:confused: I replaced the thermostat on my 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 5.9L pickup. I re-filled it with coolant, and let the car run to normal temperature with the cabin heat turned on. Then I took it out on a test drive to make sure that it worked properly and ran at normal temp. After about 5 minutes, the car began to over heat. I drove it back home and figured that I didn't take all the air pockets out so I "burped" the system again, this time for a lot longer (30min.) Drove it again and same thing, after about 5 min it began to overheat. I drove it back and checked to see that there aren't any leaks and made sure that the thermostat housing was bolted in tight. Finally I burped the system again, this time there was no hot air coming out the cabin, so I reved the engine a little bit and that's when the hot air came out. Am I missing something here? Am I skipping a step or not doing something right. I been looking online to see what I can find and everything I found Ive done already. Maybe I should drain the coolant again and refill it? Please help!! Thank you. :confused:

It's possible that the thermostat you got is defective but you may just have had a lot of air in the system.

It's possible that the thermostat you got is defective but you may just have had a lot of air in the system.

That's a possibility but before I can go that direction I want to see if its just is that I have a lot of air in the system, should I just drain all the coolant and refill it again? Kind of like starting over? Thank you by the way, I appreciate your help.

I wouldn't do it that way; draining it just empties the system and lets more air get in. Try bleeding out again for a really long time. Had to do this on my car recently; my hubby got impatient putting it back together and I got some air pockets stuck so it would start to almost overheat, when suddenly the needle would drop and heat would start coming out of the vents.

That's true, I guess Ill just keep bleeding it until its all out. Thank you very much, again, I appreciate it.

Not a problem, hope it helps :)