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Veteran
Posts: 269
Location: Chesterfield, Virginia | After warming up our 59 Firesweep I noticed that the bottom rad hose is very cool compared to the other hoses.The top tank and hose are very hot as are the heater hoses ,inlet & outlet . However I don't get that much heat from the heater. Air lock maybe? |
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Expert
Posts: 2312
Location: Arizona | Are you running a thermostat? The bottom hose is where the "cool" water exits the radiator, the top hose is where the hot water enters. If you have no thermostat you may be overcooling things. |
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Veteran
Posts: 269
Location: Chesterfield, Virginia | Yes, I installed a new 180 thermostat this summer,maybe its stuck open. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 8445
Location: Perth Australia | A stuck open thermostat will have a more even in/out temp on the hoses (top will be cooler, but bottom hotter) as the engine takes much longer to warm up and the coolant flows faster through the radiator, causing it to not loose as much heat
Hot heater pipes and not much car warming can be caused by a restriction in the heater cores not flowing though all the pipes
I think the heater core is a multi flow (more than 1 way for the coolant to get through) and it could be one passage is blocked
The other thing, is it might not be anything to do with coolant flow, but air flow, if your heater core is blocked with dirt ect in the fins, you wont get much heat from it either (most likely cause)
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Expert
Posts: 2312
Location: Arizona | Assuming your thermostat is good and the weather is cool, its very possible that your only problem is an air bubble. Or a plugged heater core or plugged water valve. The easy thing to do would be to pull the heater hoses and see how well you can flow some water thru the heater core. You could backflush the heater core while you are monkeying with it. If you have a harbor freight near you they have IR temperature guns for around $30. They are very useful in assessing coolant temperatures, esp at the thermostat housing. |
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Veteran
Posts: 269
Location: Chesterfield, Virginia | I installed a new thermostat & back flushed the heater core as suggested.It was full of blackish brown water,The heat is much better now . |
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