Here's the full story...
So I pick up an '83 Longbed 4x4 with the 22r.
Bought it from a guy that isn't mechanical so I got most of the major service records down to the original window sticker.
From the records, it started running hot last year around August; radiator taken out to get rodded. There's another receipt in March that shows it running hot with the problem being the heater core leaking; that got bypassed. After that, the guy hasn't really driven it much and his mechanic thinks it's the HG about to go. That motor is a rebuilt and should have about 35k miles on it. It's an ATK rebuilt from the plate on the side.
The highest that it has ever reached on the temp guage is almost to the red. So what I did was take all the hoses and t-stat out to give everything a good flush. Did notice the radiator had a lot of sediment inside so the flow was probably obstructed. After the flush, new hoses, cap, and t-stat went in. Cool, runs good and it'll buy me time to research and upgrade to a 3-row radiator. Then the fawker starts leaking so I just got a replacement stock 2-row.
So this is what I notice now...
When I initially start up the motor cold and drive it, the temp shoots up but after a distance, it drops back down to normal. Once it drops back down normal, I can drive it hard and it'll still stay normal. But this is intermittent and doesn't happen everytime. Sometimes it'll stay normal.
Here's another thing I noticed...
The cooling system dumps water into the overflow as the liquid expands with heat but when it cools down, it doesn't suck any back in. So almost everytime I pop the cap off after it cools, the water level isn't at the top anymore. I gotta top it off almost everytime.
So that pretty much sums it up. Sorry for the long post. A number of you have helped me out in my previous post when I thought it was the radiator that was bad. Looks like that was it and something else. Thanks for all the help!!
So now I'm stumped again...
Ken
[ 07-23-2001: Message edited by: ken851 ]
So I pick up an '83 Longbed 4x4 with the 22r.
Bought it from a guy that isn't mechanical so I got most of the major service records down to the original window sticker.
From the records, it started running hot last year around August; radiator taken out to get rodded. There's another receipt in March that shows it running hot with the problem being the heater core leaking; that got bypassed. After that, the guy hasn't really driven it much and his mechanic thinks it's the HG about to go. That motor is a rebuilt and should have about 35k miles on it. It's an ATK rebuilt from the plate on the side.
The highest that it has ever reached on the temp guage is almost to the red. So what I did was take all the hoses and t-stat out to give everything a good flush. Did notice the radiator had a lot of sediment inside so the flow was probably obstructed. After the flush, new hoses, cap, and t-stat went in. Cool, runs good and it'll buy me time to research and upgrade to a 3-row radiator. Then the fawker starts leaking so I just got a replacement stock 2-row.
So this is what I notice now...
When I initially start up the motor cold and drive it, the temp shoots up but after a distance, it drops back down to normal. Once it drops back down normal, I can drive it hard and it'll still stay normal. But this is intermittent and doesn't happen everytime. Sometimes it'll stay normal.
Here's another thing I noticed...
The cooling system dumps water into the overflow as the liquid expands with heat but when it cools down, it doesn't suck any back in. So almost everytime I pop the cap off after it cools, the water level isn't at the top anymore. I gotta top it off almost everytime.
So that pretty much sums it up. Sorry for the long post. A number of you have helped me out in my previous post when I thought it was the radiator that was bad. Looks like that was it and something else. Thanks for all the help!!
So now I'm stumped again...
Ken
[ 07-23-2001: Message edited by: ken851 ]