Flushed the Heater Core and Adjusted the Tappets and Now It Runs Hot

[artpeck]

After some time off due to other commitments I started more work on the SIII and one task was flushing the heater core. Wow did that yield a load of gunk and now I actually have heat. But having done that (and installed a new heater valve and adjusted the tappets) the temp gauge shows the truck running hot, close to the red although at times it will read more to the middle.

Before doing these two things it ran in the middle of the gauge. Just curious on thoughts about what I potentially screwed up. I recall somewhere a thread that suggested that improperly adjusted tappets would cause it to run hot but I can't find it and may be mis-recalling.

Any and all thoughts are appreciated.

[bkreutz]

I think you have an air bubble in the cooling system somewhere. That will prevent proper coolant circulation.

[lrdukdog]

X2 on the bubble
Jim Wolf

[rejeep]

Deff a bubble...
They sell burping funnels for cooling systems that make easy work of this..

[artpeck]

I will demonstrate my ignorance. How does an air bubble form and, more importantly, how does one get rid of it?

[gudjeon]

An air lock can form in the head after a draining and refilling. Having it circulate in the heater suggests not, however, it may have one. I take a heater hose and carefully fill the head/block and heater from there first to fill. I always put a small 1/16 hole to bleed out air in my stat if it doesn't come with one. I dunno, I'm just putting some possibilities out there if you can use them.

[rejeep]

Google burping a cooling system.. It's fairly universal..
But imagine it like an air pocket underwater...
Need to burp the air for the water to fill the void the air takes up..

[artpeck]

Did it. Thanks. Will see if any of the various approaches helps. Appreciate the help as always.