Yes Crans the fans cut on, not even halfway on the meter. After about 15-20min idle it starts to get hotter

 

Radiator and coolant reservoir full, no leaks ?
Heaven forbid, check for bubbles in the radiator.

 

Radiator and reservoir are both full, no leaks from either. I just had a leak from the upper radiator hose where it attached to the water inlet on the cylinder head, hose was swollen. Even after I fixed that it still started to warm up at idle very quickly.

 

bleed the coolant, and check that the belt isn't slipping on the water pump pulley...before i did my timing belt, my water pump was in the early stages of seizure, and it would chirp faintly, it was the belt slipping, but it was not overheating from what i can remember...maybe the thermostat is not opening enough...

 

Thanks, well I just ran it without radiator cap on, got no bubbles but it did start to overflow. I also noticed a leak coming from my exhaust manifold. God I hope I don't have to do this job over again. Also no milkshake in my oil, at least not from the dipstick. I will say I was kind of dumb and bought the green antifreeze

 

The exhaust leak happened almost immediately after starting my car, if that tells you anything.

 

Hi Munkibishi, what's the latest ?

 

Ok, so I've fixed the coolant leak problem, still overheats at idle. I ordered a new thermostat since none of the local places carry parts for my RA, should be here this afternoon. I haven't got to the valve adjustment yet because of work. But so far runs pretty good.

 

So I finally had the time to check my thermostat and it is working fine yet my car is still overheating, no code is coming up, could it be the water pump? Or should I try the aspirin trick?

 

What makes you say that it is fine, how did you test it ?

 

RA I used the boiling water method to check that it opened properly.

 

The car only overheats on idle, what is your climate, how high up the scale does the temperature needle go ?

 

My idle temp is now fine after a flush and refill, only fully overheated once after I had initially rebuilt it, seems to run fine now, just a little warmer than before which now is a little under the halfway marker. My new issue is my SES light came on, it's been about 460 miles since my rebuild and my total mileage is around 151,000 so I'm hoping it has something to due with that. I'll have to wait til tomorrow to find out though

 

i know i'm n00b but i just thought i'd drop some input on this.
make sure that all the coolant hoses are connected and tightly secured by the metal clamps.
i remember when i took out my TB to be cleaned, i forgot to put back one of the metal clamps and that caused my coolant to leak when i turned on the car.
also, check if your fan is turning on at full speed when needed (eg. when the temp needle is almost at halfway, you should hear it blowing).
i can't think of anything else but i'll be sure to post up if i think of something later
cheers friend!

 

I did all of these checks with an engine swap that I did. Everything was good, so I started her up. Ran the engine for 10 minutes between 2000 and 3000 rpm (back when you had to break in the flat tappet camshafts that way).

The distributor was retarded one tooth, plus there was NO coolant (forgot to add it). The headers got HOT! Cherry red. Thank goodness for cast iron block and heads on the old V8. I let it cool down overnight, added coolant and drove it around the block to check for leaks. None found, so I changed the oil, loaded up the car and made a 600 mile road trip that day.