By bleeder do you mean the thermostat housings that have the bolt you can remove on top? Also just took the truck back down the same route so I could get home and the temperature gauge didn’t even drop this time, it got to around 240 and I just shut the truck off and coasted in neutral waiting on the gauge to drop then started the truck back and kept going until it got warm again and then coasted again. Still don’t hear any boiling or steam. I really need to verify the accuracy of the gauge. I have an aftermarket thermostat housing and I believe it has a bolt on top(grub screw is what I’d actually call it) I bought it when mine kept leaking but I didn’t like the angle the neck went up and the hose angle.
I don’t mean the bolt on top I mean the bleeder valves that in my case have a hex brass needle with a base you hold with another hex from turning. It’s like a carb jet on a small engine almost. Loosen and the passage Is open and it’s at the high point of the system(my car) but you would have to be down hill slightly for yours id think
I wasn’t being serious
I’d say if it’s oe water pump it deserves a pull off to check the fins and replace if it seems wearing or worn.
Also your truck should have a special water pump pulley that either lets a poly v belt ride on it or similar, I do believe! Does your truck use a poly v belt for the ..alternator? I can’t remember what those drove. Serpentine came in 88 or something?
@Rusty Nail @bucket im tagging you because you would both probably know because the other thing I wanted to mention is what like of pulley diameter is the OE water pump supposed to have for a 87 poly v belt. I’d almost expect a smaller pulley or a smaller crank pulley than a v belt pre tbi vehicle because the temp became important to the computer to manage open loop vs cold loop and pulley sizing may have been more scienced for allowing warm up and keeping under too hot. But possibly with less leeway, say, worn impellars from abrasive coolant and many many spins from use. (Rusty said it appeared OEM install?)
edit: I didnt see some of the newer pages of talk it looks like bex brought up a lot that I was getting at himself. The Reverse rotation point is a good question too. If it was a race engine, its possible but not super likely it used a serpentine setup.. so maybe not bad to verify the impellars/part number when changing/checking. I think the age/wear concern definitely takes a higher likelihood tho, still.
although it’s a little rich you can hear it occasionally pop more often and it sounds like it bubbles down the exhaust tube kinda I dunno how to explain it you can hear it coming before it shoots out the exhaust tip. It took forever to get to temperature, and the thermostat was still lagging behind tho.
