Cooling problem help..

[mgnfcnt978]

This weekend I have changed the water pump, thermo, and the rad on my KA. Its a regualr oem replacement plastic top rad for at/mt cars. While changing everything figured my car ran no thermo from previous owner. After putting everything together and bleeding the system with the front jacked up and rad cap opened, took it for a ride the temp spikes up after a like a minute of driving. Checked everything again took the thermo out checked it it openes fine, flushed the system again-car still does the same thing.So i checked both top and bottom hoses. The top one is hot like it usually is, bottom one is cold and the bottom of the rad is cold.

What can it be? Just a shitty china rad that does not let the collant flow, or somehting else? Water pump does not leak and thermo openes fine. I searched through forums but did not find a definite asnwer.

[orion::S14]

More bleeding...yes, it's a pain in the ass. But if the lower hose isn't getting hot, then the t-stat is not opening.

You have an air bubble trapped behind it, and that doesn't transfer heat to it in the same way water does...so it stays closed.

Turn it on, bleed it out with the cap off...let it idle until it starts to overheat, or the lower hose gets warm.

If the lower hose is warm, you're done.

If it tries to overheat, then you need to turn it off a short while...and try again. And again, if necessary. Until the lower hose has hot coolant flowing through it.

Every KA is like this...it sucks, but what can you do.

- Brian

[Bigsyke]

I sometimes have to bleed mine with the swirl tank on it. But im pretty sure now that I've bypassed the heater core and looped it at the block, I never have to worry about it ever again.

[slider2828]

Get a swirl pot and a greddy lower elbow... and call it a day

[Gnnr]

How did you test the thermostat?

Is it OEM? I prefer to use the OEM thermostat and radiator cap. I personally don't trust the cheap looking ones from the auto parts. Its not so much to pick it up from the local dealer, usually in stock.

Use a Lisle funnel to bleed the system.

[jon_mr2]

i rarely see people talk about this, but i guess its kinda expensive just to have. but i do use it for work, so just to let peoples know... this thing is awesome, never have had an overheating issues when using this, and its so fast as well. what it does is pull a vacuum on the whole cooling system, and if there are no leaks then all/most air is sucked out and vacuum will draw coolant into the system without air pockets. good stuff!

swirl pots are good too :P

[slider2828]

^^ My buddy has one at his shop. That thing is f...ing amazing!!!!.... sucks all the air out and you can check for leaks in your system cause it doesn't pressurize and then replaces all air with coolant.... Need a compressor though, but its amazing....

[mgnfcnt978]

ok thanks everyone. I tried bleeding it with a a car jacked up and the cap off and idling for like 20 minutes. Temp stays in the middle for 15-20 minutes and then it satarts slowly creeping I shut the car off and redid the process. Same stuff top hose is hot botom one is cold with a bottom of radiator. I even tried 2 radiators and it still does that. I honestly have no clue how to make this POS work fine... Any othe ideas or tips? Funniest thing I changed the rad and water pump on my old s14 and it was fine bleeding took like 15 minutes. This one is effed up even when the car is running with a cap of you cannot see th eflow in the radiator coolant just bubbles and spills all the time (

[Bigsyke]

Do you have the thermostat facing the correct direction? Is the jiggle valve in the up direction?

[Gnnr]

Did you run the heater as per FSM?