Over heating

[milit73]

At one point I was having some cooling problems but replaced the radiator. All was good for a few months. Then one day it started running warm but them it would just drop to normal so thought a sticky thermostat replaced it and all good for a week and then the same problem. The water did not seem to be moving that much through the radiator so I ordered a new water pump (high flow and high flow thermostat).

Ok now it was running good and then started running warm again so I was thinking I had trapped air. After it cooled I started the car (383/727 68 bee btw) trying to get the thermostat to open it still seemed to not be moving water all that good then all hell broke loose the coolant just started pouring out of the radiator and spitting it everywhere. Right now I am at a loss and any help would be great. Thank Jim

 

[WP29440SE]

my money is in the thermostat. do yourself a favor, before you put one in , drop it in a pan of boiling water to make sure its working. I feel your pain, I went through THREE in one day , all from auto zone. spend a few extra bucks and get a good one.

 

[milit73]

I bought it from Jegs. Mr. Gasket. I will try it again but it's getting old real quick.

 

[WP29440SE]

I bought it from Jegs. Mr. Gasket. I will try it again but it's getting old real quick.

lol I hear you man , i put 40 miles on my car in a few hours getting bad thermostats. i finally spent 12 bucks on a NASCAR brand (Stant?) and its been fine ever since

 

[Meep-Meep]

Yeah, I always boil mine just to witness them open. Even if I have no temp gauge I just want to see it open before the water boils at 212 deg F.

What you are describing sounds like a head gasket only because I had that happen on a slant 6 a long time ago. Hopefully not. The only way to know for sure is a leak down test with the engine warm or even use a gas analyzer to sniff the open radiator for HC emissions. ......Trying to think what else it can be.

 

[Dennis H]

180 Napa Superstat. Green coolant. Use a digital thermometer to be sure of the temperature.

 

[MarPar]

could it be a snot in a water jacket(s) that was bouncing around and finally got stuck?? just spit-ballin' here...

 

[Sixer]

I agree with the head gasket diag. A vertical flow radiator won't show a lot of flow visually like a cross flow will. Not mentioned is the need for good fan clearance and a shroud. No air flow means a hot system.

 

[moparcanuck]

I had the same problem. I installed a 160 stat. No more problem.

 

[scotts74birds]

It is hard to just BUY a good stat anymore! We grew-up using Standt. Well, it ain't the Standt your dad drove! I rebuild 2.7 Chryslers on the side, and the factory stat is NOTICEABLY heavier than anything I can get from the parts stores. You just cant assume you are buying a good part anymore. Some of the Chinese water-pump housings, a few years ago were found to have smaller than spec passages in them. Same with the impeller design of some aftermarket water pumps, they just didn't work well.

 

[RustyRatRod]

Before you condem a head gasket, remove the bottom hose at the radiator. Remove the thermostat and replace the upper hose, but leave it disconnected at the radiator. Stick a bucket under the bottom hose end. Get a garden hose and back flush hell out of the engine through the top hose. I bet you have some scale buildup and that's what's causing it. Also, back flush the begeezus out of the radiator. If the engine is running well and not skipping or blowing steam, I doubt a head gasket......but back flushing the system as I describe is cheap and you might just fix it.

 

[milit73]

I will try the back flushing idea and I also saw a hydro-carbon tester the I could try also. I think that is what it was for testing gases from the radiator. Are those good? As we all know I just have to find some time to try all of this.

If it is a head gasket what would be a good brand to get? Also I have only replaced a head gasket on an old mustang I had many years ago so is this a hard thing getting things adjusted when putting it back together or just torque and that is that. I do have a service manual so maybe I should just do some reading. Thanks for all the help guys. I will keep you posted when I find out myself.

 

[milit73]

Ok so I flushed the system and it was clean. I removed the thermostat completely for now just to test water flow. There was for sure movement in the system so I then filled the rest of the system letting it run for appox. Ten minutes with no problems.

Now I thought I should go for that drive I wanted to the other day and it worked out great. I was on the freeway for about tem minutes and surface streets for ten more minutes with the temp finally reaching 170 degrees. Now dare I say all is good but there will always be something to fix. Thanks for all the help guys. Jim

 

[RustyRatRod]

So you did all this driving with no thermostat? That would lead me to believe the thermostat was somehow faulty. Oh and you asked about head gaskets. I like the good old Fel Pro blue. Hard to beat. But lets hope you don't have to use um, ok?

 

[milit73]

Thats what I did just took it out altogether for now just to test that out. I was talking to my buddy and he seams to think I had it in upside down but the original one was in the way I installed this one so maybe I caused all of this by myself. I feel dumb right about now but then how did it work in the past? So which way does this go, to the block or radiator side?

Jegs Part# Mr. Gasket#720-4367

 

[RustyRatRod]

The side you have showing goes towards the block.

 

[mattsmopars]

As has a already been mentioned always check the T-stat before installing it. I order one just like you have from summit or jegs one and it would not open period, and it was brand new.
So now I check them on the stove to see where they open at.
Best of luck.
Matt

 

[milit73]

Ok that is how I had it installed. From now on I will check it on the stove before I install one.

 

[scotts74birds]

Just buy one of these. http://www.amazon.com/Kintrex-IRT04...ie=UTF8&qid=1367381624&sr=8-1&keywords=kintex Pays for itself in troubleshooting.

 

[milit73]

Now that I think of it my son has one of those for his "ghost hunting kit" I will have to borrow that to check temps.