waiting on a tow truck the van overheated it's not leaking.how do I tell if this the water pump for the thermostat.excuse my punctuation I'm doing this from my mobile.thank you

 

Pump - Run engine and watch for flow at the rad cap opening.

Tstat - If it opened upper hose should be somewhat hard and hot.

Were rad fans spinning?

 

Thanks.
Yes the fans are working.

I just had got to open the cap for a minute or two and the truck showed up. The coolant was starting to rise and overflow and I was hoping to see it not drop but the driver was ready to go. I guess if the Tstat opened the level would drop eh?

I was at a light and the chime went off and the dash light was on. I took off and got some wind on it @ 60mph and it started to cool down but the next light it went back up and was harder to get back down so I parked her.

I may just pull it and boil it up to 225°F I guess.

 

If your water pump has ever been replaced, it might be the pump. I had an overheating problem and I replaced the thermostat, temp sender, hoses and then checked the pump. The plastic impeller was loose on the shaft.

 

Thanks, I have all the previous owners records. He was meticulous about the records. I will have to go through it and see if he changed that pump.

 

What kind of trouble is the water pump job? I have never been under there. Is it burried

 

If you pump failed, you would have little to no heat into the cabin, because there will be litte water flow thru the heater core.
If you T-Stat Failed, you can use Cabin Heat to somewhat cool down the engine.
Usually when a T-Stat fail, when you pull it out, it falls apart. And it is a $11 part, and 15 minute job to change T-Stat, maybe you should just throw one in and see if it help.

 

Pulled the t-stat and gave it the hot water test. They are 195°F units.
It opened a little maybe dropping 1/8 to 3/16" not even half as much as the new one.

You could really see the difference and the new one compressing the spring pretty good, but the old one just cracked open -so-to-speak.

What do you think. Pop it in and drive her?

 

Put the new one in and drive it. That is the easiest way to go. If it over heats again then go to the next.

If you have the 3.3 engine is not an easy job to do the water pump. Not hard, just time consumming.

 

Thanks, I was surprised to find several videos on the job.

When I pulled the t-stat housing back and removed the t-stat from it, not much fluid poured out.
So I fired it up hoping to see the pump move some fluid but nothing pushed out.
Heck, I may just consider it a preventive maintenance thing and do it I guess.

Should I have seen fluid pump out?