Last update on the heating issue.

Bled heater core again. Cut both hoses and spliced so I could isolate the core from the rest of the cooling system. Little extreme I know. Ran truck to operating temp. With blower on High and truck at 190'ish, I'm getting 100f (ambient temp of 37f). With blower 1 (med-hi) down from HI it's at 115f. Not great, I'm beginning to think my core is fubar, but at least it's enough to keep a body warm going down the hiway. I can still hear gurgle at 2500 rpms, and getting a slight coolant smell, but that could be from outside since I had a coolant eruption.

I could not get the failsafe thermostat to fail in boiling water, but neither did I ever notice the truck get above the 210 mark on the dash. I'm sure it's not accurate, but I doubt it's that far off.

 

here's a quick tip... when warming up the truck.. set the control to MAX A/C... and the temp on the hottest setting.. i know it sounds weird but it will recirculat the air in the cab instead of drawing cold air in from outside... just trust me on this.. it works and others will tell you the same thing.. and no.. it will not damage your a/c system

 

You know, that is a great idea!!! I'm gonna try that!

 

reverse your hoses going in and out of the heater core, and see if that makes a difference... if it gets better then you need to replace the heater core.. if not, you might have a problem more with the flapper that makes the air flow across the heater core.. it's not unusual for the servo that controls that to go bad.. on the old mechanical ones it was different, but these are electrically controlled servo motors..

 

+1 on the a/c and on the switching of the hose