Heat problem

[milehighbear]

I was having a heat problem with my 93GL(not the gray ghost)and I didn't know what thermostat was in it so I went to NAPA and got just a single stage thermostat cause i could not find a ford dealer around here with the right one. Closest ford dealer that had one is in Iowa. So anyway, my temp guage would go to half but i wasn't getting any heat. I changed the thermostat, and when I drained out some of old coolant, it was sort of rusty color so drained out what i could and put in coolant, and drove car around and guage went to half again, and still no heat. So i parked it, came in and read a few back articles on proper stat and few other things. By way, when i put new one in, i used superglue to hold it into place and worked great. I also unhooked the two rear rubber hoses that hook to the aluminum tube the gets in way of bottom bolt and once i unhooked the two hoses, aluminum tube moved around and i could get to the bottom bolt. So, back to my story, i came in after running car around block, guage went to half, but still no heat. So I parked the car, came in house, it cooled off. I went out after half hour, started it up, guage only went between half and cold this time and now i was getting heat. I checked the hoses, and top radiator hose and bottom were hot. I think my heat core was blocked and putting in new coolant may have helped unblock it, I dont know. So I'm going to get radiator cleaner and when i find right stat, i'm going to do it all over again and clean radiatior out also. Any thoughts as to why it suddenly started heating?

[resuwrecked]

Sounds like you might have had an air pocket and it worked its way out. After you flush it, let it run with the rad cap off until the rad fan cycles one or two times, keep it topped off. Be careful not to burn yourself obviously. I don't know why so many here have had no luck with anything other than a dealer supplied t-stat. I always use a napa one and it works fine.

[Mike McKown]

I'd say you had a blocked heater core. It may still be partially blocked. That rusty water may be an indication of a blown head gasket in the making.

O'reilly Auto parts has the two stage thermostat you're looking for. They're MotorCraft dealers. Or, you can order online from them if you don't have a store nearby. Probably be cheaper than any Ford dealer.

I think the only difference you will see is MAYBE, slightly faster warm-up of the engine. I don't think it will affect heater output at all as the heater is in the by-pass loop no matter which thermostat you use.

[milehighbear]

When I bought the car, the guy had just put a new head gasket on and had head milled down just a tad to level it. After he had put new gasket on, he couldn't get it to idle at all and i found the IAC was blocked and took it off and cleaned it out. So I'm hoping the dirty water was still in motor or radiator and he didn't properly flush it all out. I guess i'll know for sure after i flush it all out and put all clean back in. Fingers are crossed.

[Pu241]

Just my $0.02 worth, when faced with unknown coolant maintanence.
If there is no danger of freezing I drain the coolant and refill with clean water (distilled, deionized, or better 18M Ohm) and drive it a day or two (I had an 80 mile round trip to/from work) then drain it and refill with more clean water.
Did this 4-6 times before I tried the radiator flush stuff.
The radiator flush stuff does seem to help if the core isn't completely blocked.
Then I'd clean those chemicals out, again with a refill/drain of clean water, maybe 2-3 times.
Then refill with 50/50 antifreeze/clean water.

Oh, believe you canget the 2 stage thermostat from a Mazda dealer, let me see if I can find the part number.

[milehighbear]

TY, i will do that. I think we are past the freeze part here. It may get cold but i don't think it will last long enough to freeze the water. I do have the mazda part number, it is 8AK1-15-171-9u and the gasket number is B621-15-173. I made sure i did a search for this stuff so monsoon would not yank my chain tight, lol. I will just have to find a mazda dealer around here which im sure there is one.

[hotfordcat]

Thom,
The Mazda dealer here in Rapid City stocks them for me. If you need one I can send you one.

[milehighbear]

Thanks Chuck. I'll check around here and see if I can find one. If not I'll pm you and get your address and send you money for it and shipping. I'm going to do PU241's idea first with the single stage stat in so the water will circulate faster and then when im ready for the coolant, i'll go to the double stage. I want to get all the crap out first before I put the two stage in.

[milehighbear]

Ok, here is whats happening. I took the two hoses off motor that goes to heat core. I hooked my garden hose to it and ran losts of clean water thru it. Boy was it dirty and nasty. So I then took bottom radiator hose off and ran water thru radiator and flushed it all out. Put it all back together and filled, drove car for about fifteen miles and did it all over again. I will do this one more time like PU241 advised. Here is problem. I do have a one stage stat in it like i said in beginning. I can start the car, let it sit there and idle and I get all kinds of heat. So i take car out and drive it and within mile heat turns to cold air. I come back shut car off, let it cool down, start car again, turn heater on and i have lots of heat. But when i go drive heat goes away. Is this because the water is going thru the motor and radiator because the stat is full open and water is cooling too fast. I checked all the hoses after i park back in the driveway and they are all hot. Or is there possibly another problem. I did call a mazda dealer and ordered a two stage stat for miata and it will be here friday and only run me 19.50. I will continue driving it and changing out the water to get everything clean and then put in two stage and anti-freeze.

[bravekozak]

garden hose

I always use a garden hose on the heater core. first one way, then the other, and keep reversing until it flows clear.

I have decided not to hook up my heater hoses. I will be using it for summer driving only. I presume I need to hook from the bottom of the intake manifold to the return tube, and cap off the core.

[milehighbear]

Yea, I did flush out heater core with garden hose til it ran clear. I plan on doing it again, but this time i will do both ways. My main concern is the heat problem of standing still in driveway and running, i have lots of heat, but driving on highway the heat goes away. I just want to make sure that putting a two stage stant in will solve this problem or am i looking at something else. Like PU241 advised me, im going to use clear water, drive it 15, twenty miles, empty it and fill again and do this several times and on last time use a radiator flush and then put in new 2 stage stant and 50/50 fluid.

[FestYboy]

the t-stat is open (stuck), and the reason you have heat at idle/stopped is there's a lack of coolent flow... as soon as you get moving, you have air passing over the rad, AND you have higher revs (above idle).

try this, get it up to temp, then bring the engine up to 1200 rpm, you should see the gauge move, and feel a differance in temp at the duct. if there's no change in temp, then your stat is stuck wide open (but it should take forever for the temp to come up in the first place). i have a one stage stat in Scrappy and i get heat within 2-3 min MAX from a cold start.

[milehighbear]

Ok, figured i'd let all know how everything is now. I did get the thermostat from mazda. Before i put it in, i flushed radiatior out with good water, took two core hoses off and flushed core, both ways and drained motor. I took old thermostat out and cleaned housing and mount real good. I started to put new stat in and i saw that it would go in two ways being oval like it was so i then pulled book out and looked at illustrations and read the book. It then show me that there is a small arrow on the stat that should be pointing up when its in. Found the arrow on stat, superglued stat into the motor and let it sit for awhile. After that, i put permatex and gasket on housing, got both bolts started in good and then tightened everything down. Put all hoses back on, filled it and overflow bottle with new antifreeze and started it up. When the needle on guage started going up, i checked for leaks, refilled overflow bottle and turned fan on. I had heat coming out. So i took it for a ride for about fifteen miles and heat stayed on all the time and even started me sweating it started getting so warm in car. Brought it home, checked for leaks, refilled overflow bottle, turned it off and all was good. Had heat during the entire ride now, no leaks and needle only goes half way between the c and the temp insingia on guage. Went out after it all cool down and took cap off and radiatior full now and overflow bottle 3/4 full so now i'm satisfied. The biggest thing i learned was to read the book and make sure all was put together right. Ty guys for your input and your suggestions. Now I have both festiva's up and running again. By the way, mazda miati stat only run me 19.50.

[g3ride69]

chuck, im in box elder, have you seen my silver festy with the aurora wing and crappy hotrod flames running around rapid?

gride
randall

(sorry, new to forum, was trying to reply directly to chucks thread)