I recently acquired a 2000 dakota, 3.9l v6. Im driving to work one day and it overheats. I get the thermostat replaced and the mechanic said it still wasnt fixed. I replaced the water pump by myself today. Everything went smoothly.

Or so i thought. I started it up and its still overheating. Whenever it gets above the 210F mark on the temp gauge i turn it off in fear of it hurting the engine. I can then hear the coolant or something bubbling inside the radiator hose. Like its boiling.

I just need to know what to do, should i replace the thermostat again or what should i do?

 

Well I was going to say make sure you're not losing coolant - normally when your waterpump goes bad it'll start leaking out the weephole. Try the coolant temp sensor, it's behind the hose running into the engine just right of your alternator.

 

Could be simple your system may just need a good flushing out have you done that yet?

Your rad may be plugged up some the flush may fix it or you may need a new rad if its plugged up bad.

I’m not sure were the rad hose on your engine is on your return side all the way on the bottom or mid rad if on the bottom the best way to flush it really well is flush it out with a good strong cleaner from the store fill with fresh water warm it up till the water flows then un clamp the bottom hose and yank it out this kind of flash flushes any junk out you may see sand looking junk coming out do this a few times refill it with coolant and see what happens.

Be careful when yanking the lower rad hose out to flush that’s hot water coming out don’t burn yourself.

Is your belt good not slipping? Fan working good efan working if you have one?

 

Never mind guys. I burped the system and im guessing it fixed it. Its keeping a steady temperature right where it should be at. Thanks for the help any way.

 

I had a similar problem with my 2000... It always ran hot, but every time I turned the ac on it would start to overheat, finally just swapped out the single core stock rad for a new two core and now it runs at 205 with the ac on even when it's 110 out