Before I had the head gasket done, I had cylinder misfires on two cylinders which indicated the passenger side is where the problem was. Compression test on the driver side passed.

 

The collapsed hose and lack of heat keeps making me think there has to be a blockage or restriction somewhere. You might be right on the pump. Sounds like the heater core is clear, and you've burped the system, so somehow it's just not flowing. I've never taken my truck's cooling system apart, so this may not work for you, but this helped my car.

With the truck running, turn the heat on hot and on floor. Shut the engine off, and disconnect the upper and lower hoses from the rad. Remove the thermostat and reinstall the housing without it. Using a garden hose and a spray nozzle of some kind, make a tight fit on the upper hose. Now spray water backwards through the system and observe the output. Without the thermostat, water should flow quick and easy through the engine. If not, you know there is a restriction. I wouldn't be surprised if somehow it's not related to the rebuild. Left over junk/gunk/mess/paper towels may have found an area to gather and cause issues.

 

With out the thermostat alls you will do is shoot water out of the housing. The thermostat has the gasket you need to keep it a closed system

But i have just taken the thermo out and stuck a water hose up to the hole and pushed water out through the bottom rad hose

 

Ok, so I'm definitely thinking it's a blockage or bad pump. I felt the heater core hoses and they're barely warm with the engine up to temp. Looking at the old water pump, it looks like the heater core gets fed the coolant coming from the engine on the hot side of the thermostat so with the engine warm, there should be about 200 degree coolant in those hoses and I already verified that the hoses and heater core flow well. Looks like it's time for another water pump, but this time I'm going to a different store and a different brand because this is 2 from the store/brand that have failed.

If the blockage is in the engine, I have absolutely no idea how to go about fixing it other than trying to back-flush it... Or maybe before I replace the water pump, I'll fun a bottle of cooling system flush thru it and see if it helps.

 

Just throwing this out there....Is the new passenger side head gasket the correct one??
Did the head gaskets change over the model years??

 

The head gasket job was done by a pro so I'm assuming it's the right gasket. Any way to tell without removing it?

 

No its burried under the heavy head

 

It might be worth checking head gasket part numbers for different years of the hemi. It seems to me they did a change up with oil gallery's over the years. They may have done a change up with water galleries too. Just a thought.

 

Ok, so I think I finally got the temperature issue fixed. It turns out that yet another water pump, from the same store and mfr, was bad. Unlike the last one (that started this whole mess) with the metal impeller that failed completely, this one was plastic and LOOKED good but the impeller was spinning on the shaft and not pumping water. Now, not only do I have consistent engine temperature, but I also have HEAT inside the cab which is a HUGE imporvement.

I bought the latest pump from a different store so I'm hoping that I won't see the issue again. I went back to the original store with the pump to show / tell them my story hoping that they'd push back on the MFR about a possible bad batch of pumps and ended up getting my money back. I was fully willing to eat the cost of the pump since I lost my receipt, but they did what was best for the customer and gave me the refund without the receipt. Oh, and as it turns out, if you have their rewards card, they can track the warranty on parts you buy, but nobody in the stores tells you that. Weird.

 

Glad you got it fixed. I just changed my water pump what MFR did you use?