Ok, So I had a dodge dakota I'm working on. No heat out of the dash. I checked the damper door is working. I drive it and only see about 170-180 on the guage. The radiator cap is completely cold. Top radiator hose is kind of hot. I remove the thermostat, flush the cooling system with blue devil cleaner, Black flush the heater core and get a ton of dark gunk out. Reinstall a new 195" thermostat, refill with coolant and now I have quite a bit more heat from the heater core but the engine is still not heating up past that 170ish point. I drove it, let it run for a long time with a coolant funnel it seems like I have gotten all the air out but it still runs cold. Double checked the thermostat, installed a new one just for kicks and same result. It is winter here in the midwest, but my car has 0 issues fully heating just from idle in 20 min or so. I went over everything 3 times and same result. any help?

 

How are you measuring the temperature?

 

I need to go get my infared to get accurate numbers. Right now I can pretty much tell the dash is accurate. just feeling the hoses. I know the difference between a engine thats 210 and one thats not that hot. not accurate I know. I can get accurate temps later today.

 

i have the same issue with my dak. in any weather below 30 deg i have to cover half the radiator .and set my fan to 200 deg on or it never gets over 160 on my temp gauges