I got my truck started today, let it idle for a few minutes and it got hot pretty quickly. I finally shut it down when it hit 221, didn't look like it was close to leveling off. Is this normal?

 

replied in your other thread but Ill reply in this one since most will reply here. Sounds like you have air in your coolant.

 

Did the coolant level go down once it was started? Fill it up, rev up the engine a little, the level will go down some. While you're still on the gas, add more coolant, and top it off, then put the cap back on. Whatever air pockets are there will be pushed out, or the extra coolant will get vented back into the resivor

 

possibly air in the lines, im pretty sure its not this but how much did you get the block bored? im sure you said this already but i havent been following your other thread.

 

Block is bored .03 over. The coolant level did drop. I'll try the heat up/cool down thing and try and push the air out.

 

thunder I have had to poucoolant into the coolant hose going to the thermosat before... some reason the air just sit there and will not burp out

 

Oh itll burp out when you run it hard enough I have to drive the **** outa mine after a thermo install to get all of the air out.

 

Hmm... block bored, eyy? Who put the motor back together? Has this been doing it since you got the motor back together? If you answer "yes" to my last question, I'd tell ya pull the driver-side head to make sure the gasket is on right. Depending on the type of gasket, YES, IT MATTERS. I had an overheating problem that only allowed me to drive my truck up to 2 miles. After that OHP would kick in, and shut off 4 cylinders (coil packs really). After a couple weeks of trying all other options, I pulled the driver-side head to find that the head gasket was put on wrong.

Now, after finding this out, I found that there are two types of gaskets for different year 5.3s. Some blocks are design for coolant flow across the front and rear of the motor, and others only flow across the front of the motor. If you pull the head off, you'll see what I'm talking about. Mine only flows across the front of the motor. See pics below:

Notice the front of the motor, closest to where the intake would be, then look at the rear of the block



Notice the blocked part of the gasket is on the front, when it should be on the rear (I didn't make the mistake, but it can get the best of builders sometimes )



Pardon the valves being so fouled. I hadn't fixed the o2 problems then, but they are fixed now. Ran two cans of seafoam through the system (1 for each of two tanks of fuel on my truck), after I took a can of carb cleaner directly to the valves.



This may not be your issue, but don't be afraid to pull the head off. Gaskets are cheap.

 

Thanks for the info, I didn't realize that the gaskets were different.

This morning I pulled the upper radiator hose off, it sucked in some air and some coolant drained out. Put it back on, fired her up and drove off, haven't had any overheating issues. Put about 30 miles on it so far with no problems. I think it was just air in the system, or lack of oil on the rings.

 

Good deal, glad it was something simple.