Yet another coolant bleeding headache

[Tanner123]

I made sure to read every possible thread i could before posting but I am truly at a loss. I had gotten the engine running great and it was ready for a coolant fill. I refilled the coolant very carefully following instructions and tips from several videos and the car would still get hot, but i only took it a mile or so up the street so it wasn’t in the red for very long. I had an oil leak that required me to drain the coolant anyway and start the whole process over. I parked the car on a very steep hill and filled with coolant with the heater at 90 and bleeder screw off. I then put a piece of vinyl hose in the bleed screw hole and ran the car go a little bit so the coolant flowed back into the expansion tank. I noticed there was a few small bubbles exert 15-20 seconds or so that would shoot through the clear tubing. I left the car running for 5 minutes or so like this and the tiny infrequent bubbles were still going but I figured it was nothing. i then let the car cool, filled more coolant until the bleeder valve was weeping and bubble free, put the screw in and sucked out coolant until the bobber read perfectly.
I started the car and let it idle for 20 minutes sitting still and the needle stayed upright the whole time. I then took it about a half mile up the street before the temp needle started taking a little walk over to the red zone. I noticed that the car seemed to accelerate slower than usual even when the temp needle was perfectly upright. It is also worth noting that the radiator didn’t even seem hardly warm after 20 minutes or so idling in park. Any guesses? I really hope it’s not anything to do with combustion gas leaking, as it’s a new head gasket. The floor is open


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[jclausen]

If the upper and lower radiator hoses have very different temps then the thermostat would be faulty

[Tanner123]

I tested all 6 cylinders TDC and BDC up to 100 PSI. I couldn’t figure out a way to get up to 150 so the test might not have been very accurate. I bypassed the compressor shutoff switch on my air compressor but the purge valve kept releasing past 110 so it was a no go. I did a normal compression test with a gauge and cranked it over. All cylinders made 155-160 PSI besides cylinder 1 which was just shy of 170.
I pulled the thermostat to put in boiling water and see if it worked. The thermostat was broken! There were 4 cracks around the wax chamber part it was totally busted so i’m gonna order a new one and try it out before tearing the head off. I’m quite relieved i’m just crossing my fingers that this is the problem.


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[Tanner123]

Well I contacted a guy near me who has a parts e46 and he was super nice and gave me the thermostat for free. I’ll order a new one very soon but I didn’t wanna wait on shipping before i could figure out if it was the problem or not. I hooked up 12v to thermo housing and sure enough it opened up. Once i get home tonight i’ll replace it and see what happens. Cross your fingers for me!


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