I finished replacing my plenum gasket on my 95 318 magnum last night with the Hughes Engine aluminum plate and gasket kit. I took it for a ride and it over heated (yes i had antifreeze/water in the radiator). I'm not sure how fast the temperature rose because i broke my temp sensor during the rebuild. I did replace the stock 195 degree thermostat with a brand new hydrotech 180 degree thermostat. I'm not sure what i should check first to fix this problem. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

How do you know that it overheated?

Check the thermostat, by some odd chance maybe it failed or maybe installed incorrectly. Did you top off he radiator with coolant after it warmed up?

 

Overheated was probably the wrong word to use..what I meant was that it built up a lot of pressure and was overflowing..the coolant was fairly hot

 

Ok so the thermostat seems to be fuctioning now but my oil gauge is not registering any pressure and the oil light is on. I have plenty of oil in it. I wiggled the oil sensor and it seems loose but it still won't register. It doesn't heat up tho while operatorating.

 

Yes probably a bad oil sending unit. Very common failer.

 

Change your thermostat back OEM 195°, then make sure reservoir is at the Full mark, you must check this a couple of times just to make sure its on the full mark and check your antifreese potency, I frose my thermostat closed and overheated the radiator cause it had more water than antifreeze.

 

Well so far it is operating correctly but once its warmed up and been driven for a bit then left idling it will smoke more. Almost as if its still burning oil. It will do this till you start driving again then it'll clear out. Is this unburnt fuel or is it burning oil I didn't get cleaned out of the manifold?