Well yesterday I pulled the rad out of my crew...Non-IC motor and used it to modify the IC erad support I'm going to install....see my earlier post on this for info and pics.

Anyway the first part of my day went well with the rad removal and rad support modification. It was the second part of my day that things started to go bad...I think the graveyard shift the night before caused some of this...

I re-installed the rad and hooked up the hoses and filled up the rad with coolant. But I got less then half what I drained out back in...Hmmmm? So I fire up the truck and let it idle for a while...still not moving any fluids in. So I figure I must have an air lock in the cooling system, since the lower rad hose feels like it has no coolant in it. I then decide to bang on the thermostat housing to cause the jiggle pins to move and bleed off the air...well this did work a little bit but no where near what I needed. So I figured the new 3rd Gen thermostat I installed recently must have the jiggle pins stuck shut.

OK I now drain the fluid again and pull the thermostat housing and T-stat. I then decide that if those darn jiggle pins aren't working then they don't need to be there...so I snip them off. I re-install everything and all the coolant goes in this time...Yeah I think....short lived happiness. I go for a drive and the truck is heating up..so back home and I'm staring at things with anger and contempt when I wonder if I installed the T-stat in the proper direction. Off course I did I thought...I'm no novice to working on this stuff. But better be sure. Well sure enough I had the darn T-stat in backwards....Doooh!!

So off for another drive with the T-stat installed properly and the truck just is not warming up now. I go for a 30 minute HWY drive...still very little to no heat. Now I'm getting really angry!! SO back home and I assume that cutting those two jiggle pins off the T-stat has now created enough flow through those holes to not allow the motor to heat up. So drain the fluid once more and remove the T-stat housing. Now I have no 190* T-stat, and I begin to wonder if that 195* T-stat I have from a small block dodge would work...well it's a perfect fit! I decide to give it a try.

I remember to install it properly and then actually remember that there is a blind plug on the top of the head, right at the T-stat housing assembly, for bleeding off the sir in the system when you re-fill......so I remove that plug, fill it with coolant, and fire it up. I go for a drive and it heats up properly and seems to cool fine as well. Still cycles like the 3rd Gen T-stat I had in there...but no other problems.

If you made it to the end I apologize for the long post...just need to vent a little on my brain fart antics, and other things I learned along the way.

 

welcome to my world!

 

Been there, done that. Not too long of a post, I might say.

Lots of times I've gone through this process you're talking about. Sometimes it helps if I get my nappy in the afternoon.





The blind plug, is it to the right, above, left, or below ?


Never changed my AF, but will be doing so soon.



T.

 

The plug is just left(from the front of the truck) of the rocker cover next to the loop for pulling the motor. Look at Jim Lanes post in the sticky about doing a flush.