temp gauge

Have you made sure that the fan itself is working? Sounds like there is no air moving until the car moves.

like other post said check your clutch fan,or do you have 2 electric fans,if so they may not be comeing on,they work off a scensor,also run your AC on max even on low speed the fans will kick on if the scensor is bad,they will run all the time this way,just a point of view,is your water pump leaking coolent,also it could just be a bad guadge,also it has 2 temp scensors,1 for the computer & 1 for the temp guadge.

thank you yes the fans are coming on i did check that with the parts guy the water pump ? could that be the problem my son said something about that yesterday. i do have a low coolant light that comes on then goes off from time to time , is that on the bottom of the coolant bottle. i have had the camaro for about 3 weeks just figuring it out. thank you for your time

did u bleed out all the air with the air bleeders(hex bolt 8mm? located on high point on thermostat housing? ) before closing up the radiator? it could have some air bubbles. bleeder should be loosened abit to let the air out running engine / fill coolant and closed when it starts to spurt coolant. did u do it?

Regarding the 1988 Camaro IROC Z28, if the car is not moving can't cool propertly. These cars were not made to sit in traffic, especially with the V8 305 or 350 engines. There is a plastic air dam, under the car that forces air up into the engine bay while the car is moving. The electric fans kick in when the engine is about to over heat. For 1988 there are two fans... one that turns on 215/218F and the second that turns on at 238F. If you are running the AC on a hot day stuck in traffic you'll going to over heat even with both fans. In mine, I wired LED lights to show me when the fans are given power, I also added over ride switches and relays to manually control each fan from inside the car. Not everyone will agree, but I also put in a lower temp thermostat switch/valve in mine. Factory is 195F, in mine I run a 160F. That allows warm/hot water to get pumped through the radiator earlier. The higher temp factory is so the engine will put off less emissions, I believe the engine will last longer running cooler. I made these mods to my car at about 150K miles when I started having major over heating problems, I always stopped ASAP when I could sense the car was too hot... the car is now at 263K original miles, engine does burn about quart of oil between oil changes (every 3K), I've started doing oil changes every 2K and topping oil off every 500 miles. Best of luck.

If you have tried all of those things it could be as simple as the radiator cap is worn out. When you turn your car off pop your hood, and check if there's condensation around the radiator cap if so it's a simple fix.

Guru9YYFG - You are so right! I took your tip about the radiator cap for my 2000 Z28 Camaro (139,000 miles on the engine) and - Bingo! - my problem was solved for $8. The fan on low speed now provides enough heat in the car, and there are no longer any temperature gauge swings. Thank you!

Actually, you need not worry about it. GM has installed a non functional coolant temp gauge(dummy gage) for the camaros 99-2002. Although the ECM reads and uses the engine temp, it doesn't actually display it on your instrument panel.