so the other day i revved hard with clutch held in while in a parking lot, as i pulled away (didnt drop the clutch, just rev in neutal) i see steam coming from the engine bay. i pull over and the hose from the radiator going into the engine had apparently blown off, and was spraying coolant all over the engine bay.

i reattatch the hose, drive it home slowly and it gets hot right as i pull on my street, near but not to the red mark on the temp. gauge.. i shut it off and coast into the driveway, and i add a full jug of orange coolant and water, and it was running okay, but then the temp gauge was showing the car getting hot, around 250 which it never used to.. then it got weird, it would fluxuate greatly.. there is one small hill i drive up going home and near the top the temp is showing like 265ish, and then as soon as i turn the corner and start down the hill it shoots down to 135ish like instantly..

and now the heater stops working intermittently, it will blow cold air and the temp gauge rises to very hot, and i shut off the heater and it shoots down, i turn the heater back on and it blows warm air and the temp stays low..

so anyway is it just a thermostat thing or might i have something else wrong from when the radiator hose blew and it nearly overheated?

 

You probably have a air pocket in the system.

The heater should have very little to do with the engine temps.

Get the engine running, squeeze the hose (don't burn ya self ), and see if you can feel a) pressure and b) it flowing.

Although getting a new thermostat wouldn't be the worse thing, maybe even get a slightly lower temp one for that performance edge

 

ok turns out you were partially right.. when the hose blew off, apparently it blew off a rubber O-ring grommet thing inside the hose connector, causing an air leak / fluxuating loss of pressure in the cooland system.. replacing this fixed the problem

 

Air Pocket...Air Leak....same thing

Glad its all fixed now.