Man that sucks, you've almost go a whole newcooling system. It's been awhile so, refreshme if you done these things

Could it be a bad coolant temp gauge sending unit? or possibly a bad gauge in the cluster? Have you verified the temp you are seeing is actually the correct temp? Do a cluster test sweep it if you can on the dash if you can.

 

No dash sweep as mine is a 1997. I drove to the doctor's today and that stupid thing bobs up and down. You can review the thread to track my progress, but overall this is getting plain maddening. I don't think it is the cluster unit, because the problems before were coolant being blown out of the overflow. Had that not happened, I would definitely suspect the sending unit. Today's temps are in the mid-30's with winds. This is not right.

 

On my 96 Ram, the coolant runs through the heater core all of the time.

 

My 94 Dodge Ram gave me the same fits with the cooling system. I changed the T-Stat several times and flushed the system. The Temp Gauge would fluctuate wildly between about 190 and 210. Unfortuantely the truck caught fire and burned to the ground before I could fix the problem.

 

how many times have you changed the t-stat? i wish my truck would be running that hot right now, because up here the temp hasnt got over -5 the past week, and that 180 t-stat i put in this summer is killing me.

 

OK, this morning it was a bitter 20ยบF in OKC. My truck is parked outside, and during the warm-up it hung at 190ยบ for a long time before it hit "the sweet spot". Next think I know, the needle climbed to between "00" on the temp gauge and plummeted. All the way to work (35 mile drive) the needle was above the "2" on the temp gauge.

Thus far, I have replaced the radiator with a stock aluminum unit; replaced the stock 195ยบ with another 195ยบ; replaced the heater core that had pinholes; replaced the radiator cap; and replaced the waterpump. I am beginning to think there is a blockage in the block or the water jackets.

 

on my ram when i changed my intakes out i found that my passages had been almost completly sealed off by crap it picked up from somewhere...but i used a shop vac and some wire and cleaned it out then put the old intake on used it to flush the system with the flush stuff you get from autozone or advance and then took it back off cleaned all the surfaces and it was good after....or the head gaskets you got might not have had a big enough opening cut out in them for the waterway...had that problem on a bronco i fixed once....just some thoughts i had.....

oh not related to the subject but where in wisconsin do you go..i am originally from there and wondered if the steam show you go to is the same one i go to

 

Yeah, I seriously think there may be an issue with the gaskets used for the heads and the intake. This is just so damned irritating!!!

I am originally from Roscoe, Ill. and my oldest brother now lives in Cottage Grove. We go to the Thresheree in Janesville. I think I have him talked into taking his 50's model John Deere next year. His has a rare option or something on it. I am really looking forward to the 2008 show.

 

I had a discussion with my brother last night about this. He has a K5 Blazer that was running hot at one time and it was due to the intake gaskets restricting the flow of the coolant. I'm thinking this might be the problem as my truck pegs almost to 225ยบ before the temp plummets below 195ยบ and then bobs all the time. Either next weekend, or the weekend after, I am going to run the truck without a t-stat to see what happens.

 

Yesterday, I had the time, and the weather was right, to pop open the t-stat housing to insure that I had the t-stat installed properly. First, I removed the upper hose from the radiator as well as open the radiator cap. The overflow bottle has coolant above the MAX line and it appeared there was not coolant all the way up in the radiator. The upper hose should have spilled out coolant when I removed it, but it did not. I removed it from the t-stat housing and just a minor bit sloshed out.

So, I got my original 195ยบ t-stat from the bench and inspected it. I noticed that it has the built-in air bleeder. I dropped it in some boiling water and it opened fine. I cleaned the t-stat housing and the intake, installed a new gasket and the original t-stat to see how the truck performs this time. I let the sealant set for about 4 hours before topping off the radiator and then filling the upper hose with coolant. I'll see what happens today while I am out running some errands.