Great idea! I have an IR reader I use for silk screening to measure heat on T shirts. While reflecting on this late last night, was wondering if by draining the water and refilling while the van was facing down hill in my driveway, if'n the block got a massive air bubble in there that is causing major heat when put under load while in gear. Weird thing is, the minute I put in reverse to back out of the driveway (up hill) the temp redlines.

 

My "I'm and Idiot" light just went on.
Found a major ground wire that fell down out of sight as I was installing the "ground" for the Oil Pressure Gauge. I installed it to the firewall ground bolt right behind the battery. Black wire was just sitting there naked as a jay bird. HELLO! Its a dang miracle anything was working. Had the temp sensor in my pocket ready to go down to the AutoZarts store when the idiot light went on. :-). Anyways reinstalled temp sensor, took most of the dumb Teflon tape off the lower threads on OPS and Water temp senesor(so as to make a ground connection). and BAM, back in bidness. Temp Normal. Oil pressure at 50-60.

New radiator went in tonight.
Would like to empty the water in the block and figure out how to drain the heater core in AM...

 

Just pull both hoses and back flush the heater core.

I think there are drain plugs in the bottom of the block, just above the oil pan rail....... They have been in there for a while though, and will be fun to get out.

 

Is this a 5 gallon set up? Cuz I only ever get about 2 gallons draining the radiator. When I had the heads off I cracked the nut on the passenger side block and nothing came out and it felt dry. Was very strange because I could see water in there.

 

A lot of crap settles to the bottom of the water jackets, and essentially clogs up the drain holes. (which were actually used for casting.....) Go after it with a pic, or other sharp instrument, and you can actually get the coolant to drain.

 

I popped those drain plugs out and man, a ton of water came out. Glad I didn't ruin my 50/50 mix. I would have never got it right. Now if is perfect! Also blew out the heater core. So jazzed this is over. It runs great!

Thank you all.

 

Sweet - good to hear ...Cheers...

 

Hi guys,
Exactly 2 years to the day. Happy Easter.

I've put maybe 1000 miles on it. We don't drive it that much.
This week I replaced the heater core and have decided to retrofit the r12 to R134 an have replaced the compressor with a 4 seasons 85101 compressor. (I spent a day flushing this out and replacing receiver drier and expansion valve along with having the "Hose-Man" redo my hoses.) While getting this all buttoned up and ready to take to the shop to have AC r134 done I noticed some rusty intake bolts. wtf. And for the first time noticed there is smoke coming out of both sides of the intake near center - puffing out after acceleration. And the fuel mix is horribly rich.
And there IS a few rusty intake bolts like water has been getting out. Oh no! I just hope these heads were not cracked all along.

I'm wondering if the metal intake gaskets were too thin after all. There is a pic way up in this thread of the gaskets.
Time to yank the intake again?
@Busted Knuckles, I think you mentioned there may be an issue with this early on.

If I decide to go this Fel-Pro 1213 gasket route, (tomorrow AM!) what tips do you have about surfacing the gaskets? Do you guys use Indian Head gasket shellac on yours? RTF around water ports? No cork - only a "swath" of RTV for front and back black areas? Understand, as well, this is in a VAN and I'm not the incredible hulk and this is a super heavy cast iron intake.

When I get it off, we'll see how good I was at getting it on the first time.

EDIT: I just looked closely at these Fel-Pro 1213 gaskets I got and there is no center water port :-/

 

I use a bit of rtv around the water passages, and that is it. Biggest thing is, proper torque, and sequence. I *think* yours has EGR on the back of the manifold????

 

Are you sure that is a water port in the center? The Felpro 1213 gaskets have the heat cross over passage blocked, that's not a water port. Maybe you have leaks in that hot air system internally and/or externally. They get extremely hot too. I'm just thinking out loud typing this.