Hello, Happy New Year to everyone.

HELP, the sweet Dakota has no heat. It's been that way since I acquired it and I'm just now trying to tackle this beast. Relying on my Haynes Manual, it suggested a Radiator Cap, and Thermostat. Ok, I hit the parts store and I went to replace the thermostat. It was all good until dropped 1 of the darn bolts in the phantom zone. Quick trip to the LHS, overcame that with 2 new ones. Topped off with 50/50, slapped on the new cap... only a minor improvement, if any. Tomorrow I'm going to try flushing & filling radiator, maybe flushing the Heater Core too.

A few observations:

1 - When I took the t-stat housing off what came out was not green 50/50, looked more like dirty water :-(
2 - My upper radiator hose never builds any pressure, it also is never really HOT to the touch. Example, If I run one of my ThirdGen Camaros for 10 minutes... the upper hose is HOT, like in line w/ the temp gauge. After idling the Dakota like 20 minutes the upper hose was only warm enough to knock the chill off my hand...
3 - The dash Temp Gauge NEVER goes higher than the mid point between 130 Flat cold & 210 Operating Temp, so never hotter than160* maybe?

I'm starting to use the Dakota more and could use any advice you have. Thanks!

 

Flush the whole system with a radiator flush chemical. Also flush the heater core individually with the chemical.

Note: This is a 4.7L engine in this thread, so your heater hose locations will be different.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...ml#post3267598

Based on your description of your coolant, you may also want to replace the radiator.

 

How many miles on the engine? Are both hoses to the heater core warm, or one warm and the other cold. Since it was full of dirty water, your core may be partially plugged. A reverse flush can sometimes cure that without removing the core. Since the engine doesn't warm up, I'd suspect the engine isn't warming up. Didn't you put a 195 degree unit in it? You didn't put a failsafe in it did you? Every single one of those I've dealt with were either bad when I got the vehicle or failed after installation. One time after 6 days.

I'm assuming you have a 5.2, 5.9 or 3.9 engine. If you have over 120,000 to 150,000 miles, check your timing chain for slop. More than 5 degrees of slop and your cam timing may be off. Pop the cap off and mark the rotor position with a marker, NOT a pencil. Graphite in the pencil will cause arcing. Next mark the harmonic balancer. Now rotate the engine backwards slightly and stop when the rotor begins to move. If you have more than 5 degrees of slop, you need a timing chain. I had a 1994 Ram 1500 with the 3.9. Decent little truck. I never had much heat or had the engine warm up. I replaced the timing chain with a new one and the dealer told me about an updated tensioner. Slapped it all in and fired the truck up. On the shake down run and the heat nearly ran me out. A few weeks down the road, no only did I have heat, I also noticed a significant improvement in fuel economy. I went from 16-17 to consistently getting 20-23. I'd been in open loop mode and wasting fuel. Warmed up, the old truck ran great, had decent power (it was a 6 banger after all) and would cook you at full blask.

 

Was old thermostat a 180 or 212? What about the new one you put in? Old one may have failed open.

Agree on flushing/backflushing radiator and heater core.