Just guessing Chris, but if the heater blows hot then hot water is
getting to the front of the van. If the rad is cold and in/out pipes
are cold maybe you have a clogged rad hence no circulation through
the rad.  Dunno. Heater and rad are separate circuits right?  Does
the thermostat only close the rad circuit? if so it's probably the
thermostat. If not clogged rad.   Just thinking out loud here   See
Bens place      www.bensplace.com/cooling_system_flow.htm

On 6-Feb-06, at 1:46 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> Date:    Mon, 6 Feb 2006 13:09:41 EST
> From:    JordanVw@AOL.COM
> Subject: Re: running hot....any ideas? UPDATE
>
> ok, well i swapped my whole instrument cluster.  and the needle
> still reads
> over the red dot. sooo...its not the gauge in the dash.
>
> i started the van, let idle for like 15 mins..   main coolant tank
> and lines
> out of tank were hot.   but hoses at front "firewall" were not
> hot.   hoses
> coming out of bottom of rad were not hot.
>
> heater blows hot air.   running the heater didnt seem to have any
> effect on
> the temperature gauge..
>
>
> my guess is thermostat...?
>
> chris
>