I disassembled the entire top end of my D16Z6, replaced all seals and gaskets, ported and polished the head, intake manifold, throttle body, and exhuast manifold. I cleaned off everthing and put it all back together.

When I started my car i got a CEL, pulled the code and it came up as code 7 (tps). I had turned the butterfly 90 degrees the wrong way when i was reinstalling the butterfly disk. I took the car out on a drive around the block and it seemed ok. I did a valve adjustment, then took it out on the highway. I drove about 40 miles and everything was running ok, with the exception of the CEL.

The next day I drove about 3 miles away and looked down to see that my temp was about 7/8 of the way to the red line. Usually the temp does not go past 3/7 of the way to the red line. I immediately pulled over to the side of the road and killed the ignition, popped the hood, and checked my coolant overflow tank. It was dry, so I cracked the radiator cap to see if it were full of water. Only steam spit out. I waited a little while and drove 2 blocks to a gas station where I filled the radiator with water. Its been acting OK since then with one exception. I was on the highway and saw my temp was about 3/5 to the red mark, then it started dropping slowly and went back to where it was supposed to be. Could this be a problem with the thermostat? Is it just my dumbass fault for not properly bleading the coolant system? Or some other problem?

 

Could this be a problem with the thermostat? Is it just my dumbass fault for not properly bleading the coolant system? Or some other problem?

yes, yes, hopefully not

 

Sounds like you've got a lot of air in there that needs to be bled out. You know where it is I'm sure.

For future reference, I wouldn't remove the radiator cap when the car is up to operating temperature.

 

I forgot one really important detail. When the temp was 7/8 to the redline, it was idling around 2300 and it didnt drop down until the temp dropped.

And i didnt remove the radiator cap, it has a cool feature where you can crack it and still controll the amount of pressure at the cap without taking it off.