Making heater blow hotter?

[xirdneh]

Dried leeches????

[4wdEconoBox]

Huh xirdneh? Haha

She's still giving me problems guys... If I turn the heat on the temp gauge starts rising, when I turn it off it goes back to normal, also if I rev up the engine when it starts to rise, the temp will go back to normal....I'm going to park in a steep hill tomorrow and see if I can burp anymore air out. That's literally the only thing I can think right now, unless it's the water pump malfunctioning or water pump belt slipping or being too tight... Idk if the last two scenarios would even cause this problem.

[jimcrazy]

i run a 182 deg thermostat year round in my wagons,gauge just a hair above half way

[4wdEconoBox]

Holy crap man, I would be freaking out if mine started running that high... If that's safe then I'm perfectly in the clear. The highest mine has ever got is right at the top of the middle picture, never gotten above it though.

[splatterdog]

Temp goes up with heat on? Makes no sense. One thing that is clear after seeing the not very old stat. You've got a cruddy cooling system.

In extreme cases of rusty crud, this works well. http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Ford-VC-9 ... B001H1QCI0. Just don't leave it in for a long time, like with other weaker flush chemicals. Since it's meant for Ford diesels, one bottle would probably do a few flushes on much smaller cooling systems. Ford does have a less aggressive formula if you're worried about eating a hole in something. Many others out there too. I like how the vc9 iron remover protects against flash rust after final flushing.

But, if the engine has a goo layer, you can't even get heat in to the coolant in the first place. T4 #2 had super bad rust, likely from iron rich well water. I went on a hours long Sunday drive with straight water and Prestone's heavier duty flush. The car ran better by the end of the day, not to mention better heat. After the post chemical flush, I took the just installed water outlet off(bypass o-rings)to see nice and clean cylinder head inside, where there was scrapeable brown goo earlier that day. The post flush looked almost as bad as the pre flush..

Any of my T4's would have a running fan at that gauge position.

[xirdneh]

Most of my tercels ran middle or slightly below half, but a few ran between 1/4 and 3/8

[4wdEconoBox]

That pic makes it look worse than it is, its not too bad. I mean the engine was rebuilt around 10,000 miles ago, the engine was hotanked with the rebuild and when I got it back home I used a number of bottle brushes and cleaners making sure the oil and coolant passages where as clean as possible, every time I drain the coolant it comes out looking pretty good . Its not perfect but still comes out with that nice neon green hue. Before the rebuild mine always sat perfectly under the picture in the middle, it NEVER fluctated, that was with a cheap thermostat, old stock radiator, and almost 30 years of crud in the engine... Now AFTER the rebuild, it runs hotter, fluctuates and seems much more finicky. When it was first running after the rebuild I had the same setup as before and it started doing all of this problematic behavior. Since then, I've replaced the radiator with a brand new one, the thermostat a few times, new radiator hoses, flushed the block, heater core and anything else, multiple times. I'm not sure what to do, I'm at my whits end, if I thought replacing the water pump would fix these issues, I would replace it(I've got a good spare one), but it just doesn't sound like the water pump to me. I'm going to try burping it some more today, but if that doesn't work, I don't know what to do....

Edit: I think what is turning the thermostat that color, is literally just a flash rust type deal. Because I remember when I was putting everything together during the rebuild, the coolant passages already had that powedery flash rust look ya know? So maybe that's it, and if thats the case it shouldn't harm anything and make that big of a difference should it?

[xirdneh]

Headgasket??

[Petros]

you might buy an after market mechanical temp gauge at a auto parts store, they do not cost much. Use it as a diagnostic tool, jury rig it so it goes into the sender location at the front of the head, and route it into the driver's area so you can watch the gauge to see what it is actually doing. Get the kind with the actual temperature numbers with fairly small graduations. Should cost about $20, this will allow you to eliminate the possibility that either the gauge or the sender is giving you bad signals. After all, it might be running just fine, but you can not tell if the gauge or sender is bad.

I can not think of a way that turning the heat on would raise the temp gauge, even if the heater was plugged up (you would get no heat out if it was). the whole system is acting screwy. Also, make sure your lower radiator hose is not collapsing when you rev the engine. the lower hose should be stiff enough to resist the suction side of the coolant pump.

One like this:

[4wdEconoBox]

Pleaseeee don't say those words xirdneh! But that had crossed my mind for a split second, I don't think thats what it is but ya never know.

I might just do that and see petros, wouldn't that be something haha, it would kind of make sense, if you think about it as in, when I turn the heater it puts more of a stress on the voltage system, and if theres a bad ground somewhere it could make it act wonky... I don't think the lower hose is collapsing, it feels stiff when I try to squeeze it, but once it starts heating up it might make it more flexible, I'll check it out also. Thanks for all the suggestions guys, hopefully we can pinpoint this problem!!!

[xirdneh]

I only say that cause I had a tercel that acted that way. Took me a lot of experimenting, flushing replacing thermos etc to give up. Finally got a kit to test for exhaust in radiator water. That did it.

[irowiki]

i run a 182 deg thermostat year round in my wagons,gauge just a hair above half way

Never had any of mine run that high, unless it is calibrated funny.

[4wdEconoBox]

I hope that isn't the case, but I might just get a kit to test for that too, before I buy any more new parts...haha. My only question, is that, if it was a bad head gasket, then wouldn't that also cause problems when the heater is off? With that oem thermostat in it, the gauge stays perfectly at the bottom of the picture and doesn't fluctuate. I started really paying close attention to my gauge earlier and I'm leaning more towards a bad ground or something of the sort. When I turn the heater on, the needle jumps up 1/16th or 1/8th of an inch and bounces and the stays up. I still haven't installed the heater control valve, and everything is just running straight to the heater core. It would make sense if the heater core was hooked up and when I turn it to heat it may send an air bubble through the lines causing an immediate change on the gauge. But, since I don't have any of that hooked up, it shouldn't have any change like that unless it was electrical, right? I don't know, I'm just spitballing ideas...

That's what I thought too irowiki, thats scary high haha.

[xirdneh]

Temp gage on console could be acting up. Only had one tercel that did that. I swapped the console. The previous owner told me that he rapped the console to get it to move back down.

[4wdEconoBox]

I think it could be very possible, especially considering that I had to fix my fuel gauge by resoldering the pins and resistor due to cracked solder joints. I'm gonna hook up the heater control valve and set it to cool, and then turn the fan on. If my gauge still acts up then I'll know I found my problem. That seems like the easiest way to diagnose it. I've also got a digital temp gauge that I bought a while back. I'm going to hook up permanently so I can keep a close eye on my temp. I'm just gonna cut the upper radiator hose in the middle and put a pvc splice in it with the gauge sensor in it.