Okay, another day spent with the Journey and Mosquitos (I need to buy more bug spray)
The engine is back together. 3.5 Dodge engine with the overhead cam’s are a “treat” to line up. I think we have the rear cam in the correct spot? It took several tires, and it kept going off a tooth *grr* The wife stopped in to see how I was making out, so I had her loosen the tensioner and while the belt was all loose like, I used a 18mm wrench and kicked it over a tooth. (Took the tension off, and the cam rotated while the belt stayed put.
That seems to have lined it up. Found a nice trick worked out well for purging air out. I removed that heater hose from the back of the engine and slowly filled the system with about 2 gallons of 50/50 until it started out of the port. Ran the engine (it was NOT happy at first, the battery was disconnected for over a week!) She settled down and the heat started in the passenger area.
Upper radiator hose is kind of warm after it sits and idles for a while. It does have a new thermostat. I let it idle for about 10 minutes and the temperature gauge stayed in the middle. The coolant level? Almost over flowed. (I left the cap off in case it had more air.) I shut her off and put the cap on. Let it sit for a short while and rechecked. Coolant level stayed about mid-range in the overflow tank- Heat works okay. (it’s never been that great- the heater cores in the Journeys pretty much just ‘Suck’)
So, I left it sitting for a while just idling along and it stayed in the mid-range on the gauge. It didn’t seem to overheat, and it didn’t go off like a demented coffee pot on crack.
I picked up new hardware for what’s left of the K-Frame. Dodge uses a cross member that holds an engine mount to keep the engine from twisting. All those bolts where just about rotted apart. Plan is to attach it with new hardware- Probably use a thread chaser on the receiving nuts inside the k-frame. And take it out for a few miles for a test drive. It overheats within a couple of miles, so I’ll know really fast if the issue remains or is solved. Even though it didn’t overheat while sitting at idle-nothing is a better test then the engine under load.
S-