thermostat not opening? HELP ASAP

[Squareforceone]

I'm just going to buy a mechanical gauge

[Squareforceone]

Welp i've been an idiot the whole time. put on a mechanical gauge and all is good i think, the temp light kicked up before it even got to 190 and i have a 195 thermostat, i think it's because the sender for the idiot light is right under the headers. So that's all well and good expect i was an idiot again, i thigtened one the waterneck bolts too tight and stripped the threads on my aluminum intake, i should of know better but forgot it was aluminum

[kalbert]

No biggie, just get a Heli-Coil repair kit for the stripped holes. It will work better than a steel bolt in an aluminum hole. It would have eventually corroded and stripped out anyway.

[Squareforceone]

yeah that's i'm probably going to do

[DemonikKamik]

I know im a newbie here but I ran into an issue just two days ago where my truck had started to over heat and it had never done it before and i had just installed a new thermostat i felt the upper hose as you did and not hot at all and the lower was extremely hot!! i have a mechanical gauge and it was getting really hot!! i was going crazy because i never had that problem. i started looking around to see if i was low on water then i looked at the overflow tank and saw it was full and also the hose i put it in was to long so this was causing the radiator to get to much pressure and not venting through the cap. so long story short check the overflow tank and empty it, make sure the hose is not to long either emptied the overflow cut the hose to size and voila!!! problem solved!!

[donut]

Check the radiator cap, that's what controls the pressure. The overflow is just that. It catches the overflow the rad cap lets by. To long a hose could allow the system to suck air as it cools and not re-fill from the overflow.

[cwilkie]

I am having this issue. My original radiator failed so I replaced it with a Murray 433366. Now I have no heat. The engine temp guage is cool. The right upper radiator hose is hot will the two heater hoses are cool. The bottom radiator hose is also hot. When I filled the engine I removed upper heater hose that connects to the engine and bled the system until coolant came out of the hose and began to spill. I then reconnected it and let the air out over several fill cycles. I left the cap on loosely then ran the truck with the same result in the end. No heat. Everything worked fine before I had to change the radiator. I verified the water pump works. I have a recovery bottle as well.

I am going to try the drilling holes trick. My original stat was a 195 and the other stat I tried was a 180.

[cwilkie]

I verified my stat works by using a heat gun to open it. See the picture below.

[donut]

Can you check that the old failing radiator didn't fill the heater core full of junk?

[bigd65]

maybe the motor swap had a guage sender and you had idiot lights........

[cwilkie]

the old radiator was rebuilt when the engine was rebuilt and a new heater core was installed. That was two years ago. I have been reading and it sounds like i have air in my heater core. I am going to park my truck on a steep hill in my yard then attempt to get the air out by making the radiator the highest point in the cooling system.

Any other suggestions?

[piecesparts]

NOTE to everyone: It is better to use two studs in an aluminum manifold and then you do not strip the threads in the manifold. Once installed, all of your torque is applied on the stud nuts and not the aluminum manifold.

[donut]

Originally Posted by cwilkie

the old radiator was rebuilt when the engine was rebuilt and a new heater core was installed. That was two years ago. I have been reading and it sounds like i have air in my heater core. I am going to park my truck on a steep hill in my yard then attempt to get the air out by making the radiator the highest point in the cooling system.

Any other suggestions?

Sounds good to me. Didn't realize you did heater core at the same time.