I have the pleasure of over heating. The coolant lines towards the firewall are not that hot and the lines towards the radiator. So the mechanic I am working with believes it could be a clog or bad heater core or bad water pump. Has anyone had this situation. But it is going to cost an arm and a leg to trouble shoot. I have checked all lines up to the Heater core flange and they are all flowing. So I am thinking of changing out the water pump next?

Does anyone have any thoughts?

I appreciate your input

 

The heater core circuit is not going to cause you over heating problems. I would check to see if your thermostat is opening up at all. Leave the radiator cap off and run the car until it gets to normal operating temp. Once its there you should see the coolant start to move in the radiator. If you do not its possible that the thermostat is not opening up. This would be the easy solution that I would check first. To check another way would be to take out the thermostat and boil it in water, you should be able to see if it opens up. If it does then your problem lies elsewhere possibly with a bad water pump that has all its fins missing.

 

sorry I should have mentioned that I removed the thermostat completely. Do water pumps typically lose fins when they fail or just stop spinning?

 

Did it start to overheat before or after you took out the thermostat? If youve taken it out then you should see water flowing in the radiator the moment you start the car. If not changes are the water pump is bad. If the water pump fails and is seized then your timing belt would have been chewed up already. The fins generally disintegrate over time from rust and corrosion. Especially if it has been straight water for coolant and the pump hasnt been replaced in a long time.

 

I am going to change the water pump with an OEM of course. I believe the one that is in there now is not OEM. I will let you know the verdict in about a week. Thank you for your help thus far