I'm going insane!

I had a bad heater, it would get warm, but that was it. No overheating, no issues with coolant leaking, nothing wrong.

I decided hey! i'll take the thermostat housing apart and see why my heater sucks! I ordered a new thermostat and housing and gasket, as i expected to find an old crappy situation. I certainly did find a crappy situation. A large piece of the housing pipe was rusted away, and the thermostat itself was rusted to oblivion. I imagine it was stuck in the open position, which resulted in my crap heater situation.

I installed the new thermostat, new gasket, and new housing, and off i went.

The thermostat REFUSES to open! I burped it about a bajillion times, on a steep incline with the radiator cap well above everything else, but it still refuses to open!

I had a minor leak at the water pump, which i fixed by replacing the gasket, and while in there, my water pump looked fine. I got that back on, and gave it another shot. I've gone through SO MUCH coolant in the last couple days trying to figure this out. Luckily my work switched from regular green crap to ELC, so we have about 50 gallons left to go through, after i've already gone through about 15 gallons.

I just took my thermostat off again, and the coolant was up to the housing, so i put it back on with yet a new gasket, snugged everything up properly, and started it up after refilling coolant.

It got up to about 190 on the gauge (its a new 195 thermostat), and it opened, dropping my temp back down to 130-140 range. I figured, oh my it worked!

Just took it for a drive, and it seemed to be alright. Hung out at the 210 mark for a couple miles, then slowly started climbing back up again. I checked the upper hose, and it was cold again, as well as my radiator. cold cold cold. IM LOSING MY MIND!

Please advise!

No coolant leaks, it just randomly seems like its getting plugged or something.

I flushed everything out through the heater core out to water pump inlet back through the heater core, and the heater works like a CHAMP now, but it keeps overheating!

I live in alaska of course, so this is a pretty important issue to deal with. its been 10-20 degrees for the last couple weeks.

Help!!!

Thanks,

Joshua

 

Well I'm no expert, but I would try to just rule out the obvious. Try a different thermostat. What brand did you get? I know the the Stant superstats are good. If that's available in your are, try one of those.

 

First of all, please let us know what year, make, model and engine this vehicle is. As for thermostat, please find a Stant Superstat and install that in your motor. Also, there may be an issue with coolant flow, since it sounded like the original thermostat and housing were rusted to death. If this is a 5.2/5.9 engine and the cooling system was seriously neglected, there could still be crud/mud lodged around the cylinders at the bottom of the block. If this was the case, I would remove each freeze plug on both sides of the engine block and dig out/flush the crud/mud from around each cylinder. Normal flushing doesn't always fix a badly neglected cooling system.

 

Boy do i feel dumb, of course i left out the important part!

Its a 1996 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 V8 5.2L

 

Oh, and i live in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, and the weather is bad right now, and i just got this brand new thermostat, its a murray. Parts arent easy to come by, but i will be ordering soon.

 

Get a Stant super-stat. The generic off-brand fellers aren't always of the best quality.....

Welcome to DF!

 

Bad (new) thermostat was my first thought. It happens sometimes.
When you get a new one (I use Stant also) boil some water and stick it in the pot to see if it opens up all the way and then closes when you pull it out and it cools off.
It wouldn't hurt to use a meat thermometer to get the water at a steady 200º before dipping it in the pot.

 

I would also think faulty thermostat, are you sure it is installed properly with bellows towards engine and does it have a bleed hole. I don't remember, it may only install one way. I know it is a pain, but to determine problem, you might try running with no stat, to verify if overheating goes away. Not likely your problem, but I once had an overheating problem caused by plastic cracked water pump impeller and slipping on shaft. Good Luck, I know it can be frustrating, especially dealing with antifreeze mess, almost as bad as oil.

 

Did you burp it again after the last coolant change? These things love to air lock at the tstat

 

I agree with testing the thermostat first. You might just take out the new thermostat and use the boiling water method. I would definitely get a thermometer. stick it in the water, start it heating, watch the thermometer temp rise and find out what degrees it hit when the thermostat opens, then when it cools down make sure it closes on its own again.

This should give you a good indication whether the t-stat is working ok. If so, then make sure you have it burped fine like the other guys mentioned. You might leave the radiator cap off when you get it all back together and let it get up to temp and make sure you see water flowing in radiator. If not you have air in the system or a blockage.

Have you done a complete flush? Or are you just draining the radiator? Heater core might be clogged too, I would disconnect the hoses and flush that separately to find out.