bleed hole in thermostat

[shak911]

Ok guys, I am new here, I need your opinion on this..the heat in my 88 PA, never been that great, even with new thermostat, I mean not great when you compare it to other makes and models, I have the dig.climate control, I know the blend door is in the full heat mode, but still the discharged air temp is not that great, good enough if you wait 15 minutes, but on colder days you like it hotter faster, the only thing I can think of is the bleed hole on the thermostat, is it really necessary, what if I was to block it, wouldn't help, what are the cons of it if any.

my temp gauge reads 2 bars past quarter mark when fully warmed up, not much more in the summer. did anyone block this bleeder hole?

Sam

Ps: I should also add a friend has the same car and the same symtoms.

[wrightz28]

I had the same problem with my '87 pa unitl I couldn't take it any more. I did find a few cracks in the air box that allowed heat to escape before reaching the vent networks patched those up and it was better but still not flowing hot. Then I hapenned to catch that the blend door wasn't fully shutting (vac. operted). No matter what I tried it still wouldn't completely shut, I'm assuming the air box is warped and when you start driving the fresh air intake vents get a sort of ram air effect of cold air pouring in and cooling the heated air in the system causing the warpage (core itself was hot as can be). So what i did was cut a couple of sheets of thin hard plastic to the shape of the fresh outside air duct. Knowing that some outside air has to be allowed to pass into the cabin, in I cut a few small holes to allow air in. Then in the warmer weather, pull the fresh air vent covers off, pull the fabed sheets out and stick em in the trunk 'til next winter. Yeah it's not a correct fix, but it beat continually crawling around under the dash in below 20 degree weather trying to figure out what was wrong trying to get heat in the car.

Drilling a hole in the stat I don't think would accomplish anything excecpt prevent air pockets, and possibly make the situation worse.

hope that helps

[shak911]

Thanks all for the input, the system is clean and the core was replaced once, due to a leak,( real easy to do on this car, took 30 minutes, did it at work during my lunch break), 2 years ago, the problem in my opinion is design, as I said my friend's is the same as well as one poster here, even when you feel the heater hoses going in it's just not that hot, top rad hose not that warm, thermostat new, temp gauge show 6-7 bars out of 20.

So i broke my promis and decided to do something about it this morning ambient temp. is 0C, that's 32F, once I was done with it I was getting 142F discharge air, at this temp I cannot place my hand on the vent for more than few seconds, same for my GC, I do not know what was the discarge air temp b4 I started, but no where near.

The difference is I made some modification to the aluminum(housing) elbow that sits on the T'stat, this elbow had a 1/16 raised spots 180 degrees apart, prevented the elbow from pressing flush on the T'stat, so under pressure from the engine side, the T'stat would tilt/raise to one side and cause bypass flow, this is obviously was designed for a purpose, in case of a T'stat failure ( I think).

So I decided to file those 2 points level, now the elbow presses flush on T'stat body, my temp gauge fluctuates 8-9 bars from 6-7 ( fan kicks in at 9) please note 10 is middle of gauge.

So I am getting great heat, I cannot see anything wrong with what I did, I ran it for a while, the results are so positive thus far, I'll keep an eye on the temp gauge for the time being.

Any comments are welcome.

Sam

[wrightz28]

Pretty ingenius I must say, good catch.