Originally Posted by eehoepp

I also have a 95 3.0L 2WD van. Your story sound like mine.

First the "weak" water pump": It's possible. When I replaced the water pump on my van (about 5 years ago), ALL the fins on the impeller were gone. I mean completely corroded away. The impeller was just a spinning disc on the shaft. Odd thing was that the van did not overheat unless stuck in stop & go traffic in the summer. I drove the family on a 2000 mile round trip just before I changed the water pump, and the engine temperature only started creeping up when I got stuck in Montreal rush hour. The 3.0L just doesn't seem to generate a lot of heat that the coolant needs to carry away. I have to cover the grille every winter or the engine won't get warm enough to go into "closed loop" and then gas mileage suffers badly.

Second: The stock heater just does not put out much heat, even with the grille covered and the engine at temperature. I replaced the heater core last fall, and made sure all the blend & diversion doors in the heater were working properly. Changing the heater core helped the heater output somewhat, but it still can't cope with such a big air space on its own.

My van didn't have the rear heater from the factory, but I made one myself because the kids were freezing in the back seat. It belts out heat and I have to throttle back the coolant flow through it or we all cook now.

If you can add a second heater, do it. Otherwise, dress warm.

Cheers,
Eric