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Well this problem is opposite of the usual problem.My truck is not coming up to temp. During the summer months (110 degrees) I am fine ,no problem.Now here it is winter where the temp is 65-70 or lower,down to 20 degrees.I can drive my truck for about 1 hour (65 degree day)and the temp gauge does not even get above 120 degrees.I dont think thats good for the engine and milage.Where can I start to fix this problem?Thanks
Of the same degree ? or should I go higher or lower?
Well the theromstat is not that old ,does not mean its not bad I know.I have also switched to a BB radiator .The truck is a 89 suburban 350 with tbi .
Dang ,I just hought of something .I just did a replacement on the heater core and I might have the wrong mixture of anti freeze and water.Its possible I am running close to straight anti freeze:eek:Well I know the block is not going to freeze over.
Do you think I need to drain all the fliud out and start over?I think straight anti freeze could also keep it from getting to the right temperature,right?
HMMM, your right . I just looked a LMC catalog and the thermostats they offer say
160 summer
180 standard
195 winter
Thanks for the help:D you know your 89 350 tbi's:D :D
Now, do I need to drill hole in the plate,or close off the by-pass hose?:D
Straight antifreeze is not good at dissipating heat very well.I run 20% antifreeze,1 can of Be Cool additive and the rest distilled water.Seems to work very well.Can't drive it up here in the winter so can't tell you the differance between winter and summer.:D
How do you get to your 50/50 mix ,do you know exactly how much your system holds?I have no idea what mine holds :confused:Let me see if I can research and see how much a suburban holds.I have always mixed until the dark green became half of that ,then called it good:LOL:
Now I we be able to get the heater to blow some HOT air.:LOL:
Thats what those things are for ,that will be the first thing I buy.after the 195 thermostat of cousre.Thanksfor the anti-freeze/cooling basics:)I knew some one here could help me:D
You could drain the entire system and buy the 50/50 pre-mix. I use a little better than 50/50 so I mix my own.
That too CFFisher,thats a good idea, but I think I am going to get the gauge with balls:whacked: so I can test the coolant.This thing all ready needs a different themostat for every season.:LOL:
Everyone needs balls...
Exactly. ...........
Colored balls???:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
Bigtruckdriver...You do not need a differant thermostat for every season, just install the 195 thermostat as per Dennyw said, and leave it in. I live in Canada and it gets extreamly cold in the winter and hot in the summer, and I use the same thermostat year round. With the engine running at 195 it also helps stop that little bit of oil sludge build up in the engine.
Like Dennyw said, the proper mixture is 50/50 as there is more than one reason for the antifreeze. First reason is for the coolant not to freeze during colder weather, second is that the antifreeze acts as a lubricant for the water pump, and also helps keep the inside of the block and heads from scaleing with rust, and thirdly it raises the boiling point of the water by about 15-20 degree's so it doesnt boil as fast as it would with straight water.
Running pure atifreeze in your engine is defentetly not a good thing, it will turn to jell when it gets cold. I am wondering if the engine not heating up has something to do with having to much antifeeze and not enough water. I have never run straight antifreeze so i do not know if that would cause the engine to disipate to much heat or not. You posted that your thermostat is fairly new, and since you have to drop 1/2 your antifeeze anyways, try doing what Dennyw said and just add the water to get your 50/50 mixture, then see what happens, if its ok, then great, if not, then as Dennyw said, change the thermostat. ( dont mind me, im just curious to see if to much antifreeze will cause the engine to not warm up so i will know for next time i come across that problem..:confused: )
Ok, so there,s my answer, the antifreeze will not stop the engine from building up heat. I didnt think so, but was worth the thought...:D
WOW, still confused on this cooling system:confused: .I replaced the thermostat and found that something with the thermostat went real bad.I pulled the housing off of the intake to find the thermostat was rusted and got sucked up into the housing:eek: WTF!I got some needle nose pliers and pried it out and replaced with the new one.I put it in the way it shows in my book.Temp comes up to 190 now.:HMMM:???
At this temp I checked the mixture with the 5 ball tester ,all the balls stay at the bottom of the tester.???? I can see the plus and minus signs and now how to read that ,but dont know if 1 ball is supposed to rise ,all 5 ,the instructions do not say.
THIRD, now I was inpspecting the thermostat and the old one shows that it went in the opposite way of the its shown in the book.The book shows the sring going into the intake.The old one says (to rad) showing on the spring side .:o
I jsut pulled the thermostat back off and the new one shows also (motor to radiator) stamping on the spring side.I guess I will install it with the spring faceing up.
Thanks for any advice
Thanks for the help .the tester did not come with those instructions .Thats wierd ,I know i have put 2 gallons of antifreeze when the fuild was allready green.dont remember when I put water ,just anti freeze.
Ok wait a second, you said the spring was facing the rad????....well...in all the years i have installed thermostats the spring and sensor always faced the intake/engine side..but then again, thats just the engines ive worked on over the years.
Ok wait...now im confused also....:LOL: You said you installed it with the spring facing the intake, it heated up to 190 ( like it is supposed to ) then you took it apart and installed it in the other way?????
Ok, am i missing something here???...Didnt it work good before you switched it back around?
No I havent installed it yet (well I did but took it back out) ,I am still trying to decide witch way toput it.The old one has "to Rad" stamped on the spring side.whacked:Anyone have any insight as to which way the thermostat should go?I always thought spring down into the intake?
Is this one of those reverse coolant flow things and thats why the thermostat goes the other way?
does it have a serpintine belt system?, if so, it might be, otherwise noQuote:
Originally Posted by BigTruckDriver
yes it does have the serpentine belt.So it would go the other way?
Unless I'm realy wrong here the serpinten pumps run backwards from standard pumps but they are made different internaly so the flow is the same.If the thermostat says "To Rad" thats the way it goes. It realy isn't rocket sicence
the water pump would spin opposite of what a V belt does, but I'm not shure they had the reverse cooling in the 80's, but it might have, due to the serpentine belt.Quote:
Originally Posted by BigTruckDriver
you are right, but Chevy did make reverse cooling 305's and 350's, I thought they were '96 up Vortechs only, but I'm not shure on that.Quote:
Originally Posted by cffisher
the thermostat wax ball has to be facing coolant at all times, otherwise the stat would never open up, as it would never get hot, so it would be facing the intake if standard flow, and facing stat housing if reverse flow.
I agree but I am wondering if it was in the wrong way and thats why it got pushed up into the thermostat housing. I am tempted to install in with the spring up ,but it just not what I am used to .Quote:
Originally Posted by cffisher
Denny wish you posted 10 min sooner I just went to the shop to look in my book I thought I was loosing it.:eek: . The only thing I'd have to add is GM recomends at least a 50% mix and not more than 75% antifreeze.
PS yes those gloves are coooool
Ya thats the way I just put it ,spring down.It working.
I did mix the green with the orange antifreeze if that makes a difference with no balls floating:eek: :eek: .So,
I figure I am going to drain all the fluid and start over with a 50/50 mix.I appreciate all your help.
Im glad its working for ya now, you were even starting to get me confused for a minute there...:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: Yup...good thinking, drain it all out and start over, that way you know for sure. Maybe while your mixing it in the pails check it before pouring it back in, might save you from draining some back out again to add more water or atifreeze.
If you re read all the replies on here, you were starting to get most of us thinking on this one, and thats usually a good thing.....:LOL: :LOL:
You shouldn't mix different kinds of antifreeze. They have different chemicals that may cause other problems when they're mixed together. Your tester with the little balls is probably calibrated for ethylene glycol antifreeze, and when you mix the two types together the tester won't give you accurate results! Does the tester say on it what type of antifreeze it's made for? What chemicals are in the green and the orange antifreezes? Ethylene glycol or propylene glycol?Quote:
Originally Posted by BigTruckDriver
The water will flow the same direction thru the engine whether the belts are the standard "V" belts, or the serpentine belt. The internal design of the waterpump will be different because of the reverse rotation of the impeller, but the water will still flow the same direction.