LUVTruck.com

Just an update, with the radiator out, I have a friend that's going to take it to a shop to see about flushing it properly, and he said he could get a discount possibly doing a re core.

We'll see what happens! Hopefully this overheating will be toast by then.

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And I don't think anyone ever answered, but how is the thermostat installed? The coil facing in the block right? Then gasket, and thermostat cover. I'm gonna double check if I installed it right since there's no coolant.

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I don't remember exactly how it goes in I did mine like two months ago but if your gonna take it out you might as well buy a new gasket to be safe.

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'78 2wd LUV, Betsy, THE LUV MACHINE

correct its just a fan it always spins, no clutch
and yeah i think it goes in coil down, i have to find my shop manual

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

yeah I bought the thermostat and got the new gasket as well. just can't remember for the life of me how I put it in. I wasn't paying attention when I took the damn thing out.

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i have 2 haynes manuals. one from decades ago and a revised one, both of them don't make any mention of how it goes in. Maybe I'm just blind. I'm gonna go remove the hoses and look at them, especially the lower radiator hose and make sure it's in decent shape.

thanks for all the help with this guys, you are all awesome.

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Yes, coil down. That way as the water in the engine heats up, it will relax the spring and open up, sending the hot water to and through the rad. for cooling off.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

Thank you for coming through on that one rondog. :-) Gonna go check it now.

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I had it in backwards, turned it around, still having the over heating issue though. A weird note, changed the timing to around 10, have a little more power, at least it feels like it. When mashing through the gears I noticed the heat went down drastically, and as soon as I was at normal cruising speed, 35-45, heat goes up again, pedal to the floor and shifting, heat goes down. Eventually gets up there. I'm going to do an oil change as I haven't done that in a while, and noticed it may be sludge from letting it sit for so many months. I'm unsure if that could be causing it, but I'm guessing a loss in oil pressure from the buildup could be causing it?

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Temp creeps up at low RPMs but stays lower at higher RPMs? Could very well be clogged radiator then, when the motor revs the water pump spins faster, pumps harder, is able to force more water through the rad and get a bit more cooling? Not sure but it sounds like a good theory. I've had one so clogged that if you got the cap off with it warmed up and running it would puke water out the top of the radiator when you rev the motor.

I used to try to run about 10-12 on the timing. As long as I didn't get a batch of crappy gas it wouldn't ping much and would have a bit more power. With higher octane gas it could go even higher, though that was with all the smog parts hooked up and working just right.

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95 Isuzu Trooper Daily Driver
86 Isuzu Trooper reliable backup
77 LUV 2wd stock beltway blaster (resting)
79 4x4 LUV project: 2.6L, 5spd, 31s (eventually)

MEPR: Man, my 4x4 makes all other LUVs look good

Yeah, and at idle it would go down to temp. So the only time it creeps up is if I'm driving normally. love4theluv may be coming through with his old radiator for me, hopefully I can get some money to take it off his hands. And HOPEFULLY, that's the problem. heh.

I guess I could try pulling the top off and rev the motor while it's warmed up to see what happens.

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i will drop it off whenever your around and we can see if thats the problem

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

PM'd ya back, I'm free whenever tomorrow, preferably noon to 2 pm if you can make it around that time. Might be a bit hungover tho...

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I am glad you are getting help locally with this. If you go back through the thread half of it is two of you using the thread to talk instead of a PM. To keep from cluttering up threads please use the PM feature.

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Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

apologies, I'll keep it to a minimum now.


on a side note, what octane rating do you guys use for these? I've always just used premium, or the highest octane. To me it feels like the truck runs better, and if I put lower quality in it, I can definitely tell.

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Mo problem, just trying to keep the clutter down. For fuel I run 100 leaded but I am a V8

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Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

Bought some super radiator flush, going to put it in, run the truck for a couple hours over the next few days as it states, and hopefully it'll unclog it a bit. Other than that, thought I was going to be working on the truck today but have other plans with the wife. So I'll keep everyone updated!

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Radiator flush works ok, it won't clean everything. Just pull the radiator and have it rodded out already.

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Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

Could electrical issues cause the gauge to climb? Or cause the car to over heat? I noticed when I have my lights off, along with my windshield wipers off while driving at city speeds, the temp stays at 3/4 of the way hot. If I turn them both on, it immediately shoots up to past the H. Could my alternator have friend everything in the truck when that ground wasn't connected? Could it be my new voltage regulator? The windshield wipers are painfully slow when I have the lights on, and the vent speed is significantly reduced when these are running as well.

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Check grounds. If you have access to a mechanical temp gauge then I would think about installing that to help with diagnosis.

EDIT:

Looking at my manual it says that the temps are as follows
Just before the T = 149 degrees F
In between the E&M = 169 degrees F
At the end of the solid line under the TEMP = 221 degrees F

Now the manual says to run the truck until the temp gauge reeds 176 degrees ( around the middle of the M), disconnect the wire from the temp sending unit and test the resistance of the sending unit, it should be about 50 ohms.

I am thinking a bad ground is a issue if you think the truck is really not overheating and just indicating hot.

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Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.