i decided to drive my vette today since it was beautiful out here in conroe/houston
well all started well, washed the car, made her all pretty and off I was to work.(29 miles away)
About 3 miles into the ride I start thinking I see some white puffs of smoke in the passenger side of the car, but it is out of my perefeal (sp.) vision so I miss it. 2 miles later or so I defninatly see the smoke and it is coming from the passenger side dash. I pull off the freeway into a qwicky mart where some ah*le procedes to say that my cars lights don't look right!?!?!?!
Well anyway, I check under the hood and don't see any smoke but i do see some water on the right side of the engine compartment..

turns out according to some of my friends in service my thermostat has probably gone bad. My upper radiator hose is colapsed when I start the car and it won't idle...they said that was a sure sign.

Well I go through a horrible ordeal to get a new thermostat (half of houston lost power and I had no checks or cash and no one could take my visa card)

I replace it and the car still idles like crud, had to crank up the idle so it would stay started and it bounces between 900 and 1100 at idle and in gear it either barely stays started or it dies.

sunday I had it idling at a smooth 900 no bounce......also it took forever for the upper hose to get some water in it with the new thermostat.


my old one which still works, i checked it was a mr. gasket 160 degree
my new one is a 180 orielly crud

when I got home i had no leak that i could tell and the hose had filled with fluid...

please advise :boxing

 

Sounds like you had a couple of things going on. In all likelihood, the source of your steam and coolant on the passenger side of your cockpit is probably a leaking heater core. These are copper/brass and can crack or corrode.

The collapsed upper radiator hose sounds like a bad radiator hose...not a result of a failed thermostat. Also, thermostats can stick. Even though they work when you test them, they have been known to stick, but it's kind of rare. Still, they are the cheapest thing to replace when you're not sure.

The temp rating of the thermostat doesn't have anything to do with your problems. The 160 will simply open when the water temp reaches 160 F, and the 180 will open 20 degrees hotter, thereby warming your engine more. An adequate radiator should negate the need for a 160 thermostat, but if the radiator is barely adequate, a 160 will help in the summertime.

The rough running engine could be anything. Could be carburetion, a vacuum leak, blown head gasket...but the latter would result in a very noticeable white cloud of smoke from your exhaust pipes.

I suggest checking your dipstick to make sure there's no "mocha" in it (10 second procedure), checking the tune of your engine, and getting new upper and lower radiator hoses and heater hoses, AND change that heater core! For now, you can bypass the heater core and drive the car without a heater, but it should be changed. Yes, that's a bit of a hassle. You'll need a second person on the other side of the firewall helping.
With your hot weather, your cooling system is more stressed, and you have to keep on top of it.

 

my heater core is bypassed...my hose (to the heater core) runs to my manifold. so it can't be that....i need to get a hose that has a built in spring, do they make those for our vettes?

 

Could the steam be from the radiator overflow tube?

 

it came from the puke tank

 

Just guessing here but flush the Rad, and check the coolant.