im stupid and need help ..very long but please!!!!!!!!

[nismoman]

so yea ever since i replaed my timing belt , nothing but weird shit has happened to me.i went to fill the resevoir bottle up with 50/50 mix and then i started the car up . my understanding is the water pumpr\ would pull the coolant out of the resevoir and into the system , so i ran the car for about a minute and checked the resevoir. empty (this is good ..meens that collant is in the system) so i receaded to fill the bottle back up and then ran it again. i then checked the bottle and it was still full so i was like cool, its done. Well i went out for a drive and the car is hickuping and bogging like crazy and at idle the exhaust note is more of a pulse than a steady hum, and the motor is idling at like 500 rpms !!! but thats another problem. any ways while i was out the temp gauge just started climbing up to the red . so im hurrying home and pull in right as the needle hits the red zone and i cut the motor off and coast into my garage. i undid the resevoir bottle and it had pressure in it. and its full. so i was like (you fucking retard you didnt bleed the system). i waited for the car to cool down and then i started bleeding it. cranked it back up and then cracked the bleeder nut off and watched bubbles come out then a steady jet stream of coolant coming out of the bleed hole. so i was like cool its done..... nope still over heating and no fan coming on and the tubes still feel empty like they have no coolant in them..

i was wandering what you guys think i should do and if you guys had access to a bently coolant section and trouble shoot, could you scan it and email me it. also as far as the sputtering and what not... all the [plug wires where labled when i took them off to there corresponding position on the cap , and that arrow looking plastic piece that is under the cap with 3 allen screws holding it in can only go on one way right???

car has new fuel filter
new spark plugs
new gas
clean air filter

just things that have already been ruled out as far as the jick up and sputtering

thanks guys and sorry for being so stupid!!!

[lordofthewaters]

Sounds to me like you've got air in the system. You need to bleed it, using the bleeder on the tstat housing.

[delatlanta1281]

Thermostat installed?

[nismoman]

yes its installed. but i went down to the garage a second ago and gave it another whirl at bleeding it and aftre a bit of sitting in the cr the temp gauge went to half way and i could rev it and the temp would go down a little then go back to half way . i was like sweet finally. then i started to back it out and go test drive it and the needle started creeping past half way , and then proceeded to go to red again. i checked my fan by just jumping the leads and the fan comes on so i know its not the fan itself, i think the thermostat isnt opening allowing the coolant to go up into the radiator to trigger the switch, also the connectore for the thermostat is loose as fuck. it looks like the male end that is actually in that sensor is wiggling. is this sensor just the temp sensor or is it a sensore that actually allows the thermostat to open???

[delatlanta1281]

It is a temp sensor, the therm opens b/c of how hot it gets. You could try the boiling water trick, take out the thermostat and submerge it in a pot of hot water to see what the opening temp is. I think it is 180 degrees. There should be an arrow on the thermostat that needs to be in the "up" position when installed as well. Bently say this "Engine overheats: in correct ignition or valve timing." Check timing. there are plenty more causes, but since you just did the timing, do you think it may be wrong?

[kommissar]

Thermostat installed correctly?

Is facing the right direction with the with the arrow up (not that the arrow matters that much really)?

[R3xTrash]

:ohsnap:

[yozsi]

yea, it helps if its installed the right way, because it might have a jiggle valve. i always find it better to drill a tiny little hole in the top most part of the thermostat to help the air escape, plus i grab the radiator hoses and squeeze em to get air out.

[nismoman]

well , wfound. i went and bought a new thermostat just because the car has probably never had one replaced. so i talk to the bmw mechanic and he told me all of what yall are saying. 3/18's drill bit?? maybe im completly wrong, but he said the same thing as far as drilling the hole. how do i bleed it though, like car running or car hot and not running. expansion cap on or off when loosening the bleed screw. as far as timing i checked almost 6 times spinning the motor over by hand when i had all the covers off, and ever time the cam mark and crank mark would line up with there index's. im going to pull all that shit again just to make sure, but i think i will strap a timing light up first, also i figured out what my hick uping was coming from, cylinders 5 and 6 arent firing when the spark plugs are in the cylinders,.. if you take the plug cap off of them nothing changes as far as motor idle, but if you take any of the other ones off the motor wants to die. and when you lay the spark plug against the cylinder head outside of the motor and turn the engine over they spark with a dark orange(weak ass spark)) not a fat blue one.... oh yea check this out the guy before me evidently took the thermostat out and never had one in, he lived in new jersey so maybe he didnt hurt the motor. i did a compression check when i first got the car and all had 170 to 190 psi.

[xLibelle]

yea, it helps if its installed the right way, because it might have a jiggle valve. i always find it better to drill a tiny little hole in the top most part of the thermostat to help the air escape, plus i grab the radiator hoses and squeeze em to get air out.

oh snap! i gotta try this

[Adrian_Visser]

sorry not to jack the thread or anything but is it really necessary to drill a hole in your t-stat housing to bleed the system when just taking the cap off of the coolant reservoir works fine?
thats all i ever done an ive never had vapor lock, just run the engine with the cap off for a couple of minutes

[kommissar]

My mechanic used to wedge it open with a piece of asprin to bleed the system. When the aspring dissolved it would close the thermostat, obviously. I can't really see a down side to doing that because of the relatively small concentration of asprin when compared to the 2+ gallons of coolant.

[xLibelle]

i was joking!

[yozsi]

i was joking!

about what?

[yozsi]

well , wfound. i went and bought a new thermostat just because the car has probably never had one replaced. so i talk to the bmw mechanic and he told me all of what yall are saying. 3/18's drill bit??

i usually use a 3/32 drill bit.