Overheat problem

The long detailed version: I just bought the truck last week, i was driving it home and it overheated after 40 minutes of driving. I took it to a mechanic, he said it needed a new radiator but they wouldn't have one till monday, I didn't want to wait 2 days far away from home in a city I don't like for the radiator so I asked if there was anything that could be done immediately for a temporary fix. He said he could flush the system out and put a new thermostat in but didn't guarantee it would work to get me home. After he flushed the system out, and put a new thermostat in he put stop leak into the radiator...which kind of makes me wonder why because he specifically told me that he had water running through at 20 psi (I don't remember the exact number but it was close to 20 psi) and there were no leaks, yet he still put stop leak in...Long story short is that it kind of worked. I had to keep stopping and letting it cool down, sometimes it would last two hours, sometimes it would last 20 minutes. one thing that I did notice is that the heater would stop blowing warm air, and shortly thereafter it would overheat. Fast forward to last night, I put a new radiator in it and I started the truck up after refilling the coolant on it but the thermostat is currently out, everything seems to be normal, I rev it up, again its normal, I take it for a drive its normal as far as I can tell, no hot air blowing at all but I think thats cause there's no thermostat in...anyways the truck gets up to normal operating temperature but does not get any hotter. satisfied, I drive it back, park it and then this mornign I get up and put the thermostat back in and there it goes again overheating, I let the truck run, rev it up to around 3k rpm, maybe a little lower and it overheats. I had the spring side toward the engine block, I'm 90% certain I had the thermostat in correctly...but I figured after the truck overheating numerous times while I was on my way home from purchasing it that I might've fried it. In fact I'm quite certain I fried the thermostat because when I took the metal bracket connecting the radiator hose to the engine block off and the thermostat was in there, I pulled the thermostat off slightly and steaming hot coolant came rushing out so it clearly wasn't opening up. Anyways, I just got a new thermostat and its still doing the same thing. I'm gonna get a flush kit and flush it out again and cross my fingers and hope it works, if it doesn't I don't know what else to do...any advice would be appreciated.

The short story: the truck keeps overheating, i put a new radiator in, I put a new thermostat in. If i sit there and rev the truck around 3k rpm it overheats, if I take it for a drive when I take off the temp gage rises and rises, after I've been driving down the road for a minute at around 50mph it starts to go down, but even when i decided to turn around and come back home after a 6-7min drive the temperature gage went right up while i was accelerating and probably for a minute still while i had it back up to 50mph again, Im going to flush the system and hope that fixes it, if not I'm not really sure what else to do.

 

Maybe the truck isn't pushing the coolant through the engine for some reason (clog or bad pump)? Flushing a brand new radiator most likely won't accomplish anything in my opinion. I'd take it back to either the place you bought it or the place the did the work. They obviously didn't fix the problem.

 

x2 sounds like a water pump or clogged ports in engine block.....

can you see the fluid moving in the new radiator with the cap off when motor is running

 

so you're saying take the radiator cap off when the engine is cool, start it up and watch to see if i can see coolant running through while looking down into the radiator? my idea behind the flush was that i thought maybe the stop leak was blocking the heater core

 

If you do flush it yourself, make sure there's no oil in the coolant. Hopefully the shop would have noticed that but if you find oil, you've got big issues... Don't get scared just yet, that's a pretty serious issue and probably the absolute worst case scenerio but just something to look for just in case.

 

ok, and another thing, how difficult is it to clean the engine ports, is it something my dad could possibly walk me through over the phone? If it's beyond that then how much do you think a shop would charge to fix it? I'm gonna check the pressure on the hose up top to see if the water pump is pushing enough water through but if its clogged ports then i have no idea where to begin.

edit: oh yeah, about the oil, if you're talking about the coolant reservoir I looked in there with the old radiator and I looked in there with the new radiator, the water was definitely murky but didn't look like there was any oil in there

 

x3 on the water pump. How many miles on the truck?

 

2.7L and its 160k and I'm screwed. I just checked the reservoir again and it does look oily in there. i got it from a dealer and i signed the 'as-is' agreement...how disappointing, how much is this gonna cost me to fix?

 

+1 on water pump or blockage. Check the clutch fan while you're at it. Depending on how overheated it got, you may be causing other problems: warped block/heads, blown/cracked gaskets/cylinder/heads. You'll need to have a leakdown test done on each cylinder. It checks for leaks and is more comprehensive than a compression check. You may find the cause of your overheating problem during this test.

 

mabye air bound????
come on ben / chris.... chime in here

 

This isn't 100% related, but there is some good info here. I just thought it was hilarious that I googled 'oil in engine coolant' and the first result was a Ford forum...

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forums/mustang-tech/73380-help-oil-engine-coolant.html

 

nah I havent warped any heads, everytime I've ever tested it to see if it overheated i never let the truck run till it hit red, i let it get close sometimes but never hit the red, if say for example you look at it like a percentage, red is 90-100% then i've let it get to 80% before shutting it off immediately

 

i'll drain the oil and let you know how it turns out. im a newb but im adamant about learning the ins and outs and how to take care of my truck myself, what is an HG, heat guard?

 

x2, check your engine oil and like he said, if it looks milky the head gasket is gone.

 

jesus i see where the oil filter is now thats going to be a pain when i change it, where exactly is the oil drain plug? I found this thread http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/11201-ultimate-oil-change-thread.html

but thats for a 2nd gen 2.7L :\