You just put straight water into the system, no antifreeze? That could
cause you some problems, especially in that quantity. Your mixture is
now far from 50/50, and on the bad side.
I, too, was low on coolant when I swapped my thermostat. Not a full
gallon, but enough to concern me. I think there are some special
factory-installed coolant system sealing features (aka LEAKS) on the
V8s.
I put whiteface gauges in as well, and I *think* I got all my needles
pretty much right. From your description, it sounds like either you
didn't get fully up to temp, or you didn't put the needle on correctly.
With a 180 stat, my temperature needle has the right edge just touching
the bottom left corner of the 2 in "210." With the 195, the needle
covered the 2 completely.
An easy way to tell if you're up to temperature is to drive around a
while, then pop the hood (engine running) and feel the upper radiator
hose. If it's hot, the stat is open and you've got coolant flowing
through the hose.
Ken Allgood wrote:
>
> First, thanks to all that gave me their input on what to check for. Figured
> it out finally. Think it was a mix of 2 items.
>
> 1: bad tstat - Put in a 180 tstat.
> 2: Low on coolant. Put in 1 full gallon of water between the radiator and
> overflow, most of it going into the radiator.
>
> I first replaced the tstat, and that didn't fix the problem (actually, my
> temp jumped to 260 twice.. least to say, I was freaked). Let engine cool
> down for about an hour. Put in the gallon of water, drive it for 10 min.
> Within 2 min, I have heat, and it never got cold again, which is great. But
> what I couldn't figure out, is my water temp. For those with the Gen III,
> my water tem is just above the low line (you have 130 on the left, 1cm above
> that is the line). Think my water temp gauge is off by a little from when I
> put in the white gauges, about 10 deg under, so looks like I'm running
> 150ish??? kinda cold there. I only drove it for 10 min tho, city
> streets.. currently 37deg. Only mods are 180tstat (woohoo), quick-d
> intake, gibson Exhaust. Should I be concerned about it running so cold, or
> just didn't give it long enough to heat up? The performance was good, but
> it's done better.
>
> Ken Allgood
> 97 cc slt 5.2L
> 180 tstat, quick-D intake, Gibson Exhaust
-- -andyhttp://home.twcny.rr.com/andylevy/ --- andylevy@bigfoot.com ------------------------------------------------------------- modesty, n.: Being comfortable that others will discover your greatness -------------------------------------------------------------
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