I've done a search and just seeing if I can get valid opinions here please.

Alrighty guys so 3 days ago everything was fine on my car.... no issues whatsoever. ( well A/C needs to be recharged still lol) but other then that great. 2 days ago for who knows what reason i drove less them 5 miles to my local mall and was on the phone when I noticed the smell of coolant and seen steam coming from engine bay, looked at my tempt and seen it was almost at the highest point. I turned the car off and popped the hood. There was no coolant line burst/leaking or anything. ??? Made a few calls and people said to check if my heat works. Heat didn't work, so we all assumed it was my Thermostat. ( same day we tried to do a coolant flush but since the thermostat wouldnt open it wouldnt take in coolant.) Yesterday I go to a nissan dealer and buy the thermostat w/ gasket. I re-install thermostat and heat works and car seemed to idle ok for 5 mins. I thought everything was cool. I didn't take it for a test drive until later that night... I drive around adn then notice the car begins to raise in temps as im idling but when i drive the temps go down?? ( keep in mind if I idle and raise the rpm to 3k+ for a few secs the temps will go back down to normal) I'm sitll at this point to this day.

* some notes :

* Prior to this day, probally a month 1/2 or so I replaced my a/c compressor and disconnected some of the coolant lines.
* When I recently replaced the thermostat I also disc some lines. ( fyi the gasket was a pain to get on properly, so could it be possible i installed in improperly when it seated?)
* At no point did I ever " BLEED" the system.
* since I've owned the car I never had the coolant flushed ( 2 years now) However I had the motor built about 9 months ago.
* Each time I've disc a hose I did drip/lose a little coolant and possibly may be low.
* I never installed anything else recently ( radiator, hoses etc..., nothing in cooling was touched.)
*I noticed yesterday one of the bolts on the upper plenum wasn't tight enough and I heard air coming from it. a few other ones weren't as tight as should be either, ( would this have an effect as far as air getting in the cooling system?)
* The fans are running when I'm at idle. I checked that.
* I read that when the car is off if you turn the a/c on one of the fans should come on? that doesnt happen in my case fyi ( not sure if that holds true though)
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I have a JWT TT 750bb Kit. Sleeved block. Block has less then 9k miles on it. Always ran in low boost so far under 11.5 psi. Oil changed every 2500 -2750 miles. Car itself has 63,000 miles.


Any opinions people? I read it may be my radiator cap? Could my stock radiator be bad? Could thier still be air in the system? fyi there has never been a coolant burst or spray in the engine. I've turned the car off when it seemed to overheat. Today I did notice a small leak/spout of coolant right next to the radiator cap though. The first two times it overheated the overflow tank seemed to fill up. Recently I've been doing the "air relief valve" thing and each time i run the car it seems to overheat much less and its kinda fluctuating now. Am I low on coolant?

I read most people take the thermostat out of the housing itself? Is this a bad thing for my car at all? I live in chicago and the winters here can get pretty cold rarely below -0 though. Someone mentioned the block can crack in the cold b/c of this mod? If I take the T-stat out do I need to plug it with anything ro do anything special? also if it matters my coolant looks more clearish/yellowish. A local mechanic said the ( i 4get the words but the things that make coolant work are wearing thin and its more water vs a 50/50 mix) coolant flush fix this and the leak right?

 

Air still in the system from when you put in the new Tstat is my bet.

Buy a spill free funnel if you dont already have one, bleed coolant over and over until its good.

 

+1 on Air in the system.

 

alright guys so I went to a local jiffy lube to do a coolant flush on the car and its not overheating "as high" as it was before but its still higher then it used to be i think. before when i drove the car no matter what i did to it even at the track the temp nevvvvveeerrrrrr budged. it was always a little lower then half. now its at half most of the time and rarely today did it almost hit 3/4..... I don't think the shop got the air out correctly? they used a machine to vacuum the old coolant out and attached that to the hose from the engine that connects to the radiator, and another hose to put new coolant in directly in the radiator. but they obviously had to disconnect the hoses to put them back on the car.....so i think thats how some air got in still? i didnt see them use the air relief valve at all. Also they had the car running and took the radiator cap off and coolant was spitting out and bubbling there. they said they never had that on other cars before....

Also my heater was working on and off on and off parallel with the car temp.... is it possible the new thermostat may be sticking? or installed improperly? I'm considering just taking the thermostat out of the housing and leaving it at that, but want your feedback guys. thanks

 

in your opinion whats the correct method to due this and how?

 

You still have air in the system.The way to get it out is you need to go to the heater hose on the pass side of the motor.You will see a black plastic plug that has a + molded in to it.Then with a friend to help open the rad cap and then unscrew the cap on the heater hose and have the friend bring rpms up to about 2500 or so.
Then when coolant comes out put the plug back in and refill the coolant in the rad and repeat untill the air is out of the system.