Greetings all.

I am new to the forum. I recently purchased a 2005 LR# with 190K miles. She is a great looking truck. However, she refuses to run at a normal temperature. I changed the thermostat, the water pump and the radiator. All the hoses look great. We conducted several tests and there is no sign or a blown head gasket. But I can't get 5 minutes on the road before the motor runs hot. In fact, I also loose power and the truck seriously slows down. I can' think of anything I missed. Any suggestions?

 

How well is the engine fan working? Do you have heat out of the HVAC system?

 

These things are hard to bleed

Might have some air trapped in the system still

 

Hello Dakota,

The fan is running very strong. No heat out of the HVAC.

 

Thanks for the reply.
I will be bleeding the entire system today.

 

Unless you have the proper equipment, in my experience these vehicles can be tricky to bleed all of the air out. Lots of places that air can get trapped. Go for a short drive, short enough to safely be able to take the Coolant expansion tank cap off ( i.e. engine must still be quite cold), stop the car, turn off the engine, open the cap, and be ready to add more coolant - hopefully the coolant within the expansion tank will drain into the hoses. Keep cap off, turn engine back on, and add more coolant as necessary. Put cap back on, and go for another short drive. Hopefully you will start to feel some heat coming from the air vents. Don't give up! Others have had good luck by using the actual bleed valves (there are 2 of them, one on top of expansion tank, and one that is part of a plastic T fitting on a half inch diameter hose that sits on top of the engine, below the removable engine cover). My engine did 'start' to get hot until I had enough coolant in the system - in my experience, as soon as I got heat inside the car, there was enough coolant to prevent overheating, although I did still need to add more coolant. P.s. please immediately swap that crappy plastic T with a new brass unit - lots of advice about that mod, here on this excellent forum. Hopefully you do not have a blocked Heater Core - again, search here for good information about that.

 

Agree with Nevill on this. You have air in your system if you are not getting it via the HVAC.