the radiator came with the truck. I blew in the in hole and it came out the out hole with no resistance its in a lot better looking shape than the one I pulled out. if its used it doesn't have many miles on it. the one I pulled out had some rust water come out and make a mess when I was changing over the oil coolers. its def gotta be the thermostat but ill know more when I find the threeway connector to swap with it. maybe tom, it rained a lot today.

 

3way connector to swap with what,? Thermostat?!
You can't do that, If that's what you mean, because more than half of coolant will bypass the radiator, and just go straight back to engine,
There is a plate in upper part of stat that restricts flow of coolant & forces it to go toward radiator, that's why I said cap off the hose that goes from Plastic T-bleeder to stat, & just connect lower radiator hose to engine inlet,

 

It was the thermostat the whole time. replaced it with a plug and pvc and its running cool, so cool that its running lean but that's ok til the new thermostat gets here. Also abought a new reservoir tank with cap and the little overflow hose to it from the top of the radiator. The new thermostat is another cheap one but low temp, and the seller of the bad one said they'll refund my money when they receive the faulty part. Thanks guys for the help, you turned me on to the right idea. Lower hose cool...bad thermostat.

 

Well technically the lower radiator hose is always going to be cooler vs the upper radiator hoses as heat rises so the warmer hoses = will always be at the top of the system.

I also can't recommend any of the motorad thermostats or cheapies. If you're sticking with the OEM setup nothing can beat the OEM Grey 180F unit from LR. $80.00 thermostat = a lot cheaper than an engine.

 

X2 on OEM thermostats. The LR grey thermostat is the best for the stock setup. The ones on Amazon and eBay are all bad.

However, I believe that the inline thermostat setup is the way to go (and probably some others on the forum do as well). This way you can bleed the system much easier and you won't have any random temperature spikes. And thermostats for it will only cost about $5.

 

how do I make the conversion?

 

There are a few write-ups on this forum on how to do it. But in a nutshell, here's how it goes:

The objective of the inline stat is to delete the hot coolant loop of the engine. This essentially makes it like a normal car.

1. Connect the bottom hose to the bottom of the radiator. Most people use the hose from a old BMW 330i. It fits quite well.

2. Buy a thermostat housing and a new GM style stat to go in the housing.

3. That assembly goes in the top hose as close to the engine as possible. You can use the existing too hoses to make the new one. This will go straight from the top of the motor to the radiator. You will also need to buy a temp sensor adaptor to use as the new bleeder.