Since my Corvette's Water Temp gauge needle has been getting too close to the redline for my comfort lately, I've been trying to determine what may be causing the issue.
I do not believe the gauge itself is to blame, but that's a topic for another discussion. For now, I want to stick to the subject matter of flushing my Corvette's radiator.
The task is not difficult per se, but you will need to lift the front of your Vette to reach the radiator's drain plug or petcock.
While chasing overheating gremlins, I discovered that a ton of leaves, little branches, and dirt had found their way into the space between the ac condenser and the radiator.
After assessing the situation and figuring out how to clean the area to the best of my ability without removing the radiator, I determined that a missing seal between the top of the radiator and the core support allowed for all this trash to end up trapped in that area.
As bad as it looked, this was not the cause for the overheating issue, but it wasn't helping either. And since I have a thing about keeping my '76 Corvette as clean as possible, I had to find a way to get all that trash out of there.
Ideally, I would have removed the radiator shroud and the radiator itself. And I tried but failed in my attempt. I think that removing the hood is necessary to get that job done, but there was no way for me to safely do so all by myself. At least not without damaging the hood, and that was not an option.
My Corvette's water temp gauge started acting up (again), by getting close to the red line and then settling back down to about 210° F which is the normal operating temperature for my L-48 engine.
This occurrence is not new. As matter of fact, I've learned to live with it since it happened seldomly, until recently. In the past, the needle would get close to the Water Temp gauge's "warning zone," but it never reached the red line, until yesterday.
Air trapped in the coolant system can be caused by several reasons, such as improper coolant refilling, a radiator flush, leaking radiator hoses, a leaking heater core, a poor-fitting radiator cap, and even a blown head gasket, to name a few.
For the purpose of this article, I will discuss improper coolant refill even though it's a misnomer of sorts. After all, you just pour some coolant or distilled water in the radiator and that's it, right?
Well, yes. In theory, anyway.
Inspecting the inside of a used oil filter can tell you if something is wrong with the wear and tear of your Corvette's engine, and even though I was not expecting any unpleasant surprises, my anxiety level jumped a point or two as I removed the paper element out of the casing.
Fortunately, any worries were soon put to rest as the paper element, other than showing normal signs of wear, did not reveal any metal particles.
So all is well with my engine!
