> I have noticed that in winter my 1500 engine does not heat up
> to operating temperature at all when I'm driving. At best it
> goes halfway and stays there. Stationary, it does make it to
> the correct temperature. The fix I figured was quite simply
> a replacement of the thermostat but it didn't do nothing.
> The car is behaving exactly as before and it isn't even that
> cold down here in Austin Texas, mainly in the low 50's. So what's
> the deal? anyone?
I am assuming that you mean, the engine really is not haering up,
and not that the engineis heating up bu the temp guage registers low.
Just before it got cold here in NJ, I noticed that by Midget (1500 eng) also
did not heat up properly, so I installed a new thermostat (195 F). I drove
the car the next day, and it was exactly the same. The heater did not give
much heat, and I generally froze to work.
That night I had decided to change the anti-freeze and removed the thermostat
housing and the gasket. And there I found the problem. The thermostat fits
in a small ridge inside the cylinder head. I found that this ridge had some crud
on it (probably part of the gasket), and that the thermostat was not sitting in
the
ridge properly. I got a punch and cleaned out the ridge until I was satisfied
that the thermostat fitted correctly. Filled up with water and drove round the
corner. The heater started giving heat within 1/2 a mile and the engine was
fully warmed up by 1 1/2 miles. Problem solved.
What was happening is that water was bypassing the thermostat, througth the gap
between the cylinder head ridge and the thermostat, thus never allowing the
water to heat up, giving the same symtoms as a stuck (open) thermostat.
>Do you have it pointed in the right direction?
The thermostat can only go in one way. Wax/spring part goes into the cylinder
head, If you look closely at the thermostat, you will see a stamping with the
word "UP" or "TOP" on it.
>forced through 2 seperate ports. This thermostat is pretty
>simple namely the water comes in from the top of the
>thermo valve whose other side is pretty much open on all
>sides. I might have missed something though. Do you happen
>to know what the right direction should be?
Uugh, I think water comes in from the bottom of the thermostat and flows
upwards through it, on its way to the radiator. The Wax/spring part sits
on the upstream part of the water flow.
Gerry
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