OK, I'll start at the begining, the heater hose elbow blew off so I replaced it, while there I noticed that the coolant that came out looked like coffee, saw gunk under the rad cap, so I replaced the LIM and plenum to manifold gasket.
Blew out the heater core with air, then filled with water and continued repeatedly until I had the same clean water that was going coming out.
Then I took off the upper radatior hose removed the thermostat,replaced housing and flushed fluid from the rad fill to the end of the hose into a shop vac. ( I got a ton of crap out) after that replaced the stat., connected the hose, then jacked up the front of the car filled it with coolant with the bleeder open, left the cap off and let it run for 20 min. watching it burp all the air out.
Now the problem I'm having is after 24hrs it will blow cold air at idle and hot air under throttle. The overflow res seems to be spilling over after I park it.
I can't seem to correct the problem. Any Ideas? ,similar problems? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

REPLACED)
LIM
plenum to maniflod gasket
Heater hose elbows
thermostat
coolant temp sensor
rad cap

TESTS PERFORMED)
Pressure test 15-17lbs---- ok---
Flourescent dye leak test--- passed---- ( only from the overflow res)
head gasket test (exhaust gas in coolant test)-- passed ----

05ss 3.8 s/c

 

seems like the only thing you have left to replace is the heater core

 

My only thoughts at this point are a clog in the radiator or a weak/bad water pump.
after that I have no Idea.

 

Heres my thoughts...

There's air still in the system...

Theres a bleeder screw on the top of the thermostat housing...

These cars are tempermental when it comes to bleeding the air out...

Bring the car up to normal operating temperature...
turn off the motor...
Slowly open the bleeder on the T stat housing..until it start burping out the air... until you get a solid stream of coolant/water... close it.. re start the car drive it around for a bit and see if the heat comes on normally..If not
repeat the bleeding process.. until it does have "Normal" heat after warm up... Never..bleed these cars with the motor running.

You may have to do this as many as 10 times before you get all the air out.

Once you get it back to normal heating...
Drive it for a week or so.. and do the bleeding process once more... Just to be sure the system is air free, after that it should be fine.

 

threw a radiator in last night. Bleed the hell out of it and...........so far so good. No heat loss no coolant loss. If she's the same in another 24 hrs. I'll be one happy guy.
And STUMPMI, you are absolutley right, they take time to bleed all the air out