KA overheating....blah blah

[Dream240]

Okay,

1. Car sprung a leak on an OEM hose in the mani.
2. Pulled mani and replaced ALL coolant and IACV hoses underneath just to give it a fresh start.
3. Replaced the thermo and lower hose.
4. Put it back together, new gaskets and clamps for all parts involved.
5. Pulled the bleeder screw and filled car with coolant.
6. After 5 mins of driving, car starts to heat up....and heat up....and heat up!
7. Both electrical fans kick on, car will still overheat, and lower hose IS NOT even hot, stone cold in fact.

What's my problem? Air? Bad component?

Thanks guys.

[STEEZxIT]

Bleedin the system is pretty tricky. gotta have alot of patience. I had a very similar problem myself. but i got it all fix.

check one of my threads some zilvians chimed in and gave me some tips to bleed the system completely.

[Katsumbhong]

Jack the front end of the car up and run the vehicle to get more air bubbles out of the cooling system.

[Dream240]

K.

Strange thing is, I've been working on 240s for about 10 years now, and I've never had this kind of problem with the cooling system.

My bleeding method has always been to fill it, drive it to heat it up, wait for the thermo to open and suck in all the reservoir coolant, then re-fill reservoir, done.

Maybe I've just been lucky all these years? Wierd.

[jacobs13]

If the lower hose is cold your thermo isnt opening. Maybe its defective.

[KiLLeR2001]

Sounds like the thermo isnt working properly.

[Dream240]

Yeah, that's what I thought at first.

But I replaced the old thermo after the first time it overheated, which was after all the hose work. But right after the new thermo was put in, same problem.

So the car did the same thing, overheated on both thermos

So I don't think that's it, unfortunately. Would be nice to be able to replace a cheap part and have your problem go away.

But then again, we own old 240s, the old problems get replaced with new ones......

[boosted KA24DE]

The rad may be clogged. just happened to my other car and I went crazy replacing everything. Ends up Radiator was half clogged and it would only heat up on the highway. try that.

[live2c2morrow]

Try running it without the thermo and if it still overheats then its your pump. If it still overheats then its a clogged Rad. Touch the Rad all over once its warmed up and the whole thing should be warm/hot. If there are any cold spots then its a clogged Rad.

[pacotaco345]

pull the bleeder screw off of the intake mani, drain the whole system, fill it with a half gallon of coolant then stick a hose nozel on the radiator and hold it down, then fill it until water squirts out of the bleeder screw, and wait till its pure water and no air coming out.. just prepare to get a lil wet lol

[Rabboni]

It sounds to me like you need to rebleed your cooling system. Its free, so its better to do that than spend money on parts you might not need.

[Dream240]

pull the bleeder screw off of the intake mani, drain the whole system, fill it with a half gallon of coolant then stick a hose nozel on the radiator and hold it down, then fill it until water squirts out of the bleeder screw, and wait till its pure water and no air coming out.. just prepare to get a lil wet lol

Okay, I did something similar to this and it's good now.

What I did:
1. Fill with coolant
2. Drive to heat up, fans both kicked on.
3. Stopped car and let it cool down for about an hour.
4. Pulled bleeder screw
5. Popped off the rad cap and proceeded to slowly squeeze lower hose, bubbles came out of rad opening.
6. Then after that, closed rad cap, got a child sized medication syringe (the kind that come with children's cold medicine).
7. Slowly filled the bleeder hole with water until it was full.
8. Put screw back on and drove, NO overheating!

I think the reason the temp gauge would jump so high so fast was because there was air in there near the bleeder screw, well the temp sensor is right next to the bleeder screw so it was reading the temp of the air stuck in there not the coolant. Car runs great so I'm pretty sure I didn't damage anything by the hot temps.

Thanks guys for all your input! Now its on to the tranny bearings replacement tomorrow! yay.... :(

[JKL1031]

Ive been reading and reading, bumpin threads n threads(I KNOW this forum has better response time). I didnt have any luck..pulled the tstat back out n wil try again over thanksgiving break. :(

[JKL1031]

you were squeezing thr bottom hose? I squeezed the top one a bit. When i pulled itback out, i found coolant on both sides of the tstat.

Could i stick and aspirin or some dissolvable pill in the tstat, and put it in there, and run it for a while till the pill dissolves?

[s13pignose]

How old are your radiator hoses? I replaced mine probably about 2.5-3years ago with obx silicone hoses. Sadly enough the top one failed on me last night with a pinhole sized hole and sprayed coolant all over the left side under the hood and on the ground. I had a few incidents of overheating prior to last night, and took it to a shop I usually get work done at, and they couldn't get it to overheat at all. It only happened on cold nights for some reason. Never in the day, even at wide open throttle. Only thing I changed prior to taking it to the shop was putting the old stock rad cap back on. Was fine for about 2.5 weeks until the hose failure last night. I did notice the temp gauge rising last night for a split second until I parked in the drive way.

Hope you can get it figured out, in my case I've got new hoses on the way

[JKL1031]

im fine but cold w/o the thing

[Dream240]

you were squeezing thr bottom hose? I squeezed the top one a bit. When i pulled itback out, i found coolant on both sides of the tstat.

Could i stick and aspirin or some dissolvable pill in the tstat, and put it in there, and run it for a while till the pill dissolves?

Your car should run fine with the thermostat in, if it's not, and it's a new thermo, then you most likely have air in the system. And yes I squeezed BOTH hoses, that air can get trapped anywhere. And by squeezing both hoses you are pushing the fluid around in the system trying to shake that air loose.

Did you try my method yet? If not, try it! Pull the bleeder screw and fill that hole with water. Make sure it's completely full and that you have your reservoir topped off. Then drive it to heat it up and see what happens.

If you're still overheating, you most likely have a clog in the system. What's the condition of the rad?

[JKL1031]

I only squeezed the top hose. Ill try some more things over thanksgiving break.

Im not sure how the rad is, but the car doesnt overheat with the tstat out, so it cant be the rad or not? I did manage to find a fly and a piece of gasket to surface from squeezing the hose.

[redline racer510]

make sure you installed the t-stat correctle with the little metal thing at the top facing up

[Slikk Logic]

still got air in it... let it cool overnight and in the morning.open the rati cap.if u hear air then there u go.top it off again.sqeeze the top hose n u should b good.unless u got a defective thermo

[JKL1031]

oh the bottom hose did get pressurized, but never hot.

[Dream240]

Okay, something I want to clear the air about.

Checking lower hose temps really only tells you that the radiator is going bad. Obviously if your hose temp is high, your radiator isn't cooling effectively, thus leading to higher running engine temps. This happens because the coolant is flowing FROM the radiator into the lower hose and through the thermo, not the other way around. So the lower hose is getting your rad cooled fluid, which is why it SHOULD be cooler not hotter. Especially in the current cool weather.

And the fact that you're finding bugs in your fluid, leads me to believe you have a really old radiator. Spend the 150.00 bucks and get an Auminum one. Car should run just perfect after that. Plus you get some bling added to your engine bay!

[NiSilS14]

Do yourself a favor and buy one of these also, makes it so easy. Best $30 bucks you'll ever spend.
Lisle LIS24610 Spill Free Radiator Funnel Kit w/Extra Adapter | Cooling System Service (http://www.denlorstools.com/home/dt1/page_12749_36/lisle_lis24610_spill_free_radiator_funnel_kit_wext .html)

[JKL1031]

If the rad is bad, I would overheat w/o the tstat as well right?

He metioned the rad was new. I can run hosed water thru it to check correct?

[Dream240]

If the rad is bad, I would overheat w/o the tstat as well right?

He metioned the rad was new. I can run hosed water thru it to check correct?

Yeah if you've got a failing radiator, then you're going to run hot temps all the time, due to poor circulation. Well technically, poor circulation could be a number of things, but usually the radiator is the number 1 culprit.

Well, one way to check for a poorly aged rad is to drain ti completely and run a hose though it with the drain plug out, does the water come out clean? If so then the radiator should be fine. If it comes out discolored or full of deposits, then you've got excessive build up/rot..... time for a new one.

You COULD have a more serious problem with build up in the block water passages, but that's rare. Check the radiator flow first.