Overheating Issues

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NightMares

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Quick back story.

Last fall I replaced the water pump and timing cover due to a coolant leak. While i was at it, I did a comp cams double roller timing chain.

Since then, I replaced the timing cover again (part under warranty) due to it cracking. Last week it blew what i thought was the water pump as it was pouring, literally pouring, coolant out behind the fan clutch. So Wednesday I tore into it with a warranty replacement water pump sitting on the bench. Come to find out, it was the timing cover seal again, passenger top corner.

So i rented a puller for the harmonic balancer, and started the process....yet again. While i was at it, I did an efan conversion. One 16" flex-a-lite pulling 2215 cfm and one 12" pulling 800.

After reassembly, i took it for a test drive and no leaks, no issues. Come yesterday morning, things started acting up.

Temps creeped up and fluctuated between 220 and 226 (cts2 evolution tuner) and you could tell it was getting warm. I flushed the system using blue devil and no change after driving it. I did notice while flushing with the upper hose off it barely had a stream coming out. I drove to my parents house who have a decently inclined driveway and burped the system, there is no air in the system.

So, after talking to some guys here, i decided to tear into it again and pulled the thermostat thinking maybe it's stuck closed. Boiled it up to 220 and it wasn't opening. Thinking i found my solution, i purchased another and threw it all back together.

Now, it's worse. Less than 10 minutes of driving from starting cold it wandered up to 230. Pull over, let the fans run for a half hour starting it occasionally to circulate the coolant gets it down to 180 or so. Fire it to and drive two miles and its back up to 230.

I've tried driving with the defrost on full blast, but around 220 degrees i have to shut it off as its literally cooking me out of the truck with windows down, rears popped, and rear slider open at 40 miles an hour. I'd have a heat stroke if i continued to drive it.

I've checked the coolant, no oil has been in the system. I changed the oil this morning, there's no water or coolant there. The system pressurizes, i know that as the overflow tank bubbles when it's cooling off. And i have heat. Too much heat. So i don't think it's a head gasket.

Any thoughts from anyone? I'm literally sitting in my new works parking lot after dropping off my tools typing this while it cools off.

The only thing i can think of from here is something is blocking the water passage. Once i can get It cool enough to drive I'm going to drive to a diy car wash, drop the hoses from the radiator and do a high pressure flush in all directions to see if that changes anything. I'm going to fill It back up with just distilled water as I've spent over $75 in coolant over the last 36 hours.

But anyone ever face this issue?

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dudeman2009

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Remove the thermostat and try it again. If it doesnt overheat without the thermo, then there is something going on there.

If it still overheats, you are going to have to reverse flush everything. There should be a nice amount of water coming from both the block and radiator when flushing. I took a hose to the thermostat mount location on my engine when I flushed it, and there was hardly any water that backed up, that was with the water pump on.

If you are seeing little water draining through either the block or radiator, i'd suspect thats where the block is.

Have you checked to see if the lower radiator hose is collapsing when all this is happening?
 

Rustycowl69

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like dude man suggested lower rad hose can collapse sometimes. Years ago, you could buy a coil spring separately to insert in the lower hose. I don't know if they sell those anymore.
I can't tell what engine we are talking about, but I had a brand new mopar water pump fail on a 3.5L. It was a plastic impeller pressed onto the shaft, no splines, no pin, nothing. Anyway when I pulled the new water pump off, I found thst the impeller just spun on the shaft freely
 
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Rustycowl69

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I once bought(cheap) an ex state patrol Intrepid, with an acknowledged overheating problem. After looking at all kinds of obvious things, I noticed that the thermostat housing had been tampered with, which isn't easy to see because it is kind of buried under the left exhaust manifold. When I removed the housing cover, I found the thermostat had been replaced, upside down! Replaced with a new Mopar thermostat, facing correct direction, problem solved
 
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NightMares

NightMares

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I didn't think to try flushing the radiator earlier, but by putting the garden hose in the radiator it barely trickled water out of the disconnected upper hose. I know the cold water probably closed it, but i disconnected it when the engine temp was around 200 and although the hose was hot, it didn't really have any coolant in it. Even pumping cold water into should have forced a nice flow of the hot coolant out of the upper hose, so I'm starting to believe i have a clog in the block.

I didn't replace anything on this go around except the thermostat. I kept the water pump and timing cover, just replaced the seals.

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joepizuro

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Sounds like you have air in the system, do these have a bleeder? If so leave it open until and squeeze hoses some and wait for the water then seal it up and see if your good to go.
 

dapepper9

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Since there's so much heat coming from the vents when you turn that on, have you looked at possibly a clogged greater core? Might try compressed air into the outlet house on the firewall with the inlet hose off to see if anything flys out. Just watch your face because anything coming out gotta kinda crazy and fast.

I like the suggestion of running without a t stat as well. If that seems to fix your issue, Stant has a very good record for tstat reliability
 
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NightMares

NightMares

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I'm betting on a blocked passage in the block. I didn't get the chance to do anything with it last night, but today I'll have some time to dink around with it today.

To answer a few things here. My lower hose has a spring in it, and it's not collapsing.

I don't know of a purge valve to bleed the system, but last time i put coolant in it i had it angled in my dad's driveway passenger side high for 45 minutes at idle with the heater going.

It couldn't be the heater core, if it was blocked it wouldn't produce heat inside the cab as no hot coolant would be passing through it.

I'm pretty sure it's either a faulty thermostat again, or a clog somewhere.

I'm going to pull the thermostat and run without one for a bit. If it overheats, I'll swing into the car wash and flush the living **** out of it.

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dudeman2009

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I rarely see clogs in the block unless there has been gross neglect, or someone put something in it.

Thermostats are dime a dozen parts, their DOA rates are quite high compared to other things.

When you said you flushed the radiator earlier, did you disconnect both radiator hoses and spray into the radiator? I'm not sure why you had mentioned the thermostat in that sentence.

Either way, the radiator should flow all the water a hose can put out, if you are spraying in the inlet. For the block, remove the thermostat and put the hose in both directions, the lower and upper hose (radiator completely disconnected) and look for tiny little bits of metal or grime, that could indicate a blocked passage.
 
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NightMares

NightMares

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I didn't flush the radiator the other day, just the engine. I disconnected the upper and lower hoses and flush it both directions, but it was a garden hose.

It's definitely something in the engine. I took it to a car wash and flushed everything, but that was with the thermostat in the engine still. With the pressure washer, itm shot water a foot high out of where the cap threads on, but it trickles out slowly from either hose.

I don't think it's a block passage anymore, i honestly think i got a bad thermostat out of the box.

Tomorrow I'm pulling the tstat and if it doesn't fix it I'll take it in to get flushed at another shop.

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