car gets very hot after each run.

[richardkeith97]

during autox my car gets very hot after each run. its only when i park my car after each run it goes almost to 3/4. the coolant light came on once. as soon as i start driving it goes back to 1/2. i ordered a 160 degree thermostat hoping that will help. any suggestions. air in the system?

[Burnera]

have you replaced the thermostat before?
Fan clutch working?

[richardkeith97]

i can hear the fan kicking on and off. i've never done the thermostat before. the original owner told me it almost overheated a couple times and might need one. their was some air in the system so i figured that was the problem and haven't had any problems until autox.

[nando]

a cooler thermostat isn't going to fix it, it may actually make it overheat faster, not to mention run poorly.

maybe the thermostat is broken, but put the proper 180f in there.

[j0oftheworld]

My car was doing this after my track sessions last week. Seems to me like the thermostat gets heat soaked from the block while it sits and as soon as you start the car and the coolant starts circulating again it's fine and drops to normal temps.
Probably nothing to worry about if your situation is the same as mine.

[jlevie]

In an AutoX environment one typically doesn't get cool down "laps" on the engine. So it isn't unusual to see the temp spike after a run because of the stored heat in the block and head coupled with the low flow rate of the water pump at idle. The situation can be aggravated by a marginal cooling fans (weak or bad fan clutch, delete of the engine driven fan w/o adding a sufficient electrical fan).

On the darker side, a small head gasket leak that is pumping air into the cooling system may only cause problems when the engine is spending a lot of time in the high end of the rpm band.

[JGood]

I have trouble overheating on hot days after autocross runs as well. On the track and with street driving, it's fine.