more hot V6s

[ethan schartman <eschartman@xxxxxxxxx>]

esteemed digesters,

i would appreciate some advice on troubleshooting my
milano's (2.5L) cooling system. i followed the recent
thread on the hot V6 and have my suspicions about the
nature of my problems, but would like a second opinion
(or many:) before taking action. 

the major problem is that the engine runs hot. under
pretty most conditions it is above the half-way mark -
where the radiator fan comes on. recently the fan
switch stopped working, so as temp fix (i was at a gas
station in baltimore) i bypassed it so that the fan
runs continuously, and the temps are now at the midway
mark. today, after some in town driving that got the
temp up ( but not all the way to 3/4s), i pulled into
a stop and momentarily found a large quantity of steam
coming out from the under the passenger's side of the
hood. after quickly ascertaining that i did not blow a
hose i limped it home with no problem, and have not
been able the recreate the steam event. and there is
no sign of leaking anywhere, except that a small drip
of coolant had worked past the clamp where the lower
radiator hose enters the thermostat housing.

my guess about the steam is that i had enough pressure
built up that it pushed past the coolant cap and got
on to the exhaust manifold. there are traces on the
bottle where coolant has leaked this way, though
everything looked dry (it is pretty warm under the
hood, so i reckon it might have dried it all out by
the time i got home).

now, as to possible causes of other problems. the
water pump is new as of february. so i expect it is
fine. i did rebuild the engine last year so there is
always the possibility that i buggered it and have a
leaking head gasket, but i haven't noticed any steam
in the exhaust and the coolant level is stable, and
the coolant and oil are not mixing. so i'm guessing
it's the radiator, which i got used out of a verde a
couple years ago (when i got the car a PO had replaced
the damaged original with whatever POS happened to be
lying around the shop). so it is old. and could be
starting to block (this is my person guess). over the
winter, it did have a pinhole leak, but i haven't seen
any evidence for it since march. a blocking radiator
might in turn explain why my fan switch has stopped
working (if the flow is too low, maybe there isn't a
high enough heat load to get the switch to close?),
though i'm not sure about this.

does this all sound reasonable, or is there a
potential problem i am missing? furthermore, is a new
radiator the only option (should i even bother getting
it flushed)? can i get it re-cored? and if so, does
any one have any experience with a re-cored unit (i.e.
did it last)?

thanks (glad i donated to richard this week!),
-ethan schartman
-'87 milano gold
-princeton, NJ

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