93 grand voyager cooling system questions

I had a leaky water pump seal and radiator drain cock that i found and fixed while using a "rented" pressure tester (no pressure loss after fixes)new water pump and seal and new petcock. I have been having problems with warming up and random other things. Sometimes when I warm the van up with the rad full I hear a rush of fluid in heater core as usual when it works correctly. Then it stops flowing and then the low and high fans come on until I hear the fluid flowing again then the fans go off right away then gauge goes down to normal. When I shut the van off and let it cool overnight the coolant does not return to rad?? no bubbles in overflow tank. I even got one of those funnels that let the coolant expand into it that attaches to the rad. I tried to burp the system with the funnel for 5-10 min and it seemed like the air escaping would not stop. Is there a bleed valve somewhere on the 3.3? and it has a new thermostat and heater control valve and while running it will not suck coolant from tank when needed

It's not normal to hear fluid rushing through your heater core. Obviously you are low on coolant and you already know that. Do you have rear heat? If so, did you run both heaters full blast as you were filling it? And when you do fill it, let it run until the stat opens and then re-fill it. I would also look at yout t-stat, RedZed1 in this forum already dealt with a bad, brand-new stat. Check out the thread "02 Caravan 3.3 Heating Issue."

Good luck.

You should not "hear" coolant rushing to the heater core. You said that it seemed like air escaping would not stop...well did it stop before you installed the radiator cap? If there were still bubbles escaping then you still have air in the system! You need to run the vehicle until the thermostat opens, you can tell when it does by feeling the upper radiator hose, it will not get hot until the stat opens. After you feel the upper hose get hot continue to let the vehicle idle until you no longer see air bubbles. Then test drive it for a couple miles shut it off and check the overflow tank, it will probably be low.

If bubbles literally wont stop escaping from the radiator after the stat opens and it has run for awhile. You may have combustion gases leaking into the coolant due to a blown head gasket.

get thet tester again and use it to test your radiator cap.i see guys go nuts trying to solve problems when its a cap.

I used to have a 93 and when I did coolant changes it seemed to always have air like yours trapped in it. I talked to a mechanic, who said drive the front up on a hill and let gravity push the air around while running the engine. Seemed too simple, but when I did it, the air burped, filled the heater coils and solved the problem. It was too easy.

The rad cap is a possibility for sure. So is a bad " new " thermostat, trust me, i got 2 bad " new " thermostats in a row ( if you can hardly imagine ) and the rad cap really should be the highest point in the system when refilling from empty. Drive it up on some blocks or get a jack out and raise that corner way up while running and filling. I fully agree with testing the cap for pressure, thats a must. The idea is that the cap needs to hold about 17 ibs, I think, and if it doesn't it's jsut going to release early and let the coolant go into the over flow and it wont allow the system to get up to the proper running hot pressure. Good Luck :)

Thanks for all the quick responses. I will get the tester again and test the new cap on there now. Is there a certain way to position the thermostat in the housing? I forgot about the rear heat I will try that next. Do both fans need to be on high while filling/burping? and yes I am sure the thermostat opened during the last burping but I will jack up pass side while burping next. and I will post back after testing the thermo and everything else. Thanks again to everybody

The fans running and the having the blower motor running is not required. The goal is to get the air out of the system and by making the rad fill the highest point and allowing the system to cycle, meaning thermo opening, will purge the system. The " turn the heater on " stuff comes from models that have an actual hot water shut off valve in the heater hoses, these beasts dont have them so making sure the heater is on or off makes no diff. get the rad fill opening as high as you can get it, run it till the stat opens and it is circulating, fill it up and your good. As for the stat being " indexed " ( meaning it goes only one way ) I have to try and think but I do think so. The hole with a little flopping around valve in it must go up at the 12 o'clock position and of course the spring part goes towards the engine, not the rad.

I found a leak but can't figure out it's source I added dye to the system and have a uv light..but I still cant see where the leak is forming. I took a pic of where its dripping from if anybody can help me figure out what could be leaking in the area that would be great. The best I can describe is it's below the alternator if looking straight down it is a 93 3.3l engine I can't see any fluid from up top looking down look at the pic to see what I'm trying to describe

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b281/93geometro/102_1976.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b281/93geometro/102_1977.jpg

Just took a look at my 93 Grand Voyager 3.3, there does not appear to be any coolant passages or hoses in that area below the alt.. My "guess" is that your rear head gasket is leaking coolant exteriorly, in that case it would be very difficult to actually see. Due to fact you would probably have to remove the alt. to get a good look at the corner of that rear head gasket. You should also have a combustion gas leak test done to see if combustion gasses are going into the coolant....this would explain why air bubbles would not stop coming from the radiator when you were burping it!

If you have rear heat then lines run along the firewall and down behind the alternator. Looks like what you have pictured there is part of the power steering bracket which is just beneath the alternator.
While I agree with Autotech that it could very well be the head gasket, I would still double-check the rear heater lines. If there's a pinhole it could squirt right onto the back of the block. However, these things usually rust out underneath the body, not up top. But I would check anyway.

ok so I did a block test and the fluid turned yellow :swear: did it 3 times to make sure. This van loves money and fluids this much I am sure of :runaround:...so how hard is it to do both head gaskets?

Replacing head gaskets is a fairly complex and in depth job that requires removing LOTS of parts! The fact that you are asking "how hard it is to do" tells me that you should NOT attempt this repair. At least not without someone that has a very good understanding on how to do this repair properly!

I would check into using some Barleaks Head gasket fix, is a links. ALso

http://www.barsproducts.com/1111.htm

www.steelseal.com (http://www.steelseal.com)