My ford van I use primarily for work has been having a over heating issue for a while now. I usually give it 10 or 15 minutes to warm up in the morning before leaving for work. By the time I leave it is blowing hot air and the thermostat on the dash board is reading just above cold. After driving for five minutes the heater turns cold and the temperature gauge starts to rise until it is all the way in the red and the van is overheating. I pull over and turn the van off and turn it back on and suddenly the hot air and back and the temperature gauge drops to its regular place. Sometimes it takes turning it on and off again a few times for it to correct its self, other times only once. The problem has been going on for a while and I'm not sure what to do, any suggestions?

 

Sounds like a bubble in your cooling system. How's your coolant level?

 

Yes, it stays full. How do I get rid of a bubble?

 

Have you changed your coolant recently? If not, and there are no leaks, that's not it.

Open the radiator cap when the engine is cold, is the coolant all the way to the top?

 

There was a bad leak and I put the radiator stop leak stuff in after going through three quarts of antifreeze in three days because it was leaking so bad. It started doing this two days after I put in the stop leak and topped off the antifreeze level. Also there is no way to look in the radiator it only has a reservoir that you put the antifreeze in.

 

Uh oh...

Stop leak is bad news. It can cause blockages in the system and cause all manor of havoc. Best case scenario is there's still air in the system from the leak, but I suspect the stop leak is causing a blockage somewhere.

Pull the upper radiator hose with a drain pan underneath. If there's air in the system nothing will come up. You can add coolant with a funnel until the radiator is full, then reinstall the hose. If coolant comes out and there's no air the system needs to be flushed.

 

stop leak= stop heat ,
it also leads to plugged radiators , find the leak and fix it ,flush the whole system and see what you get. You probably need a new radiator, once they get a little plugged from age the stop leak finishes them off !
good luck the only solution to an automotive problem that comes out of a can is called beer