Hello, I am working on my daughters 2011 Chevy Cruze. It seems the thermostat will not open. She recently purchased the vehicle from a local dealership that apparently tried to cover some major issues and pawn it off. The vehicle ran hot and warped the head. All four cylinders had water inside. They had added alot of some sealer which had been leaking creating a trail down the engine. It also seems that it had an electrolysis issue as well bad battery corroded cable and the list goes on. To get to the point, I found the head to be warped .001" from the center to both ends and 0.005" between the cylinders so had the head resurfaced and installed a new gasket. Installed a new battery cleaned the cables but I'm still showing some voltage in the coolant after flushing the system. Fluctuating .3-.6 volts. The water neck was dissolved I'm thinking from electolysis, never seen one this bad. There are parts of the neck or outlet that are just gone and the whole thing was falling apart as was the plastic in the water pump. New pump neck etc. The thermostat actually looked new so I stayed with the existing thermostat. Running the engine initially the fan would come on but the thermostat would not open the temp would climb past 220-230 with no flow except in the heater core. The heater works and will actually cool the engine down. Without the heater on the temp will climb past 230, boil and overflow. I have 50/50 mix.. test showing boiling point of 265 F. One time was able to get the thermostat to open holding 2000-2500 RPMs as stated in the service manual. From that point it cycled and regulated between 205-215. The following day after cooling off the thermostat again will not open. I installed a new thermostat with no change whatsoever. The thermostat in my opinion is located in the wrong place. Checking the temp the engine will heat up and overheat while the thermostat is still at 150 F. The service manual show a sensor in the thermostat while Ive read elsewhere that this a heater to open the the thermostat with the ECM. It makes sense to have the heater since heat rises and the the thermostat is in a bad location to work properly. Trying to get some decent prints from the Alldata system but cannot seem to find any electrical with any substance to it. I'm thinking its an electrical issue if it is in fact controlled by the ECM. and I don't know how I could have any air pockets left. I pulled the hose off the the thermostat to to see if the coolant was there. Full to the plug in the radiator etc.
If anyone has ran into this please share. Thanks
If anyone has ran into this please share. Thanks