So for about half the day today I was in the truck ripping out the alternator, the big bracket for the alternator and my non existent A/C(With alot of pondering inbetween) Trying to find the source of my coolant leak, it ended up being my bypass hose from my block to waterpump. It wasn't a proper hose and pinched itself and the pressure my truck was creating was causing it to spit fluid out at the ends. I replaced that with a proper molded hose and its all nice and clean there.

During the work though I checked my temp sender unit to see if it might've been the issue.(This was before I ripped that big bracket off and found that huge mess.) The old one actually snapped in half from the tension of just screwing it back in so I went to get another one from the parts store. It seemed fine and it went in simple enough.

But when everything was back together I started the truck up with the cap off to clear out any air that was in my system. Within a minute my rad was overflowing with fluid as if the thermostat wasn't engaging. I checked my temp gauge in my truck and within a few minutes it was reading as halfway on the gauge. I shut the truck off after this since it didn't seem to be improving.

Now my thermostat is a brand new 195 as of a week ago and its been working fine. I even went on a big road trip and got back this morning and I had no heating issues with the truck even with the leak.

Does anyone know what might be causing this or could this possibly just be one hell of a huge air bubble in there thats causing hell?

Heres some pictures of my progress today.

 

There may be air behind the thermostat. I usually drill one or two 1/8" holes in it so air can pass through it even closed. Happened to me last month after a water pump replacement.

 

i usually hit the throttle a bit and that sucks the coolant down into the system and allows me to put more in(more of a 2 person job).

 

Well I found out what the issue was.
The new sensor actually reads way differently then my old one did. In my auto class that I'm taking my teacher suggested we manually check the temp of the truck and sure enough it was sitting at about 183.

So even though the gauge is reading funny I'm content to let it sit for awhile since it isn't hurting anything really.