No heat...car wont stay warm

[nelson8708]

I have a 89 FB(ka24e). I just replaced the thermostat this past weekend. It stayed warm for two cycles(warm-up cool down). Then that night i went to go driving and have some fun but after i got there it was the old freezing my balls off story. My car takes about 10 minutes to warm up when it is 10 degress out side. I have a aftermarket coolant temp gauge as well. The sending unit for it is in the top radiator hose. So after 10 minutes the stock gauge is at the second mark. I will start to drive and before i got out of my neightborhood the car was cold agian . I had to drive to work with out heat as usuall . I got all the air bubbles out. My next plan of action is to cover half the radiator with cardboard to help keep her warm. I also have an electric fan instead of the mechanical and i have not had to turn it on for the past two weeks. Any other suggestions?

[autox615]

thats crazy because my car seems to take forever to warm up too. Than when it is warm, it takes about another five minutes for me to have heat. Anyways, thats a good question and I hope we have some intelligent responses here soon....cause its starting to get cold!!

[nelson8708]

I figure that since i have a aftermarket front bumper and because i removed the A/C condenser that the radiator is seeing too much air...at least when the air is less than 20 degrees. I am going to cover half the radiator with cardboard and see what happens.

[positron1]

Ditto with the heat but different set of circumstances. Ever since I did the climate control conversion my car doesn't seem to heat up like it did before. It takes a lot longer to defrost the windshield and heat up the cabin than it did before. WTF!!!

[Shnitz]

Same thing happens to me, my conclusion is just that this car design is very old. The advances in oil and coolant seem to help the car stay cool a lot better. This is my guess anyways, since I believe that my SOHC was never designed to work with the kind of oil I use now (full synthetic).

[ucantstopthebick]

coolant ratio's?

[Acecool]

I have the same as you, it takes my car 3 minutes to warm up and have full hot heat (by the time I am at the end of my street, and at the light for the main street).

So, check hoses for leaks, vacuum hoses too, not sure what else to say, I will check my book later.

[Dirty Dee]

I dont know if this could be the case, but my parent's chevy slowly got harder to warm up until it would just blow cold air. We found out that the water pump was bad. Got a new one, and now heater works.

[onosqv]

When you let the air bubbles out, did you turn the heater full blast?

Also, tried one of those coolant flush chemicals? Your heater core may be clogged...

Other than that, SUCKS TO BE U! It's like 65 degrees F over here & I'm freezing my butt off... I know, I'm a bastard.

[480sx]

I cant tell you what mechanicaly might be wrong with your heat, if anything. The cardbord over half the radiator would help atleast a little, just ziptie it down or somthing easy. You could put in a higher temp thermostat, that would help your coolant heat quicker. Also.. just the basics here, if you leave your heater core closed while its cold, the coolant will bypass it. Basicaly the heater core acts as a tiny radiator, especialy when you have the fan on. So leaving the heat/cool lever on cold untill it reachs a higher temp then switching it to heat will help ya out. Oh and a remote start ^^

[matt4pl]

thermostats come bad from the box more often then you'd think, check it again, boil it, etc. DO NOT cover you're radiator with cardboard. when you bleed it use the small screw and not the radiator cap, jack up the front of the car as high as you can, and have the heat on full blast.

[martins_240sx]

I have the same problem...but I think I have your solution. I just changed my entire cooling system because it was overheating...turned out to be a clogged radiator...Before I got it rodded I used coolant flush and I think that moved some of the crap from my radiator to my heater core. Now I have an entirely new, minus headcore, cooling system and my heat doesnt work unless Im up around 5grand. I think that the hot water is just bypassing my heater core instead of going through it like its supposed to, in turn giving my crap for heat. This might be your problem....every car is different though