Originally posted by firebird45331
the other day my firebird spiked at 230. what's the maximum operating temp? when it hit up there I immediately let up and turned on the heat.
you didnt say what kind of car it was. on late model stuff, the fans comes on around 225 and cut off at 215. with the right cap, antifreeze mix, you can do that. on the older cars we thought 210 was about it. i used to run some stuff in my blower motor that wouldnt boil over and on a real hot day i ran the car 260 degrees and it did ok, i took it out because i didnt like ridding around with the temp. gauge on 260. the stuff cost 35.00 a gal. 230 would be to hot for the older car. as long as the water stays in the radiator its ok anyway, when the radiator get low in water is when you get into trouble. use a good recovery tank and cap and you can run a little hotter because you are reuseing the over flow water when you need it.