Ok, I have a problem with my Y7 swapped CRX, the car heats up really fast to operating temp, and if I sit for longer than 5 minutes the car will start to overheat. while moving the temp will stay at the normal operating temperature.
upper hose is hot.
coolant is draining to overflow, it is clean though no oil
lower hose is cool
heat works perfectly still
my first guess would be stuck closed thermostat or bad fan, but any suggestions?
fan does not kick on when switch is jumped.

 

Sounds like you have two issues. Bad fan (could be relay or motor) and possibly your t-stat is stuck closed.

Since it is a swap, double check to see that the clip/harness for the fan is plugged in.

 

How long did you wait when you touched the lower rad hose?

 

^^^what he said. check the fan first. i did a water pump job on my subie and forgot to plug the fans in. if they work it most likely the tstat

 

yeah it's plugged in, I did the swap and moved the plug to the thermostat for the fan, I'm thinking the relay is bad at this point, but I'll check in the morning by straight wiring the fan to the battery to see if it kicks on.

as soon as I had the engine off, I popped the hood and touched the hoses

 

I'm assuming you drove around for a while. If that is the case, then yes, you have a faulty t-stat.

 

Yeah I had to operating temp
Sorry I didn't specify.

 

You could also have an air bubble in your coolant. One way to fix this might be to place the front of the car up on stands (you don't have to do this, but it helps to keep the radiator fill area higher than the rest of the car). Unscrew the radiator cap and fill the radiator all the way. Turn the heat on full bast inside your car. Start the car with the radiator cap open. See if the fluid begins to burp and fill as required. You can also rev the engine a little so that the water pump agitates the coolant and helps work out the air out of the fluid. Then put the cap back on and go. This is a common issue when installing engines.

 

Ok, I will try this as well, If It starts to overheat while trying to burp the coolant, I'll just go ahead and replace the t-stat since I already have it.

also fan relay was dead, jumped fan to battery and kicked on immediately

 

Nice! Sounds like a plan. You should change that fan relay first though before you do anything.

 

confirmed old t-stat was stuck closed, replaced it, and got the air bubbles out of the coolant system, no more overheating, and my cold idle is actually normal again.

I tried replacing the fan relay with the compressor relay(which is the same thing) jumped the switch and still nothing... looks like I'm tracing wires again.

 

SWEET. The Fan Relay might not be bad. I know you jumped it to the battery and it tuned, but that doesn't mean the relay is bad. The relay only switched the fan on when the temperature is at a certain level and the radiator needs the additional air circulation to cool the coolant.

 

What exactly do you jump when you test the fan?

 

He jumped the fan directly to the battery thereby, bypassing the relay… then the fan came on.