kennycoulter

what the heck keeps happening? i have put in about 4 thermostats in my car, one being bad from the beginning, and this one being in for only a little over a year.
first one bought from auto zone.
second one (bad from start) bought from napa.
third bought from napa.
this one bought from advance or auto zone.
this is a crappy thing to try to change...recently my car started getting a little warmer, then warmer, then finally today got really hot. got home and checked my hoses....lower hose completely heat free except at the water pump outlet.
if beck arnley brand is available, has anyone had good luck with them?
why does this keep happening?

Clint's 944

Order one from Paragon products...I've never had a problem with theirs. I think the brand was walther or something like that. I usually stay away from napa, autozone for Porsche parts, it always seem to be off brand stuff.

Mark944na86

I doubt your thermostats are going bad. You are probably not bleeding air out the cooling system completely.

eniac

Three reasons:
1. Autozone
2. Napa
3. Advance Auto

All the thermostats I have installed either came from Pelican or the local import parts store (sgparts.com). Unfortunately I see your in Toronto, OH and the closest s&g is in Toledo so you will probably want to order one from Pelican, Paragon, Vertex, etc.

ausgeflippt951

+1.

kennycoulter

i will TRY to bleed the system again...i have a pretty steep driveway, at first i do it on level ground and have a way to suck coolant into the engine with the bleeder and squeezing the hose.
i let the engine run a while, open up the bleeder, let the air get out, i then park on the driveway and bleed again.
the thing i don't understand, is that the bleeder should be the highest point in the system. if the vehicle is sitting flat, then it is the highest point already.
i still really think it is the thermostat.

JohnKoaWood

Yes, the bleeder screw is the highest point in the system, but there are dog-legs in the system where air gets trapped (heater core and in the head for instance), elevating the nose clears the air out... I have done both my cars, and with the front of the car roughly 12-18 higher than the back I have managed to have excellent results to date... But then having only done this 3 times so far, I am by no means an expert at it... But I also make sure to always use the corect parts, from trusted sources, and the Porsche correct Antifreeze (G-30-91 EF, available from Paragon for about $30 a gallon and I only put in distilled water)...

Mark944na86

Here is the simple method (called the "Heger Burp") I've used many times with success:

Ok, The EASY way to bleed...

1) Make sure that the car is on a level surface.
2) Open the bleed screw
3) pour in the coolant/distilled water mix until it comes out of the bleed screw (yes, it will be well over the "full" mark on the reservoir)
4) close bleed screw, leave the cap off of the reservoir
5) start car
6) turn the heater control to FULL HEAT, turn the fan on to 4.
7) let the car heat up, the coolant in the reservoir will burp and go down as this is happening
8) you may rev the engine to get the engine to heat up faster and to get it to open the thermostat
9) Once the thermostat opens (the reservoir will burp and the coolant level will decrease) add more coolant
10) let the engine continue to run to fully warm up. Keep adding coolant as needed.
11) You can rev it a little to move the coolant/any remaining air out of the system as needed.
12) once the radiator fans have cycled at least twice (on-off, on-off) and the reservoir is not burping air anymore, fill to the full line or above and put the radiator cap back on.
13) you're done.

Use a good (no silicate/no phosphate) antifreeze and distilled water in a 50/50 mix.

I've done this many times and it works well. Be sure to wash down the area with water to make sure no animals lick up any spilled coolant. You WILL spill coolant.

As with any scalding hot liquid, be careful.

(above copied and pasted from an earlier post by Dal Heger -- you might want to do a search and read some of the cooling related threads.)

F18Rep

A simple pan of water on the stove with a thermometer will confirm that your t-stat is defective. Heck, throw all of your old ones in there too - let us know how it goes. Bruce

Mark944na86

Actually, to save the trouble of reefing this one out, I'd suggest just putting the last 4 in the pan of water to prove that they were all fine all along, and therefore the problem lies elsewhere...

Assuming you've still got them of course...

kennycoulter

i had done this to the 1st 2.

just yesterday i went around tightening all of my hose clamps, car ran a little more even than normal, but still slightly higher than the center range.

i still can't imagine that if it WERE an air bubble, that it would have completely prevented my thermostat from opening up, because my lower hose was completely cool the other day when the car was hot.
i appreciate the help. i am goign to try to bleed air out of the system again.

944Ross

If I'm reading this correctly, you haven't cleaned the cooling system in about 3 yrs at least? It sounds like you may need to do that. How old is the TB and water pump?

whalebird

When getting the thermostat, make sure it is the stock/factory opening temperature. Most of the parts houses sell the "cool" thermostat, including Pelican/paragon etc. The supplier you pick should give you the choice of opening temperatures. I can't recall off the top of my head, but it is like an 89dgree stock/83 dgree "cool". Always go for the higher temp. Otherwise it will play with your injection mixture. And when bleeding the system all above post offer good advice. Just once the car begins to warm up, raise the RPMs to about 2200 and keep it there. DO NOT open the system once it is hot. Let it cool down. The hot coolant will vaporise inside the block and create more air pockets, let it cool off before you open the system to add more coolant. It helps a lot to elevate the front of the car.

kennycoulter

no, new radiator and thermostat a little over a year old.
timing belt less that a year old.


i am pretty sure i asked for stock setting, my car is an early 85 california car, i think i read that the thermostat is higher(?)