Just putting a new Tstat in as first step for overheating/intermittent heater not blowing hot air.

Want to make sure I bleed it proper to know if Tstat was the issue.

Where is the bleed valve located if there is one?

Or do I just try the radiator cap off, heater on high, elevate front a bit?


Also, thought I should flush the heater core, too, and am not seeing any readily visible 2 hoses on the firewall.

I see pair with one hose and a kind of metal line, but I though I was looking for two hoses from when I did this on an 86 Ford.


Thank you very much for your knowledge.

 

Also do I need to put anything on the Tstat gasket before reattaching? Permatex or such?

 

Went ahead and installed the new Tstat with nothing on gasket.

After a 10 minute warm up, top hose was super hot, steam coming out of radiator and lower hose was completely cool to touch.

The gauge did not read overheating.

Also for some reason, the fan on the radiator did not come on at all now. Is this a new problem?


The idle at park was revving up and down and then smoothed out.


Am going to let it sit for a while and then take it on a longer test drive to see what result is.

 

The Tstat is an Murray Ultra 180 degrees 55878.

 

Okay well, it seems it may be water pump. Just drove up to fill water jug and water was pouring out from under car. On return drive home, gauge was rising fast towards red. Water fill at car wash is only about a quarter mile drive. Will need to price water pump now and see about how to install.

 

I researched for a video and located this .

From this, it looks pretty labor intensive.

 

OK, a lot of stuff here...

YES, there is an air-bleeder on top of the thermostat housing. It looks like the bleeder-screw on a brake caliper - same idea.

Top hose hot & bottom hose cold - it begins to look like your radiator might be plugged with crud and little or no coolant is flowing through the radiator. In this case, what little coolant is getting through the radiator is going so slowly that it has plenty of time to cool down. There isn't enough flow rate to cool the engine. But I'm a bit concerned about the temperature gauge not showing very hot.

So my concern is justified by something eventually popped and coolant pouring out... That's bad.

Where is the cooling coming out from? I'm not convinced it's a bad water pump. It's easier to check the radiator. Remove top & bottom hoses from radiator and use a garden hose to flush water through the radiator. If you put the hose in the top it should run easily out the bottom of the radiator, without much overflowing out the top. It sounds like it's bad enough for a new radiator. If it was only slightly blocked, maybe you could use some kind of clean&flush product.

Then you really need to find where it's leaking out from. There's a bunch of hoses, and if one burst then that's a lot easier than replacing the water pump. Water pumps normally start leaking slowly, and dripping out the bottom of the plastic timing-belt cover.

 

Okay great again! Thank you! I will check the radiator out tomorrow. I wanted to also do a flush on the heater core, but don't know where the two hoses are as in OP:


"Also, thought I should flush the heater core, too, and am not seeing any readily visible 2 hoses on the firewall.

I see pair with one hose and a kind of metal line, but I though I was looking for two hoses from when I did this on an 86 Ford."


It seems like I need a lift to see the "bunch of hoses" you reference here? Or will just try to jack it up on the driver's side? All fluid is out right now, so how will I see where it's coming from?

If I have to take it to a shop, it is going to have to be towed. So going to use this information in your post and see if I can get some clarity on what is actually going on first.

Thank you again for sharing your knowledge here. I feel appreciation.

 

Okay, so I put some water in radiator to look for leak first.

It filled to the top at only 1/2 of a gallon jug.

I started it up and it begin leaking immediately- from just below the timing cover.

SO, this means it IS the water pump, correct?



Will I also need this timing cover gasket set?


When I called O'Reilly for parts- water pump and belt, he told me to get this Water pump kit.

And he said I would also need the timing cover gasket set as I did not want to put it all back together and find out it was still leaking from one of those gaskets/seals.


Thank you very much

 

Other people around here have done timing belts a lot more recently than me, so I hope to see some advice on what are good brands of belt kits. I used OEM parts from a dealer that does internet sales (there's several of those). Many of the parts in the "timing cover gasket set" are sorta optional because those covers aren't airtight anyway. A few of the "real" gaskets are for things that you might not remove during the job, like the gear case for the rear balance shaft.

Leaking from the bottom of the timing cover looks like the water pump is the culprit. Search for threads about the timing belt, because the water pump is part of that job. I'm pretty sure you'll find advice on what brand of kit is good.

Did you remove the lower radiator hose to see how water flows through the radiator?

The heater hoses are close to each other, and close to the thermostat housing. There's a few other hoses back in that area, connected to the throttle body & other components back there. Since you found your leak, then those other hoses might be OK.