Maybe I'm crazy, but my Camaro's cooling system seems weird. The upper hose gets really hard, it seems like the thermostat doesn't work. But I have taken out the stat and tested it. Some little info about the car, I swapped in a caprice TBI 350, put in a new radiator. My 305 had weird intake gaskets in that the rear two coolant passages were blocked, I used the same style gasket on the 350. Is that what is wrong?

 

the upper radiator hose getting hard is a sign that the thermostat is working properly.

but other then that why do u think ur cooling system isn't working.. are u running hot?

 

yeah sounds kinda normal, is there more to the story..

 

I ran the car lastnight for about 15 minutes and the temp never moved. How can I test the sensor? Maybe I'm just going crazy since it's my first engine swap?

 

The inlet manifold needs the spare cooling passages blocked, I can't remember if it is rear or front, but if you leave them out, the engine does not get cooled evenly because the coolant will bypass part of the engine.

It sounds more like the guage has stopped working than the engine overheating.

The hoses are under about 12 psi when the engine is up to temperature and the air is all purged out, so they should feel hard, whether the thermostat is open or not.

Also as coolant is not compresable, even when cold the hoses should be full and when squashed should only give so far. That is one way to test for air in the system.