Cooling system is flushed out. Nice pretty green coolant in there now. The thermostat (which was most likely the original) did'nt look to bad but it rattled. I looked at it and there is a plug type thing on the outer part of it that was flopping loose. The new one has one of those plugs but it was not loose. I topped it off to the MIN cool mark and let it sit and run for about 15 min with the a/c on max. The coolant level dropped (to be excpected) and now it is cooling down. Had to do all this between the storms we are having today. I'll check the level after it cools down and then put it thru the real test and put it on the interstate tomorrow during the heat of the day.

Is it cheaper to have the radiator boiled and rodded out or just replace it? I priced a new one at Autozone for $169 and then I have a $20 off coupon.

 

for that price I would just buy the new one from autozone!

 

No luck. It jumped up again. It did'nt get into the red. It got up about 3/4 up in the normal range but would drop back down to just under halfway. I'm going to take in and have the radiator pressure tested. I cant go any further with it. I dont have a place to one drain the radiator and two dispose of the coolant.

 

I would still get a gage that you can trust. There are all kinds of things that can make a gage act up. Personally I would verify readings and go from there. I would feel stupid if I spent mega $$$ on repairs and then found out it was the gage. If it is not boiling fluid it is hard for me to believe it is overheating that badly.

For example: The oil pressure gage on my Ranger is all over the place. One minute it reads low and the next it reads high. I am not worried about it. It is probably a loose wire or corrosion on the connection. If you have a loose ground it could cause a lot of odd ball readings.

Perry

 

Installed the new radiator. While it was out I took the opportunity to blow out the condenser and another cooler thing that was below it and there looks like a transmission cooler that was in front of the condenser. Wow, what a mess of dirt and sand that came out of all that. I also blew off tons of dirt from the fan and clutch fan itself and the lower part of the radiator was filthy and the front side was almost black. After all the new coolant came out I let it sit up for a little bit and then poured it out and it was not so green anymore. I'm sure it was junk that the initial flushing did not get out. That was a waste of $100. So far, so good. Got it on the interstate and ran it about 75 degress with the a/c on up to pretty good hills on I-20 west and the needle did not move at all. Hopefully that took care of it.

BTW, Advance Auto Parts was $169 on the radiator and another $24 for premixed coolant, not the ELC kind. We get those coupons from them so we got to take $20 off that. The local shop here wanted $202 to remove, rod out/clean and re-install the radiator.