Coolant not flowing through my heater hoses

[Tibbits]

my heater hoses are both cold there doesnt apperar to be coolant flowing through one and back out the other, I also unhooked them from the firewall and hooked them up to each other and only about a foot of one of them is hot, the rest to the hose is ice cold
what could be causing this?

[DodgeRamSS]

What kind of engine and vehicle is this in? Did you check if there is flow in your rad? if not your water pump may not be creating any flow. there could also be a restriction in your intake. Was coolant nice and green or very brown and rusty looking?

Chris

[Tibbits]

361 in a 66 Satellite, the coolant looks ok, it might have some kinda circulation problem because I had it idling for a really long time and the bottom radiator hose never got warm,, but the temp gauge didnt get hot either. It Has the stock gauge and sending unit. It is cold here right now in the lower 30's but that still shouldnt make much of a difference. I took a piece of cardboard and covered the front of the raidator up and had it running for quite a while, the lower hose did get hot. The temp gauge still only climbed a little more than it did without the cardboard, this thing is just acting strange.

[DodgeRamSS]

When the bottom rad hose finally warmed up were the heater hoses warm as well? By your discription my best guess is still a restriction or no flow. I'm guessing the 30's is freezing, is there a thermostat in the engine? might be stuck and not letting the engine warm up.

[Tibbits]

I think the heater hoses were still not very warm, yeah I pulled the upper radiator hose off and there was a thermostat, I guess all I can do for now is to get a new thermostat, and a water pump and look for any restrictions after i pull the water pump off, and go from there.

[dwc43]

The only way the pump could not be pumping water is if the blades came off the shaft of the pump. I doubt that happened. Look for a restriction in the intake, hoses, or heater core. At 30* it will take longer for it to heat up and if there's too much flow (caused by pulley ratio) it wont heat up much at all. Also if the coolant is old it may be freezing up and blocking the flow as well.

[cageman]

A stuck thermostat shouldnt have anything to do with the heater hoses, as the pump pushes water thru the intkae into the heater hose, and the suction side is the water pump, so it really just recirculates the water. Maybe the nipple that the hose hooks to on the intake is rusted solid or something is blocking it. I cant think of anything else, unless the hose is blocked somewhere. Weird.

[Tibbits]

yep, but the water doesnt flow through the intake on this motor it is a 361, same as a 383.

[BJSracing]

If the thermostat is stuck open it will take forever for the motor to warm up in those kinds of temps. It never has much of a chance to heat up as it is always circulating. Then what little it did warm up is cooling off when going throught the radiator. I would lean towards a t-stat at this point in time.

[Dick]

Might not be enough coolant in the system. Did you "burp" it?

[BJSracing]

Originally Posted by Dick

Might not be enough coolant in the system. Did you "burp" it?

I just did. Oh you mean did he burp the coolant system. Sorry.

[cageman]

361, oooof, I missed that one big time, sorry.

[rr's powerwagon]

I would have to say either low on coolant or thermostst stuck open

[Tibbits]

Well here is an update I just figured it out, it was a combination of a few things. One, where the heater hose hooks to the engine it was totally plugged with rust and crap, and two, the water pump was actually broke, the blades had come loose on the shaft and the tips of the blades were broke and wore down they had been grinding against the block,, I did hear this noise going on and dismissed it as a bad clutch fan because it did wobble and the water pump shaft felt stable.

[DodgeRamSS]

Hey sorry to hear what happend but at least you found the problem. I figured it had to do with one or the other but not both. If your intake is so plugged like you said it might be a wise idea to flush everything while the coolant is out. Your heater core might be full as well. If you buy a hose adapter and let the water run for a bit it should clean the core out pretty good. (or atleast make it better than it was) You might be able rig the hose to flush the intake as well depending on how plugged it is. Just take a pick to the plugged hose inlet before you start and try to break it up as much as possible.

[Tibbits]

yeah I sprayed everything out pretty good up at the engine it should be ok, but I am a little worried about the heater core, it is an air conditioned car so it has the heater hoses running a little funny into the fire wall, there is 4 spots two loop into each other and the heater hoses hook up to the other 2. so i guess there is some kind of valve in there??

[ehostler]

Yes, the two that are close to each other are feeding the heater valve. I lucked out a few years ago and found a replacement valve for my '68 Charger. The old one gave up and sprayed all over the console.

[cageman]

When you said the hose was slightly warm by the motor, I knew something was plugged, Im just not familialr with the big block setup, Glad you figured it out.

[pishta]

Originally Posted by Tibbits

Well here is an update I just figured it out, it was a combination of a few things. One, where the heater hose hooks to the engine it was totally plugged with rust and crap, and two, the water pump was actually broke, the blades had come loose on the shaft and the tips of the blades were broke and wore down they had been grinding against the block,, I did hear this noise going on and dismissed it as a bad clutch fan because it did wobble and the water pump shaft felt stable.

Did you already buy a water pump? I got a period correct curved phenolic blade water pump, almost NOS, that I dont want to rot on my top shelf.

[Pejerry]

Is the thermostat ruled out yet? The parts house can't be asking that much for them. That would be one of the first things to do.

[ehostler]

Pejerry - read post #14 of this thread. You will see that he found the primary problems.

[Pejerry]

Ooops. Sorry.

[ehostler]

We all do that from time-to-time. I just wanted to bring it to your attention, so you wouldn't think that he wasn't just blowing you off, if he didn't respond.

[Tibbits]

well I did buy a new water pump, but the Diameter of the impeller assembly part is a fair amount smaller, it not the same size as the old one that was on it, does anyone know anything about this, I wish I would have measured it b4 i put it on so maybe someone could compare the diameter to theirs.