Ok, so here's the whole deal.
1) No water tube sleeves with O-rings in the water pump. Left a good 3/8-1/2" opening for the water to fall.
2) Flexalite fan relay with adjustable temperature was intermittent. Some days it worked, some days it didn't. You could adjust it, it would work for a few days, then quit.
3) Flexalite 18" fan shroud didn't cover the radiator completely from side to side, leaving a 1-2" gap on each side of the shroud.
4) The Trans Am stacked gauge package had a water temp gauge that reads 18-20 degrees too high. So my 210 reading was actually about 190. I borrowed a manual gauge with sender from the local gauge shop, attached it to the manifold, and ran from manual to dash gauge to verify while running the engine. Have to put a resistor on the temperature sender to get it calibrated to the water temperature gauge in the dash.
Since it was all apart, installed new Flowkooler high volume water pump with new sleeves and 0-rings, new 180 thermostat, new hoses, fluid, etc.
Went to Mattson Radiator / The Fan Man in Santa Ana, CA...had a custom radiator shroud with two 12" SPAL fans, along with a new relay, and AC relay, new wiring.
Put it all back together, it gets up to 210 degrees on the dash guage (190 in reality) then the fans kick on and it cools down to about 190 (172 reality), with the A/C on.
So, basically a complete wipe of the cooling system, better fans, shroud, and finding bad parts hindering the cooling.
$1300 later with parts and labor, it's working the way it should. I'll post pics after the temp sending unit resistor upgrade tomorrow.
Damn, this is fun, isn't it? LOL
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