stuck thermostat?

Bewy said
There is never any reason to drill a hole in a stat [ except on the rare occasions a race pump is used that has no bypass ] to let air burp. There is always a space around/in the stat that air can escape. Drill a hole if it makes you feel good....

under normal circumstances, i suppose you are correct, but in this particular case there was no space for air to either escape or sneak in

i dont know why, but when i pried the thermostat off i could feel it sucking in air

RustyRatRod said
What does the coolant do with the cap off and the thermostat open when you rev the engine?

swells up like a river in the springs, it was moving real nice, with a little bit of foam on top

RustyRatRod said
If you have to remove a thermostat trying to get one to cool down, you have something WRONG.

the point of removing the thermostat was not so much to fix the issue as it was to troubleshoot it

Ricks70Duster340 said
Is the bottom hose soft? Is there a coiled wire in it? If not, then it may be collapsing under the suction from the water pump. When I bought my Duster, the bottom hose did not have a coiled wire so I put one in.

no spring, but also not collapsing

TrailBeast said
It certainly appears to be circulating.
Hopefully you just had a stuck thermostat like you suspected in the first place.

sure looks that way, i took her out for about a half our spin today and all is well
i even put her through the most gruesome of cooling test...the burger king drive through

The first pic is after driving for about 15 minutes

The second pic is while idling for 7-8 minutes in the drive through

The last picture is about one minute after pulling out of the drive through