March 10, 200521 yr I recently bought this 86 GL. I replaced the timing belts, water pump, THermostat, and the front engine seals. Even before this, I was having problems with cooling. THe cooling fan is coming on, but the temperature is still getting very hot. Has anyone seen this before? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
March 10, 200521 yr Sure sounds like a radiator problem to me. EA82s are pretty notorious for having really crappy radiators. If you replace it, get one for a turbo model, they're dual-core and much beefier.
March 10, 200521 yr If you can manage to (safely!) touch the radiator core while the engine is at operating temperature, you can feel for cold areas on the core. Just feel from top to bottom, and you are likely to find cold areas where the radiator is plugged and the coolant doesn't flow. When replacing, seriously consider a copper radiator instead of the aluminum with plastic tanks. Aluminum is not a very good radiator material... just cheap.
March 10, 200521 yr If you replace it, get one for a turbo model, they're dual-core and much beefier. on these ones, do you know if the lower hose come out at an angle or horizontal? I have a dual core waiting to be put in, but the bottom hose comes out horizontal, rather than angled like on the stock ones. Is there a different hose used? I haven't found any differences in the parts online yet.
March 10, 200521 yr I put a radiator from an 87 GL turbo wagon on my 86 GL wagon - the radiator from the turbo had 2 extra (smaller) outlets on the drivers side of the radiator (besides the normal larger outlet/inlet on the top drivers and bottom passengers side) that I wasn't sure what they were for. There were no hoses for this on my carbed engine. I didn't have anything to cap them with, so I looped a peice of hose from one to the other - was this the right/wrong thing to do?
March 10, 200521 yr definitly tranny cooler. ignore them. you do not need to cap them off. pyro ah, I should have thought of that! Hubby just hooked up a new radiator on his '61 Thiokol Snowcat with the tranny cooler (but those inlet/outlets were on the bottom of the radiator he used, so it didn't dawn on me that's what these were).
March 11, 200521 yr Go with a turbo radiator. I got one from radiator.com for $125 and I haven't had to turn the fans on since.
March 11, 200521 yr Which EA82's came with the tranny cooler? the new radiator in my 86 RX has the "extra" outlets, it's nice to know what they're for. Was this an option with the later EA82T cars?
March 13, 200521 yr Oh, ok. (Maybe a stupid question: would there be any point to a tranny cooler on a manual gearbox?)
March 13, 200521 yr Which EA82's came with the tranny cooler? All cars with an automatic transmission had the cooler. Oh, ok. (Maybe a stupid question: would there be any point to a tranny cooler on a manual gearbox?) no, not really, but it would make a great engine oil cooler if you could somehow get the tubing right Go with a turbo radiator. I got one from radiator.com for $125 and I haven't had to turn the fans on since. That may be because you live in Alaska my car still runs them most of the time, with a special copper radiator (copper gives better heat dissipation)
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