Do you have your PCM tuned for your 180° thermostat so your fan speeds are lowered? Stock fan speeds kick on at 212° so you are still perfectly fine

 

Hmmmm, never thought of that... it was starting to run a little bit hot right before I changed thermostats though. I was starting to wonder when I saw this thread if maybe my own water pump was slowly letting go on me.

 

Have you flushed the dexcool recently? Could be starting to thicken up and not cool as efficiently

 

Yeah, took care of that back in the fall when I changed the thermostat... wnet to the green stuff, maybe that made the differnece.

 

How many flushes did you do? Any dexcool left when mixed will turn to nasty sludge

 

flushed abotu 3-4 times... used 2 cans of flush, took about an hour or so.

 

The person put dirt and rocks into the radiator, after many flushes and replacing the radiator and thermostat it started to do this, this is my daugthers car so I have to get it right for her safety.

 

Could the heater core just be shot?? Let's hope dirt didn't go through your engine and cause even more damage.

 

Did you file it on your insurance as vandalism?

 

My concern is what Chibi recently noted, if any of that material made it's way into the heater core. If it did, those lines are rather thin and perhaps formed blockages in the core or the dirt may have solidified in there.

You may also want to have someone with a scan tool read the car's computer, verify the computer and the guage reading are close (I dealt with a Grand Prix recently where in about 10-15 minutes the guage pegged to the red zone, 260, but reading the computer read it at 163).

I work with a guy who helped some one solve a problem in a Ford heater core. To solve a radiator leak the guy used the silver powder "Stop Leak", well, it solidified in his heater core preventing him from getting heat in the winter. As a last ditch effort, he tried a technique of disconnecting the heater core from the system and flushing Drano through the heater core and forcing water through it with the garden hose (again, the heater hoses were disconnected from the engine side). He said it took multiple flushes, but eventually the water was finally flowing through the core like it should. He made certain to flush LOTS of straight water through the core to ensure the Drano was removed (do NOT want that running through your engine, if it breaks down blockages, I'd hate to find out what it does to gaskets). The guy has not had a problem since.

Another thing you could try is disconnect the heater hoses and get a coupling to join them (by pass your heater core). Keep in mind, you won't have heat in the car, but it may help you test the issue to see if the temp problem is being caused by the heater core.