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Hi Wayne,
I'll apologize ahead of time for the length, but I want to be accurate ! I have a 93 Grand Am, 3.3l V6. Heater was barely blowing warm, and it has a 1 year old radiator, 3 year old heater core, new 195 degree thermo, and new blower motor. After much tinkering, found the heater core hoses barely warm. Flushed the radiator, block, and heater core, and voila, the heater worked again. After a day or two, it started losing heat output again. Was still much better, but starting to regress. Felt the radiator, and found the lower radiator hose very cool, and the bottom half or so of the radiator itself very cool. I needed to add more coolant, as I diluted a little too much with water, so I opened the radiator petcock, drained a half gallon, and topped off, and found that the lower radiator hose got hot again. Then a day or so later, same thing, it cooled off. Opened the petcock, to relieve pressure, when it was warm, and the lower hose got hot again. This process keeps repeating. When I get the lower rad hose hot, the heater warms great, then it goes cold again, and I lose some heat. Any thoughts?
1 thing of note, when I flushed, I did notice a small amount of liquid loss from under the alternator, but have not seen any loss since. It is possible there is a small pin-leak, that is causing a loss inpressure in the cooling system, and allowing an air lock in there somewhere?
tia - Mark
Answer -
Hi Mark, did you take the thermostat out when you flushed the radiator? Do you have to put coolant in when relieve the perssure?
Hello again Wayne !
I did not remove the thermostat, I basically flushed from the upper rad hose and out the lower, just to flush the radiator - then later I took off a hose to the heater core, and flushed water INTO the h core, with the cap off the coolant tank (resvr) - then also with the resvr closed, and the upper rad hose off. That definately helped, and I have a lot more heat, but I know there is still trouble somewhere. Today again, after the engine was fully warmed, the lower end of the radiator was cold, and a 2 second opening of the drain petcock got it hot again, and got me a lot more heat. I also had to add a quart or so of coolant, so I know I am losing it somewhere. Oil so far shows no signs of coolant, and I see no visible leaks, ggrrrrrrrr, lol. Thanks again, Mark
AnswerOk Mark, if you can remove the radiator cap. if it is low in coolant refill it at the radiator, not at the reservoir leve the cap off start the engine let it warm up until the thermostat opens, the water should drop in the radiator. refill the radiator, do this until the water stops droping, and there is no bubbles, put the cap back on and fill the reservoir. doing this will take the air out.
