[KathrynStone]

Thank you so much for replying to my story so soon. It is a 3.1L. I just replaced the water pump today and I am letting the gasketing goo cure for the 24 hours it said before I refill my cooling system. I have just put in a thermostat last Wednesday when I put in the new radiator. Yes, the huge bubbles I was having in my coolant overflow tank have stopped along with the leak out of the radiator, yeah! When I refill my system I just fill it and keep topping it off with the bleeder valves open. I wait about 2 minutes between each topping off until it doesn't drain down anymore. I leave the radiator cap off and start the car. I keep filling it as it goes down and once the bubbles are out of the bleeder near the water pump I close that and put the radiator cap back on (usually just a few minutes). I have plenty of coolant in my coolant overflow tank too. I let it get up to temperature and the the bleeder near the thermostat starts bubbling for a while and I just let it run at idle for half hour with the bleeder screw just bubbling at the almost turned shut level. Does that sound about right? I almost forgot to say I have the heater on at full blast also. I hope I am purging the air. I ran the engine for 20 miles with just the new radiator and thermostat but it was still "overheating" in that the temperature gauge kept looking like it was near 230 and the low coolant light would stay on. It took me 4 hours to go 11 miles to get to a radiator shop. I kept pulling over and letting it cool down to 100 before I would start the car to go a little further. He found the water pump leak. He told me to leave the heat on to trick the fan to stay on and I was able to drive it home and the gauge stayed right at the 210 mark. I never had steam coming out of the radiator cap, just the low coolant light turning on and off and the temperature gauge beyond 210 but not at 260. In your opinion would you investigate a possible head gasket leak with a pressure test? I think I've got the major leaks fixed but I still wonder if coolant is still going somewhere else. I did do the hydrocarbon sniff test 2 years ago and there was no color change. Which test do you think would work the best at checking for a head gasket leak. The car is at 227K now.