okay i got a 1990 TA with an 88 350 tpi in it. i have purchased a new rad a new water pump and i have no thermostat. the rad is a Howe all aluminum rad with one inlet and one outlet. i have put 2 different water pumps on the car i have serpentine so i got the reverse flow one. when i start up my car the temp gauge goes from 100 to about 180 in like 1 minute of the car running. when i drive the car maybe 2-3 miles its red lining on the temp gague. i have ran a few tests on the car to see whats going on but to no effect has anything worked. i tried unhooking the top rad hose from the water neck and started the car and it just blows out steam, however if i blow into that hose into the engine, i get rad fluid coming out of the rad from the top. my bottom hose has a spring in it all the way due to it being a flex hose cause a stock one doesn't fit my rad. i have a new 16# cap on the rad. what also confuses me is when i pinch the top rad hose i feel nothing trying to go through but when it gets hot i cant even touch it let alone pinch it. i also did a stupid thing which was open the cap when it was hot and it pushes out so much fluid and steam it was EVERYWHERE lol. also nothing goes in to the overflow bottle. I thought when it gets hot it goes in there but it has been dry and cold. right now my car is parked at some bank down the street from my house cause i don't wanna risk blowing up the motor...... and me. does anyone have any idea what it could be. someone told me it could be the head gasket but i just don't wanna believe that cause the motor might have like 30 miles on it and EVERYTHING is new and freshly built. also one last thing i started up the car with the cap off when it was cool to see if water is flowing through the rad and it looks to me like nothing is moving and the bottom where the fluid is stays still and doesn't move at all. i was thinking that i had the wrong water pump but when i take off the top hose it appears to be blowing out smoke and not just letting it flow out it looks to be getting pushed out. I'm going to attempt to bring it home today just to get it back to where i can work in it but I'm really confused with all of this. also the smoke is clear and smells like rad fluid not exhaust. I'm sure I'm forgetting something but i cant think of it now please some one help me!!!!

 

you do need a thermostat , without one the water circulates too fast to cool . unless you have a different than stock belt routing why do you need a reverse flow water pump ? also are fans hooked up and working ? good luck .

 

well my belt routing is a little different i did the free mod to eliminate the AIR pump cause i dont have emissions testing where i live so i got rid of all of that. also on another note i dont have any heater at all hooked up and where the water came out of the manifold thats gone too i blocked that off. the fans are on a switch that i can control but im having a problem with that too. when i hit that switch the car basically dies off adn the fan dosnt come on anyway. that im lost with too its wired to a relay and a switch in the car. it used to work when i very first did it but now the car goes to die, this also happens when i turn on the headlights. im guessing its a wireing problem but i dont know how to fix that at all im not good with wires

 

Please any and all help is appreciated!! I doubt the thermostat is causing any problems. Im thinking we need to get the other water pump, but does someone have a flow chart on how the coolant flows through this motor? That would prob tell us whats wrong/needs changed.

 

if you did the air pump mod like shown in this forum you dont need a reverse flow pump . you DO need a thermostat . do a search on aux/manual fan switch and you will find the correct way to wire the fans . sounds like you have recieved a lot of bad info . lots of luck on getting your problem fixed .

 

ok. It's probably (almost certainly) got nothing to do with why you are overheating. But, a thermostat's _ONLY_ function is to maintain a given temperature by restricting water flow. Restricting water flow _INCREASES_ the temp of the engine. That's why the thermostat is closed when you cold start your car, and gradually opens as it reaches it's given temp (eg, 160). Free flowing coolant provides the coolest operation of the engine.

Faster coolant flow == most cooling. Period. End of story. You can't skip thermodynamics. Everyone who says it's "moving too fast to cool" is completely misguided into how the cooling system works, or how cooling / heating works in general.


Have you checked if you have adequate oil pressure? Not getting oil to where it needs to be produces excess heat.

Also, I would run a coolant flush through the engine via the coolant flush (do it yourself) kit sold everywhere. Hook the hose up, see if you get a decent amount of flow coming out of the radiator. If the flow is good and it's still overheating then i'm out of ideas.

You do need a thermostat though. Not for the reasons stated by others, but because your car will (when you fix it) run too cold. This means the computer never goes into closed loop mode. Other sensors related to emissions may not function correctly either and that should make testing fun. The thermostat keeps the car at the operating temperature everything is expected to run at, too low or too high is not very desireable.

 

well the oil pressure at the gauge reads almost 80 at idle and over 80 when driving. so im guessing its okay. but i dont understand the steam out of the water neck when the motor is running.

 

As uncle tom said, you don't need a reverse flow waterpump. The coolant isn't circulating because of the waterpump causing the coolant to boil in the motor, causing the steam out of the thermostat housing.Getting the correct pump should fix your problem.

 

but isnt the tpi motors serpentine setup use a reverse flow pump?? also when i start the car the pump turns counter clockwise

 

You took the air pump off and re-routed your belt. Is the pump still turning the same way as before you did this? If not, then you don't need a reverse flow.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/serpentine

thats the mod i did. i dont know the way that it turned before but the car i got the motor had the same brackets for serpentine so it has to be reverse

 

A number of things can be compounded to make this seem worse than it is. You need the same rotation water pump you had (OE or high flow), a t-stat, and an 18 lb cap. Pressure test and flush the system. Check the cooling fan operation, and the timing. And as crazy as this may sound, if you have the stock manifolds and exhaust..... scrap them. Excessive pressure will help build heat.

That should about cover all the basics.

 

I would use a 18 lb t-stat. Do you have the stock exhaust and manifolds? They can cause hot running to... it creates to much back pressure and doesn't allow hot exhaust gasses to escape as freely as they should. It's fine for a stock 305, but you added 80 cubes and much more flow.

 

did it say anything about needing a reverse flow pump ??? NO !!! , take the word of many of us here that have done this mod. years ago . YOU NEED A REGULAR FLOW WATER PUMP NOT A REVERSE FLOW !!! if you insist on reverse flow go ahead , soon eng. will be FUBAR .