Hello, all! I came across your great forum and was hoping that I could get some help with some problems that I'm having.
A buddy of mine came to me with his 2003 Ram 1500 v6 because the engine was overheating. I've never worked on a Ram before and thought it would be fun. Since he has 130k miles on it, we decided that it would probably be a good idea to change out the thermostat and coolant, since the only maintenance he ever does to it is an oil change and had the ball bearings replaced a few years ago.
I put in the thermostat and now it appears that the system is worse. We managed to hit the redline on the heat gauge today, which has never happened before.
My question: Is there a certain way that the thermostat needs to be inserted? I know that you place it with the spring side to the engine, which I know I did, but I saw that it has a vent on it, which I was stupid and didn't pay attention to the last one in there. Should the vent be on the top or bottom? If I were to accidentally place it on the bottom, would it cause the system to overheat?
My second question:
I tried to bleed the cooling system by opening the radiator cap and letting the truck run. I don't know if it's circulating through the engine or not. The bleeder screw appears to be a hex key, but I can't figure out the size. Any clue what the size may be?
Thanks in advance. Sorry that I'm coming in as a brand new guy with some drawn out questions, but I'd really like to help my buddy out.
I tried searching the forum and can't seem to find exactly what I'm looking for. Feel free to link me to some other threads if these have been answered in the past.
Thanks in advance!
A buddy of mine came to me with his 2003 Ram 1500 v6 because the engine was overheating. I've never worked on a Ram before and thought it would be fun. Since he has 130k miles on it, we decided that it would probably be a good idea to change out the thermostat and coolant, since the only maintenance he ever does to it is an oil change and had the ball bearings replaced a few years ago.
I put in the thermostat and now it appears that the system is worse. We managed to hit the redline on the heat gauge today, which has never happened before.
My question: Is there a certain way that the thermostat needs to be inserted? I know that you place it with the spring side to the engine, which I know I did, but I saw that it has a vent on it, which I was stupid and didn't pay attention to the last one in there. Should the vent be on the top or bottom? If I were to accidentally place it on the bottom, would it cause the system to overheat?
My second question:
I tried to bleed the cooling system by opening the radiator cap and letting the truck run. I don't know if it's circulating through the engine or not. The bleeder screw appears to be a hex key, but I can't figure out the size. Any clue what the size may be?
Thanks in advance. Sorry that I'm coming in as a brand new guy with some drawn out questions, but I'd really like to help my buddy out.
I tried searching the forum and can't seem to find exactly what I'm looking for. Feel free to link me to some other threads if these have been answered in the past.
Thanks in advance!