ok here's my problem i was installing a new thermostat and just decided to flush all the old antifreeze out since i had to lower it out a little might as well go all the way ...so i put the new thermostat in fill begin to fill it with antifreeze at it didn't seem to take to much....so i start the car and slowly runs right into the red the fan does not kick on and my check gauge comes on....the heater wouldn't heat up so we decide the thermostat it bad...old one goes back in and i head home ..it's still running warm like in the read but no check gauge..i decide when i almost home to run it a little hard to see if it will come on because i couldn't tell if the fan kick on or not...so i get the check gauge light but the fan is at least running now any idea what i did wrong i never had the check gauge light come on before this no matter how hard i ran it.....thanks for any help

 

did you get a 160 thermostat from autozone or did you order it from like hypertech? I'm guessing you got a SBC thermostat which IS NOT the right thermostat for our cars, and didn't bleed the system right.

 

you bleed the air? reason that it didnt take too much is because you probably didnt drain the block

 

Doh! Hope you didnt do any damage.Bleeding the air out is a must.I pray for you head gaskets.

 

Loosen the two screws next to the throttle body until coolant comes out.

Wait till you take off the waterpump. I think more coolant came out when I did that than when I drained the radiator. Not to mention, it gets everywhere, including your face because coolant seems to come out for no reason at all.

Hopefully you didn't blow a gasket, warp heads or something. And it's definitely a good idea to turn off the car when the check gauges light comes on. Aluminum heads aren't very forgiving, unfortunately.

Good luck, it sounds like you got a quick lesson in reverse flow cooling.

 

Bleeding is a big thing, but unless you have no coolant and drove like a mad man, you should be ok.

I always jack the car up some in the front to get just the last bit out.

 

If you drained the radiator then once the car gets hot you need to add more coolant. Once the thermo opens then it will take whatever added into the engine block and leave none in the radiator itself. Thats why you have to add some, then let the car get hot and suck it all in, then add more until it doesn't drain the radiator whenever the thermo opens.

 

thanks for the help ......i deft didn't run the car with the check gauge light on as soon as it kicked on i shut the car off so when bleeding the car i have to pull pins by the throttle body and take the waterpump off?? Didn't realize it was going to be that difficult of a job haha o well at least i'm learning

 

Listen man, i dont know how the whole "take the waterpump off" thing got started, but you DO NOT have to do that. After adding the coolant all the way to the top of the radiator, start the car. Open the 2 bleed valves, you will hear air coming out. Have someone set in the car to make sure it is not getting hot. When all the air is gone coolant will seep out of the valves. When this happens, fill the radiator to the top, screw the cap back on good, and fill the resevoir, bam your done!

 

Had the same problem when doing a antifreeze change. Cured it by removing the stat & adding the fluid thru there., worked for me. Bleeding the screws didn't.

 

No, no, no... That's what I went through. Unless you have steam coming out from under your hood and a squealy drivebelt from coolant allover it (waterpump gasket failure) you don't need to take off the waterpump.

All you need to do is loosen the two screws that are in the coolant lines. One is practically underneath the throttle body, you can get at it from an angle. The other one sticks out of the coolant line. They're both on the passenger side, fairly close to each other. Once you see coolant come out of each one, you're done.

Since the waterpump sucks coolant from the radiator instead of the block like most cars, it tends to get a lot of air when there's a coolant loss. Too much air and it won't circulate the coolant anymore.