96 Chevy Blazer

Hello AF People,

I have a 96 Blazer that has been acting up lately. I just changed my thermostat about a month ago and the other day I noticed my temp guage flickering up and down. I then just knew there was something wrong.

My questions are can a thermostat go out this quick? What causes the thermostat to go out?

Also my radiator is on order from rockauto. My radiator is nasty along with the overflow tank. It looks like a bunch of rust tied up in there. I tried to flush it but did not help in anyway at all. Is it possible that coolant is flowing improperly which is causing the engine to overheat.

When the truck is cold I also here a noise that seems to come from under the dash in the heater core area. When I changed out the thermostat and flushed the radiator this noise stopped for about 2 weeks and then came back. Do you think there is rust and corrosion stopping the flow of coolant?

Could this be a problem?


Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Yea a thermostat can go bad what seems to be quickly. But most of the time it takes time it to go bad. It works off a heat sensor in the middle of it when the water in the engine reaches the temp. that the thermostat is set to it opens. It also sounds like your radiator is pluged up with rust and I have never been able to unplug one with a radiator flush, but you could remove it and take it to a radiator shop to have it boiled out and flow tested. It sounds like you are going to change you radiator from your post and that is probably a good idea. But, you may have more problems than that. Because you let the coolent go bad in the old radiator with rust it can and will most of the time effect the water jackets in the engine and heater core. They will plug up just the same as the radiator may have and cause over heating problems also. If you are lucky enough to solve the problem with just a new engine radiator I suggest that you use a radiator coolent lubicator with the new radiator, that you can get from most any parts store and even Wall Mart. This will prevent any more rust build up in the new radiator and coolent. But again just because you have chang the radiator you may still have let the old coolent stay in the engine too long and have pluged up the heater core and some of the engine water jackets.