Sounds like a gauge issue, which happens a lot on these cars. I would get an underhood reading when the temp gauge is pegged, to find out if you really are overheating.

 

I thought the gauge too, but the water in the resivor was boiling at one point.

 

update: took out the old electric fan and clutch fan setup and installed a 95 alitma dual fan setup with a controller. As i was adjusting the fans to turn on when the engine got to running temp i noticed my upper radiator hose swelling up and very hot! the lower hose had no pressure and cold. Now i have the isis alum radiator on order should here on tuesday.

 

Stuck thermostat?

 

hope not, its brand new.

 

A hot upper hose (with over heating obviously) and a cold lower is usually a sign of a bad T-stat. That, or you have a massive air pocket behind it.

 

Take it out and put it in boiling water

 

If it's a new thermostat, is it installed correctly? Like KA said, you might also be dealing with an air pocket.

 

How much pressure is your radiator cap holding you said that the overflow jug is filling with boiling water which could be a bad radiator cap not holding enough pressure and pushing coolant out causing an air pocket

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An IR thermometer would tell you lots...and not sure about the DE but is it possible to install the thermostat backwards? You can check radiator blockage with a garden hose and both rad. hoses disconnected. Or take thermostat out and run it w/o it to see if it changes...hope you get it figured out.

 

Pulled t-stat out, opened up in boiling water. Installed correctly (spring end in block).
Pulled radiator out for the new one tomarrow and the brand new water was muddy with just a few min of idling. Hope its the rad.....

 

Yeah like everyone is said the thermostat or radiator is defective. Sounds like it is not flowing properly. Either one of those or both would cause that.

 

If the water was muddy that quick sounds like you got some rust somewhere in your cooling system. Probably the radiator. Best of luck.

 

isis radiator in and all seems well so far. Clean coolant after about 10 miles test drive with very stable temps in all conditions.

 

Well, short lived..... overheating has continued this morning. Needle hits "H" turned the heater on to see if its hot and it was cold air, got home reservoir is full and over flowed letting it cool now to try to fill and bleed. Can air pockets cause the reservoir to overflow?

 

Yeah, and cause overheating. How are you bleeding it?

 

Rad cap on, run the car about 30sec reving a little with heater on high. Turn car off pull cap squeeze upper hose to remove air (bubbles out of rad top) check bleeder screw and top off. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat...

 

Run the car with the rad cap off too and it will suck it down, add water til it stays up. Have you been bleeding it at the bleeder screw? It is a prime spot for an air pocket that gets trapped.

 

Ok, tried to bleed all the air out once more. Got it to where no bubbles was comming out and it ran great for almost 2 days then.... Yup needle on the "h" again!
So here is where im at. It has to be a gasket or something. Another thing i want to ask you guys is, where you say take the cap off the radiator and start the car and fill as it sucks the fluid down. Mine almost instantly starts pushing it slowly out. Can this be combustion air entering the system?

 

Another thing is with a completely cold engine and no pressure in the radiator i let the car idle for 2min and checked for pressure asuming there should not be any unless a gasket is blown and i had pressure in the system when removing the rad cap.

 

Most cars will push a little out at the beginning, but then will suck it down once the t-stat opens. I would try it once more. Start the car, remove rad cap, remove bleeder, and wait for car to warm up and start sucking coolant down. Run a full bottle's worth of coolant through, that should assure you have no air pockets. If this still doesn't work, then it's time to dig deeper.

 

Ok, bleeder removed and cap removed. this is after about 15-20min straight of a idle is was doing this the whole time.... should i let it do this unitl the bubbles stop? or is this normal?

 

Yeah, I would let it go until you have no bubbles coming out of the bleeder. You must have a ton of air in there, if you let it run for 20 minutes.

 

Slowly revving helps. Just very gradually raise the RPM, hold it for a few seconds then let it idle back down. I fill the engine with water or coolant with the cap off and bleeder screw out, while running. After Its full and water starts to come out of the bleeder hole, put the cap on and wait for it to bleed it self.

 

After bleeding it out last night again, i took the car out for about a 1.5hr drive ran fine. but after a 12hr cool down the pressure was still very high in the cooling system? Could not squeeze the upper hose. Is this right? Pulled the bleeder and i can hear air as i unscrew it out but also water with it. done the idle bleeder technique again and bubbles like crazy forever as i poor water into the rad.
:gaah: