Thermostat Change

Hello to all, New here.

Have a 97 Lumina with a 3.1 Driving and suddenly overheats
shut it off and wait a few minutes it instantly cools down then it will overheat again. Figure it must be thermostat sticking shut then reopening. bought a new thermostat... Good lord is that sucker buried or am I looking in the wrong place.

If your standing with the hood open looking at the engine the thermostat would be connected to the engine at the end of the radiator hose on your right (top one).. Correct ??? It looks to be impossible to get too.

Any advise ???

"the thermostat would be connected to the engine at the end of the radiator hose on your right (top one).. "

Yep, that's where it is.

Also, check to see if your water pump is doing it's job.
Also, check to see if your radiator isn't clogged up.

Thats where it is...but, to have easy access, i suggest you remove throtle body so it will be easy to work....but, remember to change TB Gasket.

Best Regards

I had the same thing happen to my 96 Lumina APV. I used an offset wrench (from when I worked on an engine with a distributor). The angle of the wrench was just enough that, once I removed ONLY the air cleaner assembly, I could easily reach into that empty space and get the wrench UNDER the crossover pipe to reach the bolts. It took a LONG time, some patience and some scraped knuckles, but removing and replacing the thermostat can be done.

My only regret was that replacing the thermostat did NOT fix the problem! I also had to replace the radiator to partially fix the problem. Now, I've spent two weeks just trying to bleed the air out of the system - with no luck!

If anybody knows the proper way (using the bleeder valves on the thermostat gooseneck and the water pump) to get ALL of the air out of the system, it would be nice to know - because jmhtx22 is going to probably have this same problem after he removes the thermostat.