anyway, it's warmed here, at least it's in the 20's now. but still the same issue.

The water pump was leaking a little, and was in need of change, so I changed that and the serpentine belt at the same time. I didn't think that was the issue, but someone said it won't pump water to the heater core if it's leaking, and since it needed to be replaced anyway I did it.

So far, i've replaced the T-stat, changed the coolant and it is topped off in radiator and reservoir, water pump and serpentine belt. I ran the van for 20 minutes at idle then left for work. It at least got to the quarter mark the temp gauge but still not to where it normally was.

The air coming from the vents was warm, but luke warm at best. If it crawls above that quarter mark, it does blow sufficiently hot air for a bit, but it doesn't get there very quickly and if it does, it's short lived and it's back at a quarter or lower.

I'm not a mechanic, but the heating and cooling system isn't all that complicated is it? I can't figure out what could even be a potential problem at this point.

I don't think it's heater core, i don't have any of the symptoms they say to look for. It seems to be the engine just won't warm up. I also checked the fans to see if they were running all the time and not allowing it to get up to temp, but I haven't seen them kick on at all.

any other ideas? I'm stumped

 

In the absence air locks, the is the next logical step, don't go mad on the pressure and don't back flush unless the forward flush does not help. Its easy to9 tell which pipe is which .. .. the return from the core to the expansion bottle will be an obvious spurt spurt spurt created by the water pump itself. This vid is not your motor but the principal is the same on all motors.

 

I will check that out, thanks!