[boostedzx3]

Was out last night for awhile, just replaced the thermostat so wanted to test things out. Well the needle started creeping up and after about 2 hours of driving around fine it was nearly pegged. I pulled over and sure enough released enough steam that it looked like the car was on fire. The top rad hose felt like a rock there was so much pressure. The thermostat is a 160 degree stat and I didn't lose any coolant hardly. What are your thoughts? Maybe it's the waterpump?

 

[Katen]

so your sure the thremestat is working right? cause i have had a bad stat every once in a while. then you might want to see if your radiator is not cloged. get it flushed or rebuilt. if you hear a thicking in the front end, i ean like the propelor of the water pump hitting, i hope you know what that sounds like then it is the water pump. hope it helps. good hunting

 

[460brevill]

sounds like rad. or head gasket seep.

 

[boostedzx3]

Well the upper rad hose hardens up like it's solid ice with steam. What would cause that? It cant be normal. I'm almost sure it's not a headgasket.

 

[HMUSN]

pull the hose off and see if it somehow got glogged.

 

[460brevill]

if a headgasket is seeping it will put pressure in the system and make the hose hard,and over heat slowly.

 

[460brevill]

most good shops can do a simple test to check if it is a gasket or cracked head.normal cost 40.00 to50.00.

 

[Vinyl66]

had the same exact thing happen to me. i accidentally installed the stat backwards. make sure you got it in the right way.

 

[boostedzx3]

Pretty sure I do with the spring facing in toward the block.

 

[boostedzx3]

if a headgasket is seeping it will put pressure in the system and make the hose hard,and over heat slowly.

I hope it's not that, I dont feel like tearing the head off.

 

[460brevill]

aint nothing but nuts and bolts

 

[boostedzx3]

The more I think about it, it seems that the stat when bad. I had driven the car for a few days prior and had no problems, and even drove it for a few hours. Not to mention the lower rad hose doesn't harden up like that and theres no antifreeze in the oil.

 

[460brevill]

good luck.

 

[boostedzx3]

I'm going to go down to my local mechanics garage and get a block test done to sniff for exhaust fumes in the coolant system to check the head gaskets.

 

[460brevill]

very good idea.

 

[B Mad]

Not to muddy the waters any more, but if you have a clutch fan, it may not be working, or if you are running without a fan shroud your fan may not be pulling enough air through the radiator. If your engine is bored out at all, especially if it is a 302, the cooling system needs to work very efficiently. I went through hell after mine was punched out .040. Hope this helps, and good luck.

 

[B Mad]

What the hell are you doing driving your car around in Feb. in PA? Don't you still have snow on the ground????

 

[boostedzx3]

^ no not at that point, we do now. It had been in the 50's all the week before and we had 3 inches of rain so the roads were clean. We didn't have our first measurable snow fall until this past week and at that it was like 5 to 6 inches here.

But the fan is not on a clutch. I'm going to see if I can bleed air out of the system as I didn't have a problem until the stat went out and then it worked fine for a little bit. However I dont have a fan shroud and plan to order one of those as well, though it ran fine before without one.

 

[boostedzx3]

updated:
started her up today with the cap off and got a few small bubbles out of her which tells me the overheating issue must have been air bubbles in the system and probably worse then the ones I got out. However the radiator is warm on the left side and cooler on the right which might mean a clog. However I ran it for 20 minutes with the cap off and saw that the stat was working, then ran it for 20 with the cap on and the temp needle stayed perfectly still at 1/4 above cold.

I think I'm going to replace the radiator with the tax return because it looks like this

 

[460brevill]

if you are going to do a rad,go with 4 core.