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gstst4
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Mar 15, 2009, 10:55 AM
Post #1 of 7
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I have a heating problem with my 92 Plymouth grand voyager. It's a 3.3 with 182,000 miles. My rear heating lines blew out. After repairing the lines, I still barely have heat from which this vechile had the best heat from any car I owned. I figured it was the thermostat and replaced it. The heat is a little better but is not a constant heat. If I let the car set and warm up for 5 min with the heater fan going, It blows cold air. Could I have bought a bad thermostat or is the problem something else?
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Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Mar 15, 2009, 2:07 PM
Post #2 of 7
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Re: heating problem
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Did anything wild happen when hose blew out like a serious overheat? Just leaked out antifreeze and you could replace - right?
Short of a disaster this is almost certainly just low on coolant and you need to painstakingly purge it out with rear heater.
At the moment I need to know if engine temp will normally come up to its normal spot and plain stay there? Chances are it doesn't.
Air in the system will not throw heat nor cool the engine properly.
Hit back with more info and we can help with "purging air" out of this cooling system. Anytime one is opened/drained or violated you will have to go thru this. Just a thermostat job doesn't necessarily drain the whole system and just filling it once isn't enough,
T
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gstst4
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Mar 16, 2009, 5:35 AM
Post #3 of 7
(1944 views)
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Re: heating problem
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Thanks for the reply. Cooling level is fine. Temp gauge comes up to normal and stays there. The vehicle did over heat when the line blew out, but stopped right away. Could not tell where the break first occurred so refilled with anti freeze and stop leak. Never made it 2 miles before it over heated again and stopped right away. Was towed the rest of the way home.
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gstst4
User
Mar 16, 2009, 7:17 AM
Post #4 of 7
(1939 views)
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Re: heating problem
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Tom, I read your earlier material on purging the lines. I did that, and it seems to have been the problem. I left the radiator cap off and got the engine really hot. I could see the air bubbles coming to surface. I don't have the heat I originally had, but I'm sure it will work itself out. If not I'll try purging the system again. I guess since the break occurred way back at the rear heater lines,refilling the anti-freeze didn't make it all the way back causing the air. Thanks again for your advice.
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Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Mar 16, 2009, 8:04 AM
Post #5 of 7
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Re:92 Grand Voyager heating problem
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I trust your observations and attention to the never ending problem of purging air out. That is a corker in some vehicles and just won't be rushed.
You noted the overheat which seems to be somewhat controlled when it happened - good for you.
Adding sealer was a mistake unfortunately - especially with a rear heater. The heater cores are very susceptible to being the catch all for debris and just might have clogged up. A stable temp gauge reading is a good sign the engine itself is happy so far so good with that.
Now I ask how much antifreeze did you use in what concentration? If you believe what's in there is mixed up well enough now get a freeze protection reading. Exceeding the 50/50 mark can seriously impair heat transfer but you should still get noticeable heat and more so with fan on but lowest setting. If the core(s) are unable to transfer heat the higher settings would seem markedly cooler.
How much of what kind of sealer did you use? Most work on literally a saw dust approach of dry wood that will seek holes, jam in part way and all of the product will swell up with the moist coolant. Most will flush out though quite readily with common flushing techniques and that's suggested now - whole system.
Do feel along the heater hoses for temp and note if there's any place then just suddenly get cooler. Most clear heater cores will still return what you would call warmish coolant even after they've delivered their heat. If cold return the core is spending it all right at the core,
T
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gstst4
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Mar 16, 2009, 2:09 PM
Post #6 of 7
(1931 views)
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Re: Re:92 Grand Voyager heating problem
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I basicly lost everything I put in when I first over heated and probably even the sealer. When I repaired the back heater lines under the driver side door there wasn't any anti-freeze coming out so I don't think there wasn't really anything left in the system. I only use 50/50 blend when refilling at any time even when I replaced the thermostat. It's a lot warmer out these days so maybe that why it seems the heater is throwing out more heat. I try to purge the system one more time.
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Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Mar 16, 2009, 3:22 PM
Post #7 of 7
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Re: Re:92 Grand Voyager heating problem
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Usually by the time the temp stays put the air is out. With a rear heater though there's just that many more places for air to hide out on you. If the water pumps was fast and furious the air would self purge uphill/downhill to where it would self burp out at thermostat to rad on to recovery where it won't return as intended.
I haven't had the good fun to deal with a rear heated Voyager/Caravan body so really don't know first hand of particular tricks if this is the issue at all. You did say it improved some with changing out thermostat so I figured just luck that refill worked a tad better.
One of the last ditch tricks is to jack the dang vehicle up such that the thermostat,upper hose and top of radiator is the highest you can reasonably make it. Then allow warm up - shut off engine. {{Heat from block will rise by convection to open thermostat right after a shut down - 1-2 minutes}} Then when restarted and a raised idle speed the rush is on while the t-stat is open. It can take several of those to get there!
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Good news on using 50/50. Some folks think the more the better on things and that's not the case with EG antifreeze. It's a terrible coolant - Sorry Prestone and others! We need it for corrosion protection, lubricating qualities and disallow freezing otherwise saltwater would work better! For extreme heat or super hard working engines the suggestion is to lower the mix to less than 50/50 but the containers (companies that sell product) don't say that as they want to sell product.
Ok: The next thing to do is feel along lines and note any devices for this dual heat system that split the coolant such that both front and rear get theirs. That device might be a problem now. For the moment I hope you can see what they use for a splitter and any devices that might be subject to failure and we can dig into that if needed.
Good luck and keep trying,
T
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