+1. Flow means nothing. It only takes a small amount of blockage to raise the temp. Kind of like the heater core (good flow but no heat) And what brand T-stat are you using?

Edit: BTW, the thread title could use help next time. As "all new parts" is not very accurate.

 

How about mostly new parts? Anyway, I just picked up a failsafe 195 and will install tonight. The one in there now is the brand from Advanced Auto. Dont recall the name.

Hard to check the radiator flow as I am pretty convinced I am not getting any return through the top hose. I ran the engine to a temp of around 225 per the guage and the water in the radiator at the top was cold to the touch with no increase in temp of the upper hose. I would expect to see some return hot water coming across the top of the radiator.

My next step in conjunction with changing the tstat again is a complete flush of the system. Planning on checking the tstat prior to install this time.

Will report back following all this. Thanks again for the thoughts.

 

First problem, "I just picked up a failsafe 195 and will install tonight" . Good luck, people in previous posts said don't use one. I for one agree.

Second prob. "Autozone" t stat . Nuff said, good luck bro.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I reviewed the FAQ's and found a couple folks happy with their failsafe tstats so I went that route. I did see the negative comments on them on this thread, but no suggestions as to alternatives. I was planning on testing it prior to install. What brand would you suggest?

 

The failsafes have worked well for me so far, but I am not everybody. I would leave the thermostat out then burp it & run to see if it runs cool. That will tell you if the thermostat is bad or not. If you live in the hot south, go with a cooler unit but here in Iowa, I stick with the 195 or freeze my tuckus off in the winter months. There are flush additives you can add then run for a while before doing the flush. I have never used them, so I can not validate the goodness of them. I would imagine leaving the T-stat out whil you flush would only be a good thing. And Zman17 is right, flow is not everything. A flush at this time seems like a great idea to me.

 

take your t stat out put it in a pot of boling water and watch it open up if it dont its no good!

 

he said advance auto which sells STANT brand not autozone...
I agree though failsafes seem less reliable than the regular ones...

 

Guys,

All great info. I did everything suggested, basically. I pulled the hoses and flushed the radiator to see how it flowed, I hosed it through from both sides, I pulled the tstat and flushed the engine. All this was good. I boiled the Stant and Failsafe and found the Stant not opening much at the temp where the Failsafe was wide open. I even stole one of my wife's cooking thermostats and checked the water temp when it opened. It was right at 195.

I put the Failsafe in and gave it another run with clean fluid at 50/50. Turns out, one of the issues I had was the guage on the dash is reading over 200 when the tstat opens. The needle is on the second "0", but I did verify hot fluid in the radiator and the top hose heated up. It held temp there, so I will go with that. I might run over to Dodge for a new sensor and see if it fixes the guage issue. Prior to the waterpump failure, it ran at 200 straight up, as I have noticed others do on the forum.

Anyway, thanks to all for the input.

 

Ooops! Read too quick.

On a side note, to the OP. Did you test the 3.99 stant or the 9.99 stant super stat?

 

yup my gauge says 200 with a 2tant 195 stat..(cheap one) .. sometimes it gets up to 205...when I had my 180 stat installed it ran about 189 at the hottest according to torque app.