i recently replaced my head gasket, timing profile gasket and upper timing case gasket.
thought i fucked something up at first start up, diesel sounding engine, mad ticking noise.. then it went away. realized those were the lifters. (read it on a write up in r3v.. "zen and art of e30 maintenance" where the guy experienced the same exact thing)
but yeah when i went out to test drive the car, i was like 5 minutes away from my destination when i noticed my temp gauge up at 3/4's. went i finally arrived, i saw the lower rad hose on the passenger side fizzing out with coolant, realized i was a dumbass and forgot to tighten the clamp. tightened it. let the engine cool down and refilled and 'bled' the system. since where i was at the place was, the parking was uphill anyway so i thought cool this should be easy. put fluid in up the kalt/ cold line. maybe 1" +/- above. heater on full blast. warmed the car up to halfway. opened bleeder down below. no bubbles in coolant. turned car off. checked level. repeat. car was good! till i got to the gas station. 3/4's again. spent around 2 hours bleeding via different methods. one of them was relieving pressure via bleeder beside rad cap. revvin the engine until air/ coolant is not exiting.. hold the rev and close the valve and rad cap. idek if that did anything because after trying several methods, i thought it had been dealt with coz it was idling at half already. but as soon as i fuckin left the gas station, maybe 5 minutes (or less.) i got to 3/4's again and a couple seconds after, bam, redline!!! popped the hood and there was steam coming out of the thermostat housing like a train. waited there for an hour. couldnt get the car towed so i ended up doing a stop and go travel. hitt halfway, shut off car. mostly though i was rolling with the engine off. being that the trip was 70% downhill. primitive, i know.
the morning after i checked again. idled the car till engine temp, crept a little bit over the halfway, right before i turned it off i notice that heater on full heat at fan level 4 wasn't blowing as hot. it was even hotter outside. (112 vegas weather) i tried the bleeding the car while elevated up front. released fluid from bleeder below rad til no bubbles came out. i didn't even notice any to be honest. then halfway mark, still not as much heat from heater. the engine temp eventually went up to 3/4. shut te car off right away. same hissing noise from thermostat housing but no visible steam.
does this sound like a stuck thermostat..?
all three hoses from the rad are hot.
no coolant leaks except i did i notice that my right shoe was a bit wet.
looked at the heater pipes under the dash and there was a drip coming from it. the heater core was bypassed by the PO. i put a new one in though and plugged it up when finishing the HG replacement. and before i installed the new core i ran water through it via garden hose and it 'wasn't clogged' from what it looked like.
ideas..?