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Just finished LIM and tuneup now car overheating pretty quick

Elite6

Elite6

New member
What I replaced

Lim gaskets
Both coolant elbows
T stat

Draining the coolant before the lim consisted of vacuuming out the coolant from the t stat housing then removing lower rad hose. Once done I filled up rad to top, ran car with heater cranked then filled again. Problem is that I cracked open the bleeder on the t stat housing and I get nothing but air and no coolant seems to be in upper rad hose. Temp climbed pretty quick. Shut car off about 220 degrees and coolant light now on.

Suggestions?
 


Held the revs and took a quick run around block... Was overheating then. I guess the t stat could be in upside down lol. Will check.
 
Yea the tstat has to be open to proper fill the coolant. Let the tstat open up, open the bleeder, then fill till it comes from the bleeder. You'll want to check the lever after a couple of days of driving to make sure all the bubbles are out.
 
I like to put fill it up as far as i can at the thermostat hole before putting the thermostat in. Fill it till its flush to where the t-stat sits. Then assemble the t-stat. Fill the system with the bleeder open. Close the bleeder. Run it and bleed it.
 
T stat looks to be in correctly, just opened rad and bleeder (turned heat on high) filled rad. Car got to about 205 and a little bit of coolant came out... still seemed like upper rad hose had very little in it. I kept bleeder open waiting for a constant stream. Do I need to close entire system for coolant to move around? Bloody hell.
 


i guess its possible that the t-stat is faulty and is not opening up. Take it out, boil some water and put it in there to see if it is opening. very unlikly its bad, but it is a possibility.
 
When its running at temp, feel the upper & lower rad hoses, and the 2 heater hoses.

They should all be the same temp - give or take a little...

If they are not, then you have a blockage in the system.

Does the heat work??
 


195 t stat, i actually put the old one back in the car and the temp is pretty stable but low coolant light is on. Coolant was coming out of the bleeder but not a strong stream or anything. Upper rad hose felt hot but didn't feel like there was a ton of coolant in it. Kinda weird that the temp is fairly stable but the light is on... Heat works good.
 
I dont know if this is the right way, but this is how I did it...

Fill radiator - start car - wait until water in radiator drops (it will suck it into engine) - top up radiator - put cap on.
watch temp guage, when you see it peak at around 235 (on my guage anyways) it will drop back down, showing the Tstat has opened up.
Open bleeder screw until you get a decent stream. watch guage for Tstat to cycle again, open bleeder... etc

Keep your eyes on the overflow tank, top it up as necessary.

I did this 4 or 5 times, then went for a 10 mile drive & bled it again, drove to work the following day, bled it once more when I got home before I shut it off...
 
you should probably replace the coolant level sensor. And are you sure you dont have a leak somewhere in the system? If it cannot create pressure, then it will get hot. Because when water is pressureized, the boiling point rises. make sure you have no leaks.
 


Replaced coolant temp sensor and pulled a newb move, haha it was the low fuel light that was on! Anyway, drove car today and no problems except idling - temp was rising. Going to do some further bleeding.
 
210 is not HOT for modern day cars (F.I. cars). It is normal for the temp to go up sitting still.
If your uncomfortable with that, just turn the climate control on, this will command the radiator fans
and keep the coolant temp lower at idle.
 
I agree that 210° is not too hot. But it sounds like you had some major air in the system. It may take awhile to get it all worked out.

Personally, I do as someone else mentioned and fill the radiator and LIM with the t-stat out and the housing off. This makes sure the entire engine is filled with coolant. Then I put the t-stat on and fill the radiator the rest of the way up. I will usually grab and squeeze the rad hoses to get the coolant moving around and let it sit awhile. The coolant takes awhile to get the air out sometimes. Then I start it and make sure to watch the temp and make sure the t-stat opens. I don't think I have ever used a bleeder screw and never had an issue. But air can be a ***** to get out sometimes.
 
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