OK, I must be an idiot. I don't know why I didn't do this before, but I decided to look down in the area between the AC condenser and the front of the radiator. I have never seen so much crap stuck in the front of a radiator before. I flushed it all out carefully and got everything back in place. I am pretty hopeful that this will be the cause of my overheating woes, and that the window scum is just the vapors emitted from the vinyl. Gonna test it out tomorrow in the heat.

 

Damn that's nasty. How can it get that bad, do you drive through a swamp or something? I've never seen one with that much muck in there. When cleaned it will, more then likely, clear up your overheating problem. That's why when you drive it cooled down a little, but sitting at idle the fans alone couldn't push enough air into the radiator through all that garbage. Careful not to bend the fins on the radiator when cleaning it.

 

I just bought this car back in about April. It looks like the previous owner must have parked it under a tree because there were tons of leaves/pine needles caked up on the windshield cowling when I bought it. I still don't see how leaves and pine needles could have "fallen" in there; I wonder if he was using it to off-road through the swamp as well!
It cleaned up easily and the fins look good. Gonna test it later today. Thx again!

 

Thats probably it. Also make sure your cap on the resevoir is good. The resevoir is under pressure not like other cars that have the cap at the radiator.

 

well, overheating problem solved! drove it stop and go for a while in the heat today and never crossed the mid-temp mark. A/C works better in stop and go traffic too! thx guys.

 

Does the 'fog' wipe of clean with a cloth or is it kind of greasy? If greasy, it could be an air freshener - the crappy ones evaporate gunge and it condenses on the windows.

 

Awesome, good to here that. I had it pegged for air in the system, until I saw those pics. I still can't figure out how all that stuff gets in there.