B3000 thermostat

[79Camaro]

I have for the last few days been having a heating/cooling problem in my truck(I think). The temp gauge doesn't appear to work, because the needle always stays on the "C" except yesterday when I was idling for only a few moments it moved up to a little past the line after the "C" and I thought I smelled that smell(you know which I speak of) so I drove a couple blocks home and opened the hood, the only thing I saw was coolant lightly bubbling from the hose that goes from the radiator neck to the reserve tank, but where the hose connects to the reserve tank itself, seems to be an old o-ring. Other then that there was no smoke anywhere nor any driving problems and the coolant was filled. When the weather is cold the heat comes out warm at best, so I thought either the thermostat was bad, or removed by previous owner. I got a new thermostat and coolant(old stuff looks a little murky) so I am doing a flush. Here is my problem, when I removed the t-stat housing I found the old t-stat in many pieces. I fished most of the parts out with my fingers but Im still missing a few parts. What should I do? Im afraid that the parts will destroy the water pump impeller. And how would the truck be overheating if the coolant is always free to go though the radiator, is it really heating up or is the gauge just wrong?

heres a pic of the old and new t-stat. the parts circled in red on the new one are that missing ones on the old one.

sorry for rambling

Dylan

 

[79Camaro]

well, since last posting I flushed the entire system but the pieces never came out. I put it all back together, put in a new t-stat as well as radiator cap and refilled it with coolant. I put the front up on ramps and removed the rad cap with the heater on high to wait for the t-stat to open and purge the air but instead the temp gauge rose all the way to hot then coolant started shooting out of the filler neck and the upper hose was stil cold so I turned off the truck. I didnt know if I should trust the gauge so I refilled it with coolant replaed the cap and turned it back on. Again the temp rose up, but this time I kept it on and after a few momunts the t stat finally opened and the needle came down to less then halfway. the t-stat I put in was rated for 195 degrees. Why did the coolant come shooting out when I tried to bleed it? I dont want to waste more. Now the heat comes out hot, then gets warm then hot the more I rev, With tells me there is air in it. So how do I tell if its really getting that hot or if its just wrong?

 

[wolfy1]

t-stat

your temp sending unit may be bad ,on my 98 b3000 it is located near the t-stat. or your t-stat is stuck open. wolfy1