Temp issues....pump or thermo?
 

M42 car (95 auto).

Heats up fairly quickly. Then, if going slow in traffic 15-20mph it will creep above the halfway mark to almost the 3/4 mark (if the AC is on).

Turning the heater on full blast will drop it back down to the half-way mark fairly quickly as well.

Upper rad hose is hot, although I can nearly colapse it with my hand....very little pressure.

I've bled the system as well, no air.

Thermo or pump? I'm trying to limp by until I do my swap.

If it is the pump, where is a good place to buy it? There are tons on ebay, just not sure if there are some I should avoid. NAPA might have one?

I'd suspect a t-stat first since you already bled it.

do both.

Sounds like a crusty radiator to me

brand new rad, as stated by the owner and backup up by how it looks + parts receipt.

I pulled the T stat.....damnit..thought I had a gasket for that. Nope, and neither does ANYONE locally. Looks like tomorrow I'll have to make a 30+ min drive to the nearest dealership.

Anyway, since I can't do anything with the car, I thought I'd actually test out the thero and see what it did.

Whatever was in there opened up at 197deg and was fully open by 205ish. The new stat opened about 10 deg sooner, and was open much wider than the T stat that was in the car. Seemed like about 20-30% more across the board, cept when the temp was really hot (both were the same).

Not sure if it will solve the problem or not.

If the dealer has the gasket in stock (they damn well should....maintenance part hello?) I'll button it up tomorrow and see if it does the trick. If I've got to order the gasket I'll just get a new pump and do it all at the same time.

I'll report back tomorrow hopefully with news of it being fixed :) I did get a bag of goodies today from tichser.. new antenna, gaskets, other gaskets and some misc interior bits that were broken.

Total in the car so far including shipping....$1650

Decided to red-neck my way to a new thermo housing gasket courtesy of some silicone mat gasket material.

Spent about 20 mins tracing out the pattern and cutting it. Looked pretty darn good if I do say so.

Anyway, buttoned it back up....overheats even quicker now LOL. At least before running the heat on full blast would bring the temp down....now it will only keep it from going higher.

I'll review the bleed procedure, but I think I'm doing it correctly.

Noted that there is very little resistance on the rad hoses even when the car is hot. Lower rad hose is cool to the touch, upper is warm/hot. I'm not sure how the cooling system operates (if it's different), but pulling the reservoir fill cap off when the car was between 1/2 and 3/4 on the temp gauge....didn't produce any kind of steam, hissing, pressure release etc.

I'm now thinking that perhaps the water pump is original....and that it's missing most of it's impeller :D

I'm at a loss at this point.

Thermo is new
Rad is new (PO has reciept, rad has a sticker on the top tank w/date)

There is plenty of pressure in the upper hose now. Lower hose is cold. Car will still overheat if sitting still w/ac on. Turn the heat on full blast won't reduce the temp, just keep it from rising anymore.

I guess I'll have to replace the pump tomorrow afternoon. I hope I find some signs of impeller failure, otherwise I'm not sure what else to do.

Does your fan work?