How Warm Should my Truck Get with a 180 Degree T-Stat?
 

I finally got to the point of firing my truck up and trying to burp the cooling system after replacing the timing cover gasket, water pump, thermostat, and hoses. While apart I switched out to a 180 degree thermostat for the first time. My concern is that even after 45 minutes, the truck just never really seemed to warm up. The heat started getting luke warm, but normally it would burn you out of the truck. So I'm wondering if I have a thermostat that is stuck open, of if this is just the nature of a 180 degree thermostat. I've attached a picture of the highest point that my temperature gauge got to. This was after sitting idling for 45 minutes. Does this look normal, or do I have a thermostat that's stuck open?

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Thats the normal position, i have a dakota, but, its the same gauge you have, and thats about were mine runs with a 180 thermostat...

Perfect here too. I've run four 180 stats over the years since the haydays of ping.

If you're above the Mason-Dixon line, you need to put something in front of your radiator or you'll never be warm. I use old floor mats cut up to fit the grille slots. Poor man's winter front. Helps warm up quick and has nice heat. Except my core is going out but that's a different issue . . .

Did you do t-chain? Hopefully since you had EVERYTHING apart already. Isn't the crank pulley fun? Weee. How was the job? I did it two summers ago. Never again I hope. Wow, you're truck is a baby with only 161k.

Thanks guys! I didn't do the chain, but only because I paid a shop to replace it about 3 or 4 years ago and I only have about 6k miles on it since then. When I pulled it all apart the chain still looked good, so I decided to just save the money. The job wasn't too bad. The hardest part was getting the fan clutch nut off. It was really stuck on and took breaking 3 Lisle pulley holders while beating on the wrench with a sledge hammer before it broke free. I also pulled the oil pan to do the rear main seal and the oil pump and getting the pan back on is a pita. (I'd done it before, so kind of knew what to expect.) Other than those two items it was pretty straight forward and made me wonder why I paid someone to do it last time. It's just time consuming.

Sounds like my truck! I also did rear main, pump, etc. after doing all the front first. Trying to give my truck another lease on life as I can't afford a replacement.

Had no issue with pan but the seal was tedious. Glad you got it all together again. Why was it leaking out the cover? The shop must've not done it right? That must be frustrating. I had a shop put in a crap clutch and a year and a half later, I'm tearing it all apart myself. Not happy.

You are also going to want to make REAL sure you get all the air out of the heater core. That can be a fun exercise....... Even with a 180 stat, when the truck is fully warmed, it should still get plenty hot.

What issue did you have with the rear main? Mine slipped in really easily which worried me a little, but hopefully it's not an issue.

I'm 95% sure that it was just leaking from the water pump, so it's not that the shop did something wrong, but that they used a crappy water pump. It was leaking so much it was hard to ell though, so I figured I'd do the timing cover gasket while it was apart, just to be on the safe side.

I'm in the same boat as you on giving my truck a new lease on life. I looked at a new truck, but prices are outrageous for something I'd drive about 1,500 miles a year. Now I just need to decide if I want to fix this body rust on my doors and bed, or if I just want to let it keep rusting away. I feel like if I pay to have it fixed and then for a paint job, I'm not going to want to use it to hunt with, which is 90% of what I do with the truck.

Must be different on a 2500? Each time I've done pump or t-stat work, I just fill it up and run it til the stat opens. No bubbles, no problem!

I agree that the heater should be hot, but the coolant temp when below 50 barely gets to 170 on mine thus the winter front. I like to heat it up quickly and get warmth plus better mileage. But in the summer the 180 is the beez kneez!

No issue really, but it was tedious! Removed rear cap, loosened the next two and it was still tight. Just hard to be so careful tapping out the old one without scratching the mating surface. New one went in and I did all the right seals and goop that every post said, and it still leaks! Screw it, not doing it again. Every engine over 100k has a little seepage.

You're crazy! The pump was leaking and you thought "why not tear off the timing cover?!?!" That's way more work! You're braver than I. Had a coolant leak since I did my t-chain and looked for over a year until I found the stupid bypass hose hadn't sealed properly USING THE RECOMMENDED WATER PUMP SEALER! Ugh. So frustrating. So I re-did it with black RTV and no more leak!

Your rig is just a hunting truck? Don't you have that gorgeous navy ORE? Used to have pics in your sig? Man, I do 1500 miles a month! Still a daily driver here.

[QUOTE=Ramman18;3369204]No issue really, but it was tedious! Removed rear cap, loosened the next two and it was still tight. Just hard to be so careful tapping out the old one without scratching the mating surface. New one went in and I did all the right seals and goop that every post said, and it still leaks! Screw it, not doing it again. Every engine over 100k has a little seepage.[\quote] That's what worries me. I didn't loosen the 2 other bearing caps and the seal slid in very easily loosely. I didn't read on the manual that you need to loosed the other two bearing caps until after I'd already done it. I'm hoping I don't have a leak, but I guess we'll see.

I apparently missed to part about sealer on the bypass hose. I didn't do that, so hopefully I don't have a leak there. There didn't seem to be any sealer on the one I took off.

Yeah, it's very rare that I drive my truck. I use it to hunt on, to town my dirt bikes occasionally, and when it snows. 1,500 miles a year is bring generous for me. I doubt I usually put that many on it now. I couldn't afford to drive this thing 1,500 miles a month.

It is the blue 01 ORE, but I don't know about beautiful anymore. It's starting to really show it's age. The driver's door has started rusting through at the bottom. The side of the bed over the wheel just recently had a few rust bubbles appear, and the plastic trim on the front bumper is coming loose. I also plan to replace the wheels and steps. The wheels have lots of pitting on them and won't come clean and the side steps are rusting out. I've zip tied it on for now, but I really need new bumper plastic. Once it started showing its ago, I decided to just start using it now I wanted and now stressing as much about the condition. I'm to the point where I want to start fixing some stuff up, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the body. I hate to pay for paint and then be afraid to hunt on it which is all I really do with it.