LUVTruck.com

when i got my truck the engine would not run for nothing. and when i tryed to see if it would even turn over it acted like it was froze. lol it literaly was... the waterpump was frozen and all the following weel the temp would not come up much from freezing. so the pump sure got a heck of a freeze. i unthawed it and there were no leaks. but i just bought some gas and got the truck running great. so now its time to see if it will over heat. the carb needs some adjustment. but it will idle fine . i have an aftermarked temp guage. ok so as time went on the temp guage never moved and when it did it jumped to about 210 and went back down!! to about 140 after a little of that i opened the hood to find the radiator steaming a little. i think its the water pump or head gasket but the oil is good

How bout your thermostat? It may have too high heat rating or be stuck. I believe the t-stat for the LUV is 180*.

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FIAA: Color Guard

i never thought aobut that !! its a lot cheaper too. duh lol. cuz when i took the radiator apart it was presureized. what about this little bit the heater is stuck on hot and dose not get warm could that be because the t-stat is not opening and not pumping water throught the thing?

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FIAA: Color Guard

omg some things are too obvious lol now that it gets broght to my attention the radiator and water pump are almost out!! aah thanks a lot

ok heres one for ya there was no t-stat in the truck at the time of overheating???

""Twilight zone Music...""

Looks like you're back to waterpump.

Far as the heater not heating, I had a similar problem with my 89 Mixima, it has a huge aire bubble in from having once drained the cooling system, later found out what I had to do to fix it was to remove radiator cap, jack up the front on the car until the radiator was higer than the heater core, burped the sytem...heater ran like a champ after that. took a serious jack to get it high enough.

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FIAA: Color Guard

Sometimes water pumps will stop working correctly and not make no noise or leak any. I had one do that.

ok i took off the water pump and it looks fine. spins easily not loose and dont look bent. i think i like the air bubble bit, because i hit a speed bump and the temp guage jumped!! like it finally got some watter and could read the temp.

I had that problem once on the LUV. It had an air lock, and really got hot once. That was the first rebuild, not the last one. The heater hoses near the firewall on mine have been tapped for flushing, and just opening the cap assures a complete filling. If you don't have that, keep the radiator cap off, and keep filling the radiator while it's running, then cap the radiator before you shut off, all the while watching the temperature.

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'78 1.8L 4-speed Fleetside

The only thing more beautiful than a sunset is a sunrise.

As others have said-- you have an air lock. Every time I would drain and refill my Luv the heater would trap air and put out no heat. I would start the engine (engine cold) and loosen and pull off a heater hose from the firewall connection untill water started squirting/pumping out. Then quickly push it back on and tighten the clamp. Worked every time.
The flush kit that John mentioned makes the job easy.

can someone get a picture of the flush kit? my dad seems to be dead set against chevy luv and he says its the head gasket. so i think im gona have that dont now too just so i dont find out that that was my problem all along i am also going to do a compression test to see what i find.

It's just a tee in the upper hose, with a rubber-gasketed cap. You might notice I still haven't installed the hot/cold valve, which is missing from the firewall. I have one sitting on the workbench. It's waiting for a rainy day, er, a sunny day, er, a day I feel like it which ever the case may be!

I would leave the radiator cap on, cut the top hose straight, and install the tee. Every auto parts store has a flush kit.

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'78 1.8L 4-speed Fleetside

The only thing more beautiful than a sunset is a sunrise.

If you are having overheat problems after checking waterpump, I would bet money the radiator is plugged. Several plugged cores will cause stock gauge needle to read higher. And about 1/3 cores plugged will overheat engine in warm weather. Trust me, I've had this happen in 2 different Luvs. If youve checked everything else, pull radiator and get a gallon of very hot water and dump through filler neck. Run palm of hand over core area, cold areas mean plugged cores. little water coming from lower hose fitting is also a bad sign. My 80 4x4 started gradually running hotter on warm days over a 3 month period, but never overheating. I finally pulled radiator and found it about 25-30% plugged with this test. Ordered new one from Parts Train and problem solved. ($110.00)

Did you put a new thermostat in?
The fact that there was no thermo in there might very well have been the overheating problem.
If there is no resistance in the water flow,then the water is travelling too fast to properly transfer the heat.

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"You can't please everyone,so you've got to please yourself"