Boil the water, use a kitchen temperature gauge and then toss the thermostat in there when its at 200* for a few minutes, then get it out of the pot with some tongs, slowly pour some hot water from the pot over the sink, and see if the water flows through. If it does, she's good to go.

 

couple things....


air pocket, remove the bleeder screw on the black T and get all that air out.
fan clutch, check it, see if its working
you can see the flow in the reservoir when you take the cap off.
and if you really want to treat yourself, change out the dexcool.

 

that is the Moto-Rad 180 thermostat you ordered

 

My electric fan was constantly coming on, even after 10 min idle in the driveway. I read here your fans kick on a 210* or something, so I flushed out the Dex-cool and replaced with green and DI water, and replaced thermostat with the Motorad 180 because EVERYONE on this forum was raving about it!! My electric fan is hardly ever heard from now...So it's working for me...

 

"replaced thermostat with the Motorad 180 because EVERYONE on this forum was raving about it!!"

actually the Motorad 180 is the t-stat the everyone was raving AGAINST, i guess you didnt read close enough; but if it works for you great

 

I think initially everyone talked about getting the motorad, I did based on comments here.... and then the comments went the other way....


I think one would want the motorad over stock? its not the best choice but better?

 

Another point of reference: I recently replaced my water pump and put in a Motorad 180 termostat. It did nothing to lower my temperatures. Idle was around 206 on a hot day in Houston. The second time that I replaced the water pump (the first one started leaking from the weep hole after one week), I put in the Genuine Land Rover 180 thermostat -- the temperature is 194 at idle.

 

to fuel the flames: i put a motorad on mine and temps went to the low/mid 180's. freaked out from reading comments, on here, so I bought a genuine 180. it stuck closed in less than a week. caught it before my temps went too high, but it was stuck. bought another genuine 180 and all was good...(except my anxiety) so I dumped the whole friggin' bypass set up and put in a fail safe sbc, so as not to worry. all of them can fail.

 

You could probably get top dollar for your good Motorad 180 stat Dusty!

 

If your at idle and no A/C on then the fan should kick on when your temp gets to 212.