[64speed]

So I got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic yesterday for about 30 mins. This is my take away and any help would be appreciated. My car runs at the thermostat (180) or lower as long as I am moving. In the traffic it got up to 203 before I got antsy and turned the AC off and rolled down the windows. As soon as I did that the temp started dropping, I mean immediately. I started moving again so I never got to see just how far it would fully drop but it was obvious it was under control. I know 203 isnt overheating but I didnt want to find out what my upper limit is on a 4 lane highway. I am gonna take it and see if its charged properly in case thats whats taxing the engine so heavily but short of that does anyone have any suggestions?

[JSchmitz]

Originally Posted by 64speed

So I got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic yesterday for about 30 mins. This is my take away and any help would be appreciated. My car runs at the thermostat (180) or lower as long as I am moving. In the traffic it got up to 203 before I got antsy and turned the AC off and rolled down the windows. As soon as I did that the temp started dropping, I mean immediately. I started moving again so I never got to see just how far it would fully drop but it was obvious it was under control. I know 203 isnt overheating but I didnt want to find out what my upper limit is on a 4 lane highway. I am gonna take it and see if its charged properly in case thats whats taxing the engine so heavily but short of that does anyone have any suggestions?

Running A/C introduces heat (a lot) in front of your radiator. If the A/C was blowing constant cold, it's probably charged correctly. The early cars have a serious disadvantage compared with later years. That is, small frontal area of the radiator. Making it thicker is diminishing returns. By the time the air hits the rear rows, it's already saturated with heat.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

If you have electric radiator fan (idunno)
They are set to come on and run anytime and all time while a/c is working - in most all passenger cars.
Most have 2 speed fans - and will run on high speed while a/c is working.

In case yours is just set to run by thermo control - or just one speed.
fwiw