You can turn on your ac to try and get the electric fan to kick in

 

Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond - I'd be lost without your help. I live in a rural area and I don't have anyone I trust with this vehicle, or that I can afford to pay, so I'm doing my best to manage on my own.

While I was stopped at the gas station earlier today -pulled over when I felt the coolant temp gauge was getting uncomfortably high- I let the motor cool for about 30 minutes or so, then added some coolant and checked the fan. I gave it a light push and it felt like it had peanut butter holding it. Should it feel like that either way it's spun? I'm always confused which way these fans should spin and removing them is even more confusing because they often have parts holding them that are reverse-threaded... Anyway, I'll give that a closer look tomorrow morning. I also started the car again and saw that the fan was spinning just fine - is this still an area of concern? I'll check again tomorrow to make sure it feels heavy like it's got peanut butter slowing it down.

I'm wondering if I should be parked on level ground, or if it's better if I pitch the front end of the vehicle up by parking on a slight incline - I can manage that, if necessary, in my driveway.

I'll open the bleed screw and check the coolant level there, adding as much as I can. I might not have enough coolant at home, though.

So, even when the vehicle is cold, I should hear a hiss when removing the radiator cap? Not the expansion tank cap, though right?

I looked around and couldn't find anything leaking, but I could have missed it - I'll look more closely tomorrow.

Is a 180 degree thermostat a "warm weather" thermostat? I'm wondering how I'd be sure the thermostat is an issue (I've replaced it along with the radiator and most of the hoses a few years ago). Is there a type of thermostat (regular or warm weather) that's best for my weather? It's typically around 40-45 F in the mornings here and it warms up to about 60 F in the winter. Summer will be about 65 in the morning and 75 throughout the day.

Do you have an OBD bluetooth unit you'd recommend, in particular? Any cheap one will do? It looks like this Bafx unit is popular - hopefully it keeps a good connection to the phone. I have an OBD scanner, but it's a larger cabled type that I'll use in the meantime to monitor the temperature. I understand the temperature gauge in the vehicle isn't very useful.

I'm wondering about flushing the system the best way - hopefully minimal mess all over the place. It seems that disconnecting the hoses at the thermostat would make a big mess. Is there a better way of doing this? After that, can I use hose water to clean out the system, then replace it with coolant? I'm leaning toward using Prestone Dexcool since that's what seems to be recommended, unless it'd be better to use something else for a vehicle with 145K miles and in this type of climate. Does anyone know the capacity of the system? It looked like it was 13 quarts, roughly. I think I should try to get everything normalized as much as I can, then flush and replace coolant. Since a thermostat isn't too expensive, does it make sense to replace it while doing this?

Thanks again.

 

What do you think is the radiator cap and what do you think is the expansion tank cap?

 

The fan should feel the same when you're spinning it by hand in both directions. Obviously it will only spin in one direction when the engine is on, but you're not going to be spinning it fast enough by hand to activate the centrifugal mechanism that deactivates the clutch.

The 180 degree thermostat is a "warm weather" thermostat in the sense that it opens at a lower temperature, which is important in warm temperatures because it's a remote thermostat on the cold side of the radiator and part of the water feeding the chamber that opens the thermostat is cooled. However, it also provides a lower operating temperature in all conditions which is useful for providing an additional safety margin. This doesn't really sound like a thermostat problem, but it's a useful upgrade.

For the OBDII reader, get an Ultragauge. Don't go cheap on this; it's a $90 part that can save you $3000 when you don't blow up your engine.

When flushing the system, I try not to use hose water because of the minerals in it. Drain the coolant, refill with distilled water, run the engine up to operating temp, and repeat 2 or 3 times. Unless you drain the block the last time, make sure you don't just add 50/50 coolant or you're going to end up with a very low coolant concentration. I have a refractometer that I use to make sure the mix is correct. Refill with either green coolant or some sort of European coolant; I use Zerex G-05, but that's a matter of personal preference.

 

The fan is a standard right hand thread.
If you need to remove it, put an adjustable wrench on it, and smack the wrench with a hammer, it'll break loose and spin off.
The fan spins clockwise with the engine, so it stays on when running.
A Hayden fan clutch and Doorman fan together are about $60

 

Dexcool was the factory choice, that is the only reason it is referenced a lot. The well documented problem with it is that it can turn to sludge and leave deposits in your system if it comes in contact with air/oxygen.

If you have any potential coolant leaks, don't use Dexcool. You are fine using budget green. Especially when you may be working on the system repeatedly.

 

The green stuff goes 100k nowadays. The old green coolant of the 70/80’s is long gone.

 

Best, what's your coolant change interval? Longer than two years?

 

3 to 5 normally. Prestone Green Coolant (what I use is 5 Year or 150,000).

Which is why I laugh at Dexcool as it’s 5 Year/150,000 coolant as well so zero advantage to that stuff IMHO.

 

Thanks again everyone

This is where I am so far:

I filled the system from the bleed screw hole - it took about 1.5 to 2 quarts. Maybe that was the issue.

I checked out the fan - I spun it a bit in each direction and it felt heavy with the peanut buttery resistance. I’ll wiggle it a bit to see if that’s an issue - is this fan operated by heat or is there something else than turns it on? I saw it running, as well, when I turned the engine off and waited half an hour, then turned the engine on again.

I drove a bit and it didn’t misbehave at all.

It still takes about 3-5 minutes for the coolant gauge on the car to get to the middle position.

I noticed a good amount of moisture around the valve covers...

I’ll use my ODB Autel Autolink device to see what the live data tells me. I’ll order a Bluetooth device and get that going since my OBD scanner won’t be able to set alarms and I think the Bluetooth devices are pretty convenient - much more so than a cabled scanner than I don’t need most of the time, unless I’m checking engine messages.

I’m hoping this isn’t a failing head gasket.