im not sure if its overheating at all or anything .. its still on jack stands and just been fired up but the gauge isnt moving and the top radiator hose was really hot and didnt feel like it had any or much coolant in it when squeezin it

 

im going now to go check it out and see what i can find out

 

If the rad hose is hot then you have coolant in it.

The top hose will never be as firm as you want it to. It is almost the highest point in the coolant system and has more air in there than you think.

You need to daignose why your temp gauge is not working before jumping to the conclusion that the pump/tstat/other coolant system parts are not working.


Does your HVAC system give off hot air? If it does then that means you have coolant flowing into your heater core and therefore you don't have a lack of coolant flow.

 

It could also be that the sending unit is all jazzed up, usually a $10 part and an easy fix.

 

well i was actually down there working on it today and the gauge doesnt move .. i took the wire off of the sending unit and grounded it with a test light and the gauage barely moved.. but when i plugged it back in the gauge didnt move.. i did find however that the radiator cap was bad and not holding pressure.. that fixed my problem with the top hose being as pressurized as i wanted but now its just the gauge problem.. also i was wondering if anyone really used luca oil stabalizer.. i just did the oil change because the engine has been sitting a while and i used a quart of lucas with 4qts of oil and everything seemed ok.. at first it all seemed to sit at the bottom but as it ran more it smoothed out .. the oil pressure gauge doesnt seem to be working properly either, it starts out in the 6 oclock position and then moves up to Low.. im not sure if its at normal pressure or if its actually low?? any ideas?

 

get an electrical oil pressure gauge to see where its actually reading could be a bad oil pressure sending unit to but the gauge ensures you know exactly where its at

 

If you only have water or don't mind wasting coolant or save the coolant in a big container take the bottom hose off if no water comes out while you stick a water hose on the top hose you got a blockage, in the radiator housing there,s two holes one for the therm. and one small one if there's no water coming out of the bottom its time to get dirty. and if you do get water flowing you just canceled out your motor as being the the problem it could be a faulty radiator cap not holding pressure but like you said the top gets pressure the bottom doesn't so you may have a clogged up radiator.

 

well actually it was the other way around and turned out to be the radiator cap was bad.. but still having a problem with the temp gauge.. the sending unit on top of the engine has one wire .. i unplugged the wire and grounded it using a test light and the gauge went up just a little, but not anywhere close to where it needs to be.. but when i put it back on the engine nothing happens at all..