i have a 1982 trans am/ firebird. what ever you want to call it. 5.0 crossfire injection

just got it, over heated since day one. pulled thermostat come to find out that it was "gutted" replaced it with a new one. care over heats real quick now, with in 5 minutes or so id say of just idling.
replaced the radiator, old one was shot.
hooked it all up and BAM, same thing. trying to get the air out, filled up the resvior and started engine with the rad cap off, did so until the coolant came pouring out.
heater hose and bottom rad hose are hot but the upper is not.
any ideas?

 

I'd say that the thermostat is stuck shut. Make sure that you have the correct one and its installed right. Also could be just a bad one right out of the box. You can pull it out and put it in a pan of boiling water on the stove to see if its opening.

 

the top hose gets hot once the thermostat opens and the waterpump is functioning. Since you had no thermostat, and the hose was not hot, then the water is not flowing.

sooooooooo, what circulates the water??????? (you know the answer to that)

take the rad cap off, start the car, look into the radiator and see if there is circulation going on and it should be brisk. I'm not talking sloshing because of engine vibration.

 

put the thermostat in boiling water, it does work, now that i have the thermostat out it does not heat up as fast (of course). i can run my car for about 20-30 mins now before it will over heat. so that problem occurs when i put in the thermostat and it will not open.

could this be from the guy before my putting a reverse pump water pump on it?

 

wire fan to a switch to run all the time, and make sure you have a good air dam for driving cooling.

 

If the guy before you put a reverse water pump on that engine, I would say that would be the problem. That engine should have a standard rotation water pump on it. Make sure you have the correct water pump on it.

 

I would check the waterpump.

 

Definitely the reverse water pump. Go pick up the normal one and you will fix your problem.

 

and, if that doesn't resolve the issue then the OP needs to completely flush the engine several times and refill with 50/50

if the problem still exists then he has internal blockage

 

I agree.

 

Hi all i always have a hard time trying to figure out where to make a new post so im dont mean to **** block,pun not intented.if someone could let me know where t post for my 86 trans am thank you.

 

When you click on to the cooling board look at the red, white, and blue rectangle in the upper left corner that says "new thread", click on it and have at it if cooling is your question. Same deal for any section you need answers on