowly creep up, after about 30 min it would be at 228*. I never liked this even though its common on the LS car platforms to be in the 215-225 range regularly. One day while stuck in traffic last year the temps were climbing to that uncomfortable place again and for some reason I decided to put it in neutral. The temp started dropping and settled in at 215ish, from then on that was my solution. I figured the cam was just cramming heat into the converter.

The car got a new radiator and ZL1 converter with the new engine and one or the other has solved this issue.

[VintageIron41]

Hmmm, I wrote a reply and got a message saying the site couoldn't be reached and it deleted my message so pardon if this is a duplicate.

Thanks Bluesbro I will try that, do you think the engine swap itself could have solved the problem as in different heads?

There was a post today at a Caprice PPV group at Facebook, a person was saying that deleting their oil cooler solved a coolant and oil loss problem, I do have to top off oil between changes and now I am loosing coolant to, how could the engine lose coolant because of the oil cooler?

Today was warm I used Moosemanas' suggestion of the fill kit, had the car jacked up, added some water wet and it burped a lot of air. lowered the car let the engine run with the heat on, and it burped some more, then no bubbles. Took it for a spin at 80 degrees outside temperature, in Friday traffic, same issue, at a stoplight 220, at a long stop 225, once moving again 215.

I guess I should remove the sparkplugs and look for evidence of steam?

[Sanford]

Need to get ahold of a leak detection kit that detects carbon monoxide and see if you pick up any CO in the cooling system.https://www.harborfreight.com/combustio ... VIQAvD_BwE

[VintageIron41]

Hello and thanks to all for their input.
Today I used the ccombustion check kit and the fluid stayed blue. Since the coolant level was down a bit ( more on this below ), at 200 plus degrees the engine burped some air as soon as I attached the tester, blue, waited a bit, used the squeeze ball, many bubbles, still blue, I repeated this 4-5 times, the liquid did not change color.

Question, is is possible that there is a stoppage in the radiator? The other day when I used the fill kit I was able to get a lot of air out of the system, and top the radiator off. Per my previous thread, driving it afterwards the other day in 80 degree outside temps, the coolant temp again went to 220-225. I stopped to run an errand and when I came out there was a puddle of coolant under the overflow drain on the passenger side. Is it possilbe that due to a clog/stoppage that the excees heat/pressure is purging coolant throught the overflow and that's where the coolant is going that I'm loosing? That was the only place the dye left evidence.

I see Cold Case has a radiator that fits out cars, any other suggestions on a radiator or keeping the engine as cool as it used to be?

Thank you!

[s/c'd cav]

radiator or water pump maybe