Heat problem

[rodman]

My car will idle and and over heat within 3 minutes. The idiot gauge starts to swing over into the RED I can put my finger into the radiator and the water is cold. Is this a tale, tale sign of a plugged up radiator?

I did install a new thermostat when I put the engine back into the car.


Rodman

[azruss]

You are getting no circulation. Can't remember if you have an exterior thermostadt. could be a bad water pump. If it cooled fine before then it is a thermostadt issue. Either it is stuck or installed wrong. If you think the radiator is clogged. loosen the cap and open the petcock on the bottom. If it just dribbles out, you probably have a radiator issue.

[rodman]

You are getting no circulation. Can't remember if you have an exterior thermostadt. could be a bad water pump. If it cooled fine before then it is a thermostadt issue. Either it is stuck or installed wrong. If you think the radiator is clogged. loosen the cap and open the petcock on the bottom. If it just dribbles out, you probably have a radiator issue.

I installed a internal thermostat. The bottom or the top radiator is cold. Not sure about before cause brought the car home and tore it all apart the next day....

[georgeramos]

Could it be air trapped in the system. Did you install a t at the high point.(heater hose?). This is a cheap, easy thing to install and it really makes burping the system a breeze.

[coise]

Did you bleed the system correctly? Meaning got read of the bubbles.
If not, could it be that you put the thermostat backward?
Just giving ideas

[SLOSpider]

A small hole drilled in the thermostat when mounted in the head helps a ton to remove trapped air. Some come with this already. Sounds like you got an air pocket in there.

[rodman]

Removed the thermostat today was installed correctly. So I left it out and let it run it did not heat up. So maybe bad thermostat ( even though it was new ).



Untitled by fiatcs2000, on Flickr

[azruss]

It could be a pocket of air under the thermostadt. Do a bench test on the thermostadt. Take a cup of water and heat it to boiling in the microwave. put the thermostadt in the cup. it should open full wide. As the cup cools you should be able to watch it close.

[SLOSpider]

Drill a small bleed hole in it when you reinstall.

[VaSpiderman]

Could be "air locked" too. An air bubble trapped in the head . . since the head is above the radiator. Had lots of trouble with this when I first bought my car.