And I definitaly mixed the coolent correctly.

 

Put in a new rad today and still no luck. I did do a quick test of sqeezing the top rad hose and releasing it to see if i could feel any kind of surge of coolent but i couldnt. A buddy told me if I didnt feel anything than its prob the water pump. Is this a reliable test or just my hillbilly friends imagination?

 

Probably still have air in the system. Getting it all out on these trucks is a right bitch.

Leave the cap off, and start the engine. When the thermostat opens, you will feel the hose get MUCH warmer...... and should see some evidence of flow in the radiator. (albeit, not much......) Let it cycle several times, and see if you get any more air.

Put your truck info in your sig please. Might be you have a poor connection at the sending unit for the gauge. Or, the PCM just wants to **** you off.......

 

as a simple test - and don't get burned...

is your t-stat still in place or did you remove it?
if removed - you can do this test cold (and quick).
if in place - then you have to do it hot - and you need to be extremely careful not to get burned...

with engine cold - remove top radiator hose at the radiator. push the clamp out of the way so it slides on and off the radiator easily. leave it disconnected and out of the way of the fan.

start the truck and observe coolant flow out of the engine. with t-stat in place, nothing will come out until t-stat opens, then its should start trickling out slow and then increase in volume until its a fairly steady flow. with t-stat removed, it should immediately gush out coolant.

obviously, you'll loose some or all of your coolant, so you'll have to pour in water or coolant accordingly.

most water pump failures are leaking seals at the pulley shaft. to actually stop pumping water would require some kind of failure of the impeller, which would be very rare.


jmo - i still think your t-stat is bad, and i'd remove it to see what happens and take it out of the picture.

 

is the belt over the water pump routed correctly? If the lower hose is cool to the touch and the top is hot...that is just weird.

 

Just a shot in the dark, but does the inside of your radiator look rusty?

Ever ran straight water for an extended period of time?

With the engine cold, take your fan and spin it. How much resistance do you feel?

With an average strength spin (we'll say ~10 pounds of torque) how many times does the fan rotate before coming to a stop?

 

Thanks to all for the good info. Got it figured out. Head gasket is shot. not sure about any other damage resulting from it. Glad I found out what the heck was goin on but dang, head gaskets are no fun

 

So what temp is it running at? How'd you come to that conclusion? Oil in water? Bubbles in radiator?

 

Hi, I'm sorry I dont mean to jack your thread but I'm new to this site and I dont know how to start a new thread. Could you help? Thanks

 

On the main page for the second gen forum, toward the top, on the left, is a button marked "New Thread"... click on that.