Making heater blow hotter?

[4wdEconoBox]

In the midst of all this, its snowinggggg!!!! In Alabama!!!! And it's sticking!!!!!! I'm sorry, this is rare for us southern people haha

[Mark]

In the midst of all this, its snowinggggg!!!! In Alabama!!!! And it's sticking!!!!!! I'm sorry, this is rare for us southern people haha

It's rare for some of us Northern people too. Last year I could say that San Diego got more snow than us and maybe this year I can say that Alabama got more snow than us.

[4wdEconoBox]

Really?! That's crazy, but sadly it didn't last long, on and off flurries for a couple hours, there wasn't even enough to have some fun in the other wagon

[4wdEconoBox]

Well I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, it takes about twice as long to warm up now and doesn't even warm up fully until I drive it for about 5 minutes. Buttttt I intentionally tried to make it run hotter by going up the biggest hill I could find, and went slower and stayed in a high gear, now the hottest it got was just a touch above the bottom of the thermometer, if that makes sense. Also turning the heater on full blast actually makes the temp go down now!!! May be normal for you guys, but this is the first time it's ever worked right for me!

Now, the only things I fixed/did, flushed the whole system a few times, removed a big piece of silicon from the thermostat, fixed a leak where the bypass tube connects to the water pump (used a lot of silicon as a quick fix), while I had the stat out I drilled a small hole in it and pointed the hole up to allow for easier burping, seen the idea here, can't remember who posted it but it worked great, so much easier to burp now!!! I hope all of my heating and cooling problems are fixed, I'll know more after a longer drive tomorrow!! Thanks for everyone's help and advice!!

[Petros]

did not you also replace the radiator cap?

The cap is an integral part of the cooling system, not just a cap, but also regulates system pressure, and controls over flow.

[4wdEconoBox]

My bad I thought I might have been forgetting something, I replaced the radiator cap and the cap for the overflow tank as well (the old was falling to pieces haha). Now tomorrow I get to try and fix my distributor vacuum advance, also I'm gonna check out my mechanical advance since I've never checked it haha! Might also check my vacuum lines and routing again just for the heck of it, just depends on how much time I have.

Ohh something else I did was tighten the fuel pump bolts, they were a little tighter than finger tight, but still pretty dang loose. I think I'm gonna check all of my intake manifold bolts tomorrow and make sure that those are tight also.

[Petros]

That is a good idea, intake/exhaust bolts tend to work loose from the extreme temperature cycling. It could cause a vac leak at the gasket. Careful not to over tighten, use a torque wrench if you have one.

the engine should run fine without the vac advance, as long as you cap off the vac line. fix it if you can, but not a big deal if you can not. Or you can put it off until later if short on time. Make sure the mechanical advance is working however, this one is critical for proper engine operation, also verify spark timing if you have a timing light. I recommend setting it at 10 deg BTDC (rather than the factory 5 deg).

[4wdEconoBox]

That's what I was thinking about the intake/exhaust bolts also, sadly I don't have my torque wrench anymore, lost it when I moved recently

I'm mainly just wanting to try something out with the vacuum advance. I seen someone fix a '51 Cadillac diaphragm with plasti-dip, or in my case I'm gonna use oil resistant silicon just because I forgot plasti-dip haha.
Ive got to do some reading in the fsm to find out how to check the mechanical advance and how to remove the vacuum advance. But yeah, I set the timing to 10 deg btdc about a week ago or so, so I'm good on that haha!

[4wdEconoBox]

Well I tightened down all of my intake/exhaust bolts, checked all of my diaphragms, found 2 misrouted vacuum lines (I think) it runs about the same as before though honestly haha, it may have a little better throttle response but not really sure. Didn't get around to removing my vacuum advance and also didn't check my mechanical advance, I'll leave those for after work tomorrow. I'm finally getting her back up to perfect running condition!!! Ohh I took a little 30 mile drive today and she's running cooler than she ever has! The needle stays a good bit below the thermometer with the heater on and barely touches the bottom of thermometer with the heater off, I'd say it was a great success!! Haha

[irowiki]

If the heater actually brings the temp down, the radiator is probably plugged some, but you won't notice until it gets really hot out.

[4wdEconoBox]

Well dang I might check it out this weekend again then! Whats the easiest way to unplug a radiator? Remove it and use the vinegar method?

[Gottolovem]

Well dang I might check it out this weekend again then! Whats the easiest way to unplug a radiator? Remove it and use the vinegar method?

A new one is around 120

[Petros]

if you are not running hot or overheating, I would not worry about the radiator now.

[4wdEconoBox]

This one was literally bought brand new 6 months ago or so...haha, I'm hoping that if I remove it and do a high pressure flush that it should be fine!

I'm going with Petros on this for the moment, this is the coolest my car has ever ran since I got it! Literally haha!

[4wdEconoBox]

Well I just replaced the stupid Fail-Safe thermostat with an oem Toyota one and when I first saw the oem thermostat I was on awe. I literally looked at it for 20 minutes just in amazement.... I snapped a quick photo of the aftermarket one compared to the oem one. Left is aftermarket, right is oem...