overheating

[iskate631]

i blasted my ninth deer the other night, i modified a push bar onto my car so it did good work of those. last one was doing 70 tho and broke the push bar right off. buckled up the hood and pushed the front end in. engine seems to run fine, ac radiator is done that was leaking pretty good but i could care less. radiator seemed good, has full coolant in it and full oil in the engine. the night i hit the deer car still ran fine, but the next morning i worked on it, after i got 8 miles out it started overheating like crazy. i assumed i saw past something and that it ran out of coolant but its still full, yet i did bust out both my electric fans. how much of a difference will those fans really make? bare in mind its about 20 degrees out i figured the cold air would be enough at this time of the year. only thing i can think of is the water pump went or maybe the thermostat.... but there doesnt appear to be any engine damage at all the front end didnt push in that far. any ideas??

[DjiNN]

Those fans matter think of it as a computer. A computer with a fan on the CPU cooler makes it normal running temp of around 40 - 50C. Without the fan you can hit as 60-90C, Which causes overheating. I've had my engine close to overheating. It was due to insufficent coolant. Since you said your coolant is fine I would check the tubes to see if any are bent causing restricted flow.

[Crowbar911]

Don't the fans only turn on when the car is idle and has reached a certain temp or the AC/defroster is on?

[Bingo]

The most dangerous animal in America is the deer. More people die from hitting those things than any other animal vs. human combined.

Your a luck man.

I've hit coons and they flet like I hit a moose !

Pinched the hose ?

[iskate631]

ill check in the morning if a hose is pinched, i know the upper one is fine so one way i can easily check is just let the car idle till it heats up and see if the coolant is burning hot or a regular temperature. if its regular that will mean its not circulating

[Dexterous]

My post is a bit late but I recall a similar incident with my car a few years back when I changed coolant.
My engine temp was going into red zone, I think I had to turn on the heater on high and drive very slow to get the system running correctly. I believe it was air trapped in the system that did not allow fluid to circulate properly. Also, the overflow tank/bottle need to have some fluid in it too.