Heater blow cold after repairs.

[A_G]

1996 f150 5.0 117,??? miles

last January i hit a deer causing me to kill my radiator. I had the the HD 4 core (i believe) before and i had it replaced with a regular 3 core. After that my heater never blew hot again.

fast forward to about July/august in the heat i realized that my thermostat had crapped out. So i replaced it with stock one, cant remember the temp right off hand.

Then in early September my tranny crapped out.

I replaced it and some grill parts. so it sat until late november, waiting on cash flow.

In the mean time i tried fixing my heater, i was told that maybe there might be air bubbles in the system. I did get some out and it blows just hot enough...to defrost the windows thats it.

Back when i first got it, it would blow so hot that if you stuck your hands up to the vent it would actually hurt your hands.

I thought i could "deal with it" but i drove 130 miles with it like that, in 20 degree weather, and i froze my arse off.

Normally id just say screw it and hope for an early start to spring. But when it starts to warm up here I'm heading Wyotech in Laramie and i hear it gets pretty cold there in the single digits and negatives to. So i cant deal with that.

Any ideas? i saw a thread on this sort of topic but i don't think i have the same things has that 01 or i know don't have the same motor or repairs.

Oh yea before the radiator got smashed my little freeze plugs or expansion plugs in the side of the throttle body, one of them started leaking so i cut up a metal pop can and folded it up and shoved it in the hole. But in July i blew that hose apart, that little biddy one. So i just bypassed it all together. Could there be any relation? and since I'm heading it to lower temperatures that could cause my butterfly's to freeze shut, can i just fill the bottom plug with jb weld..?

I'm working on limited funds. It took me 6 months to get about 700 dollars worth of parts, on my DD, i drove my dads truck in the mean time. mind you my tranny only cost 350.00.

question number 2
While testing my new tranny on my 130 mile round trip. My Over drive "off" light came on and flashed off and on for about 30 seconds to a minute. Then went off and never came on again.
Some sources say a trouble code. Some say the little light is going out. I got no trouble codes, and i could care less about the light. The info that i found on this subject said, when the light came on it would go into limp mode and shift hard for some people. I was cruising at 65 mph, i didn't notice a dang thing. even when i got into town and traffic lights.

Any ideas?

any help is appreciated


Question #3
Back in july of 06 i destroyed a rotor on my truck after offroading and i still dont know why, drive side by the way. I replaced the rotor with a new one, but not the other side (cash flow) and now every 6 months that side goes out first, This last time i had to replaced a caliper. i had the other rotor turned the first time, but not the second time.
What im figuring is, since the new rotor was a different width (wider) than the passender side it caused the driver side to be "on" all the time causing the premature wear.

So heres my solution: Replace both rotors at the same time (there warped, now) and pads. maybe a matching caliper for the pass. side.
Sound good?

and i think maybe that proporting valve (there is one right?)

Im going to be gone from everything i know for 9 months, with the only people i know are my Niece and her husband that i havent talked to in 3 years. So i need to get my bugs worked out.

Anthony

ps, The day i destroyed the rotor, i was 60 miles from home, hung over. and it was all hilly on the way home. I got up to 60 pushed the brakes, they went to the floor and the passenger side wheel would lock up if you jammed the pedal down. That was fun...

 

[blacksnapon]

checking basics on your heater, is where to start. Are all heater hoses hot? If not where does the heat stop? Check vacuum to all controls, (water valve, blend doors, etc). Your trans would store a memory code, even if its no longer there. Get a code reader. Your brakes always need to start off on an even keel, (discs, calipers, pads, all equal wear). The brake pressure is distributed between front and rear, so any mechanical difference on the wheel ends will be a problem.

 

[A_G]

my Top rad hose is hot. Im not sure about the bottom one. My heater hoses are warm.

The weird thing is. When at operating tempature...according to the guage. I can put my hand on the valve covers forever and never burn my hand. The same with the intake, whick im pretty sure is cast alu. Which means it transfers heat easily.

My coolant with the cap off just gets luke warm.

I just dont understand it.

 

[mrfixit]

it may be you put the new Tstat in upside down... it should be spring to the block side.
I'd look into flushing your brake fluid; sounds like it may be contaminated with moisture.

 

[A_G]

No im pretty sure that i put the thermostat in correclty. I did haft to do it twice.

I seated the top flange on the housing. With the long part in the motor, and the little nipple part towards the house.

Excuse me for my description of parts...atleast it aint this thingy....that thingy.

I learn what im doing by replacing parts...

I cracked open the haynes, it didnt really help at all.

The only thing i can see is, it seems theres a vacum hose running into the throttle body, but i dont see how that could affect anything. I bypassed the throttle body after the heater didnt work.

So im guessing im down to flushing the system to see if its plugged. But the valve covers and the intake are cold after running for 45 mins. I just dont dare hand test the headers or block. So wtf, do i just have my coolant mixture wrong. How could it be plugged if my block is cold, wouldnt it over heat?

Could my thermostat be bad out of the box? I had a similar issue on another part, bad out of the box.

 

[blacksnapon]

the water control valve is vacuum operated. If theres no vacuum, theres no hot water going to your heater core.

 

[Bob Ayers]

the water control valve is vacuum operated. If theres no vacuum, theres no hot water going to your heater core.

No, the default (NO VACUUM) opens the valve, allowing full flow and heat.

 

[A_G]

thanks for the help guys. I popped the cap to start again on getting the bubbles out..and it was low...way low...and it drained the resevoir. So i filled it...it got a bit warmer. But i gotta get the thing flushed anyways...so ill just let them get the bubbles out.

On to another problem. I had asked about this on another forum (nwu).
My O/D off light started flashing on my 130 mile drive, went off and on for about a min or two then went off. and never did it again.

Until today at 172 miles on the new tranny, so i took it to advance auto to run the codes They said that they think there readers is broken. So i ran to autozone had them run...and theres no power to the reader port.

Any ideas, i ran through half of my fuses until my fuse puller broke andi got pissed off...


Anthony

 

[blacksnapon]

Its usually the cigarette lighter fuse (thats usually what blows it). Just fixing the power loss might repair it. The pcm will store a dtc when there is a loss of voltage.

 

[A_G]

ok i changed a heater bypass hose. But the expansion plug in the throttle body was still leaking. So i smeared some JB weld in it and im going to wait for it to dry a bit longer.

While filling some more antifreeze in it. I was going around a squeezing the lower radiator hose and the upper one at the bends to see if there was an air pocket. Well i found one on the bottom, it look like old faith full when it came out of the neck. so i proceded to fill a 1 1/2 gallon in there before it overheated. It never even acted like it. i poured some of that liquid cool cleaner in there so, if its not a placebo it might clean some gunk out of there. or loosen it up, so when i have it flushed next week it will already be loosened up.

But down to the point, the funny thing is. just before it gets to normal the heater is pretty darn warm, not like it was before the rad got smashed, but pretty close. But as soon as it got to where it should be on the guage. Dead center. the heater cools back down.

I still dont understand why my valve covers are cold when the motor is hot..i dont dare test the headers. But the intake and valve covers are both luke warm. As are the radiator hoses/heater hoses.


i dont know if i missed anything so let me know if you need anymore info.

Anthony

 

[surewhynot]

Not sure if it's in your budget Anthony, but a real temperature gage would go a long way towards helping you figure out exactly what is happening. The factory gage just doesn't give an accurate indication.

 

[A_G]

well at one point in time. I was thinking about building a custom bezel. With all new white face (barrel) type gauges. 7k tach, 100+ mph speedo. new temp guage, new voltage guage. and maybe a new fuel guage. Then if i can fit it in a Trans tempg gauge.

But right now..no...
is there one that i can just hook up while im working on it...im sure i can find someone that has one and borrow it...

 

[surewhynot]

I don't see why you couldn't just hook up a regular one temporarily. I have before. They also make probes that go inside the radiator cap, but I'm not sure how accurate they are.

 

[A_G]

link me...please, if you can

 

[surewhynot]

Gimme a minute to find one.

Here's the type of probe I have.
http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/kd409.html

I just put it down in the radiator with the cap off.

 

[A_G]

if i pick one up...

Where should my temp reside.

And if its too cold. How do i adjust it to warm up.

And to hot, how to get it colder.

Its just a stock 302 efi 96 model

And i still cant figure out why i dont have power to the code reader port.

 

[surewhynot]

I believe it should be between 195 and 210. It should stay right around the temp that the stock thermostat calls for.

If the thermostat is working properly and it is still too cold, a thermostat that isn't the correct temp may have been put in.

I don't know much about the code reader port. I'm ignorant went it comes to electronic engine controls.

 

[A_G]

i suck at wiring period..so i is a NooB

but you know i was told that at one point in time, that fords like to run cold..thats where there performance is.

You know whats funny is, While the trucks running i can stick my finger int he neck, and coolant is luke warm. BUt when it did the gieser thing the first little bit of coolant i poured in steamed a bit.

Its really kinda bugging me, BEcause if the motors not getting warm enough, IM EATING GAS...

 

[surewhynot]

Exactly. The computer is programmed to work at a certain temp range. If it is running cold, the thing may be richening the fuel mixture a bit, kinda like the choke on a carb.

 

[A_G]

yea i figured this much.