I have just changed expansion tank and thermostat. Takes forever to come up to temp at idle, heater is ice cold and what looks like and over abundance of water dripping from under truck about mid truck. Will not make it around the block without over heating. Any ideas? Heater core clogged? Air in line? Any assistance is appreciated.

 

Get a pressure tester and get under the hood and truck looking for the leak, bad hose or bad piece of plastic, also sounds like you have a air pocket, maybe need a thermostat

If under truck could be heater core and running out the hvac drains

Is the radiator fan coming on?

 

My guess is that the system just isn't bled properly. It takes a looooong time to bleed these things, with many warm up/start stop cycles. I think it took me just over an hour to do it last time I changed some heater hoses about a month back.

 

When we overheated and lost a lot of coolant I readded coolant engine running till bottle was at correct level and it seemed to self burp I needed to add a little next day but fine since, but I am sure my stat was wide open at the time

Don't forget if you remove the engine cover there is a vent drain

I would run the engine with rad cap off and get her to temp, top off till full, but if you have a leak need to find it

 

Yes that was exactly it. It took 4 cycles, holy crap, roughly 2 days to get it properly bled the "old fashioned" way. Takes forever for these trucks to cool down. I finally got it done though!! Hell it felt like a MAJOR accomplishment. I have felt less accomplished changing transmission, clutch and differentials. GEEZ

 

Yup, it can be a real pain. I really dread doing anything with the cooling system because I know how long it will take to bleed. Basically, I just try to bleed with the bleed screw open on the reservoir tank and the cap open until the thermostat open. When I know the thermostat has opened, I let it go for a minute or two, then put the cap back on and shut the car off. It usually sucks down a bunch of fluid as it cools. I fill it up and repeat. I usually end up with a bunch of coolant all over my driveway from the reservoir overflowing once it warm again, but I repeat the cycle until I get heat from all of the vents.

Glad it worked out for you!

 

the rave way of bleeding air is annoying and takes longer.

I did it a few months back with 3 warm up cycles (open/close tstat), maybe <1hr.

IMO dont bother with the bleed screw on the T fitting, nor the screw on expansion tank. All you need is the expansion tank cap off and an indicator of when the t-stat opens (gap tool for temp reading OR friend with hand on the t-stat downpipe)

So you got it worked out?

 

If you guys have an air compressor, get a vacuum coolant filler. Pulling a vacuum on the coolant system. This vacuum is then used to fill the system thru suction. Works very well. I don't even try to fill the old fashion way anymore.

UVIEW 550500 AirLift II Economy Cooling System Refiller

$85 on Amazon- but only works with an air compressor

 

I did....

 

Amen! I wouldn't look at the cooling system without one.