Water pump replacement Drama

[Chuckdiesel]

Well heres the deal. last night I was forced to replace my waterpump after it crapped out 5 min from home. So I just replaced the pump, hoses and t-stat while it was all apart. The t-stat is a 190 degree and after all said and done the gauge stayed at the A in normAl and so I figured it was cause of the higher degree stat. So heres the thing, I left for work today and on the way the upper radiator hose popped off the t-stat housing. I went up to auto zone up the street and got a new hose clamp cause the one there was the old one and was a old 2 wire thing. I had to add 2 gallons of coolant on top of the gallon I added in the morning to top it off. Now the truck does not heat up according to the gauge now . the needle lives between the C and the bracket under Normal and it may climb up to the N but never gets hot according to the gauge.

So what the gauge broke or the t-stat is bad or maybe theres air bubbles screwing things up. I know I took my cap off after driving for a while and left the truck running and saw no movement in the coolant. also the hoses are really hard upper and lower when pressureized is that normal. I dont want to over heat and break stuff

 

[icanfixall]

These coolant systems are very hard to purge all the air out of them. Some remove the hose in the passenger head and fill untill coolant comes out of it. What I do is part in my driveway with the front of the truck pionting up hill and just a little high on the drivers side. I run it till things heat up then I let it cool. You need to make sure the coolant overflow line is clean and clear. Sometimes it gets "stuff" in it and coolant under radiator pressure will be pushed thru it but can't return to the radiator when it cools. This will cause the radiator to get low so no coolant can be returned to the system. P.S. The stock dash gage is crap. Nobody knows whats going on when it reads n or a or m. How hot is any of these letters anyway. Get a good after market machanical or electric gage. I like the Isspro EV gages myself. I have 6 of them telling me whats going on.

 

[BROWNIEBOY525]

did you use a ford or international thermostat cause the ones that come from the other autoparts stores are different.

Also i wouldnt trust the factort temp gauge they are almost worthless i have never seen one that actually works.