thermostat problem

[RF Overlord]

OK, guys...what did I do wrong?

After giving the Blackbird an oil change, now that the weather's cooperating, I thought this would be a good time to finally install the 180° thermostat I got from Dennis way back with my chip.

I thought I did everything right, but now it seems that coolant isn't flowing. It didn't take back all the coolant I drained out, so could there be an air-lock of some kind? I didn't want to run it too long, for fear of overheating the heads, but the temp gauge went up higher than normal and the fan came on, and there doesn't seem to be any coolant flowing...or something...I put the new 'stat in with the "guts" facing up, and then used the "O" ring to hold the 'stat in place, while I reassembled the housing, then I re-filled the coolant recovery tank...

HELP?!

[nomad]

Sounds like air in system. Same thing happened on mine when dealer installed t-stat. I got away from work to check on the car, and saw it parked outside,hood open. Tech said chip and plugs went well but, after installing t-stat, car was overheating.
Can't remember exactly where,but, someplace right on the radiator hoses there is a tee. Tech had hose hooked to the tee and a bucket under car to drain water until air bubbles went away. I'd go look at mine, but it's still in shop[for gears].
Hope this makes sense?

[TAF]

RF,

I was going to say an "air pocket" as well....

When you drained and refilled...did you say it took less?

[Logan]

Sent you a PM, but undo the top plug out of the black pipe in front of the motor, and fill up your overflow while running the motor and leave that plug open until a solid stream of antifreeze comes out of it.

[LincMercLover]

Eww... Sounds messy.

[RF Overlord]

Everything is OK, now...between Dennis and Logan, they straightened my sorry a$$ out, and things are back to normal...well, at least my wife put 200 miles on the car today and it didn't blow up, so I guess I'm out of the woods...

Thanks, guys... now if I can only get my hands on it for a little while to see if all the BS of putting in the 180° was WORTH it...

[Menace]

RF, can you tell us what you did to fix it? THANKS

[JohnE]

Wonder if the manual covers coolant change? Not quite what most people would expect. Well at least there's failsafe cooling.

[RF Overlord]

Menace: (and others)

Per Dennis, these motors are apparently notorious for air-locks in the cooling system. Leaving the actual "radiator" cap on, Dennis had me remove the small round metal cap from the bung on the upper coolant tube and pour my remaining coolant in there, reinstall the cap LOOSELY, then start the engine and let it idle until warmed up, and all the air expelled from the metal cap. I then tightened the cap down and all seems to be well.