[andrewa]

did my cooling system last week. dropped fluids from radiator & flushed with clean water. pulled thermostat housing & thermostat & flushed till clean. replaced with new thermostat.refilled system, run motor to temperature with heater on & all good. new radiator cap aswell. driving home from work temp goes to 1/2 way a bit to high, usually sits at 1/4.
may not be a concern but summers not here yet. is there anything i should double check as i can't afford to kill motor.

cheers andrewa.

[christover1]

may have air lock in cooling system,
take cap off when cold, run it then fill if needed.

[christover1]

Also if you have a carby heated by the coolant flow, it may still be dry, sometimes hard to get it flowing

[andrewa]

no worries. will give that a go tomorrow .

[andrewa]

felt heater hoses one was warmer than the other one. is that right?

[christover1]

andrewa wrote:

felt heater hoses one was warmer than the other one. is that right?

heater may be source of air lock,
I'd leave heater tap open for a while.
I never turn mine off, stops heater from gumming up,
and keeps engine a bit cooler.

[christover1]

Also check the pipes going thru the auto coke, see if both are hot

[christover1]

After doing a coolant change, I squeeze my hoses, helps get air out

[andrewa]

hey christover. run car this morning top hose got hot, bottom hose no heat & hose under inlet manifold is warm. also top tank hot & bottom tank luke warm. sqeezed hoses which caused bubbling and fluid level dropped.

[christover1]

It sounds like it was an air lock, hopefully that solves it.
Simple fixes are best.

[jonno_racing]

if u have changed thermistat the new one might operate at diffrent temp

[andrewa]

took the car for a run & temp started to push up near 1/2.
will compare thermostats.

[christover1]

thermostats for sierras come in 3 settings, 70 , 82 and 88 I believe.
It should be marked on the thermostat.
70 is too cold in my opinion, not good for engine life.
88 is too warm for our summers, and crawling steep hills,
82 is what made my Sierra happy.
No idea about my vit, will have to check that out when new motor is fitted.

[shandy92]

mate go buy a temp gun and point it at the thermo housing and see what it is ACTUALLY reading. dont think they are to expensive.

what car do you have mate? i think both vitara and sierras run a 82c thermostat, should be stamped on it some where. did you put the thermostat in the correct way?

[Scrawny]

Radiator may be blocked now after you flushed the system. Possible the old thermostat was partially stuck open which would have made it run cooler. Does it get any hotter than half? If not then I wouldn't be too concerned.

[christover1]

My Vitara boiled over, on a big hill last year,
and temp guage said it was not hot.
Can't rely on temp guages.
The gun sounds a good thing.
And/or a decent guage.
I'll be puutting a decent guage on my new motor,
definately cant afford to kill it.

[shandy92]

christover1 wrote:

My Vitara boiled over, on a big hill last year,
and temp guage said it was not hot.
Can't rely on temp guages.
The gun sounds a good thing.
And/or a decent guage.
I'll be puutting a decent guage on my new motor,
definately cant afford to kill it.

how did you realise? or was there steam coming from the engine bay.

[christover1]

shandy92 wrote:

christover1 wrote:

My Vitara boiled over, on a big hill last year,
and temp guage said it was not hot.
Can't rely on temp guages.
The gun sounds a good thing.
And/or a decent guage.
I'll be puutting a decent guage on my new motor,
definately cant afford to kill it.

how did you realise? or was there steam coming from the engine bay.

Was losing power, but had to get up the bank before I could stop,
but when I stopped,
boiling water came out like a steam train on steroids.

[alien]

i had this after an engine swap - gauge was reading half way a lot... i figured it was overheating a bit so chucked on a thermo fan on a manual switch just as a safeguard, but i also bought an IR temp gun for like $70 or something from Auto One... this means i can now check temps all over the engine bay, and the gun has come in handy in the kitchen too =)

[andrewa]

yep thermostat is in the right way & the one i took out has A180 & 8.150 stamped on it.

[christover1]

andrewa wrote:

yep thermostat is in the right way & the one i took out has A180 & 8.150 stamped on it.

180 degrees fahrenheit is equivalent to 82 degrees celsius,
so that appears to be correct part,
tho no idea why it is not in metric

[jonno_racing]

what brand thermistat? something i have learnt, i will ONLY ever use genuine thermiststs, there about $10 more but they work 100%

[christover1]

what did old thermostat have on it? you can test new thermostat by sticking it warm water, and heating till it opens, checking temp as you go

[andrewa]

the thermostat i removed has USA stamped on it 82degrees while the new one has CMG stamped on it 82 degrees. so temp is right. on closer inspection i off the heater hoses on back of carby was fucked & now is replaced. might put USA one back in & see how i go.

[Jackson]

Yeah go get a decent guage, atleast then you'll know exactly what is going on, I snagged a good deal at repco, they sell the 2 inch ones for like 50-60 bucks but the 2 and 3/4 inch (or something like that) was 25 bucks because they are trying to get rid of them.

I got a mechanical one mainly because of personal preference, people say mechanical ones lag a bit but mine is very talkative and my engine had some overheating issues and with the guage I was able to pull over before I frucked a head gasket.

[andrewa]

took car for another drive & temp got to just under 1/3 with highway driving so much better than yesterday. might have been heater hose after all.
thanks 4 all the input guys, will see how it goes 4 now
will look into getting one of those temp gauges though.

[shandy92]

Jackson wrote:

Yeah go get a decent guage, atleast then you'll know exactly what is going on, I snagged a good deal at repco, they sell the 2 inch ones for like 50-60 bucks but the 2 and 3/4 inch (or something like that) was 25 bucks because they are trying to get rid of them.

I got a mechanical one mainly because of personal preference, people say mechanical ones lag a bit but mine is very talkative and my engine had some overheating issues and with the guage I was able to pull over before I frucked a head gasket.

how did you put it in the engine? put another sensor in the thermostat housing?

good to hear mate, yeah keep an eye out for an IR gun, will keep ur mind happy.

[Jackson]

It came with a sensor that screws into the housing, by mechanical gauges you CAN'T cut the line between the sensor and the gauge.

[andrewa]

might have a problem after doing cooling system. thought i fixed problem by replacing heater hose but now coolant seems to leaking out off the top of the overflow bottle. temp seems ok, sits on 1/4 highway driving but rises between 1/3 &1/2 when stationary in traffic. should i be worried &what can i check.

[youda]

sounds like radiator tank is partially blocked.
Mine normally sits at half but your symptoms are identical to mine when it was overheating.
shandy 92 brought upo a good point with the ir gun. i did this with mine and found that the temp gauge at half way was 85degrees. and it seems everyones comes up different.