Don’t you have a party to go to? It’s pretty easy to test the thermostat. https://axleaddict.com/auto-repair/How-to-Determine-if-a-Cars-Engine-Thermostat-is-Stuck
You might want to take it in for a rad flush. If anything they’ll be able to tell you if it’s blocked.
Sounds like it could be a thermostat that's not opening and closing correctly. Cheap and easy to replace yourself if that's what it is. You can test it. Find the thermostat housing and you'll have two big hoses, one on either side. When the car is idling and completely warmed up, both hoses should be hot. If the thermostat isn't opening, the radiator side hose will be much colder than the other side.
That generation is notorious for blown head gaskets. Same thing happened to my step daughters 2001 Civic. Ended up being cheaper to just replace the motor with a recycled Japanese take out motor. $650 vs Honda's head gasket replacement kit, plus possibly needing disassembly of the cylinder head to mill it back flat as it is likely warped. (Total of ~$1350) Her head gasket didn't burn out into a water jacket so there was no coolant in the oil to give it the tell tale "milk shake" appearence. It was going into combustion chamber and getting burned out the exhaust so there was no leaking onto the ground either. I hope that isn't what's happening to your car but.....
Coolant was a tad low, but after topping it up it's still running cold. Off to the parts store. Thanks for all the advise.
Have you had a radiator leak that someone attempted to stop with StopLeak? That stuff will plug up a heater core quicker then shit.
Just finished changing the thermostat and she's blowing hotter than she ever had. Thanks guys, you rock.
Quick question on car amps. I need an inline fuse to run to my amp, I have the 5532 listed here, which has a listing of 70 amps max consumption. So just a 70 amp fuse or am I missing something? Electronic components are well beyond me.
You also want to be sure that all the wiring feeding the amplifier is rated for at least 70 amps, which is probably 6 gauge.
Excellent point. If you run too small a wire, it will get hot, and potentially melt and start a fire without ever coming close to popping the fuse. I've found that welding lead wire by the foot at your local Harbour Freight (or Princess Auto up here in Canada), is the cheapest source for high-amp wire. I was able to get 150-amp-capable wire for less than $2 a foot when I was re-wiring some stuff on my trailer.
Yeah, here's 100 amp wire for $1.60 a foot, Canadian: https://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/-4-welding-cable-sold-by-the-foot-/A-p8228041e
My brother set it up years ago and I had to tear it out when my trunk flooded. The wire gauge is all the right size I just need the fuse and to figure out where the control wire went/goes.
This probably belongs more in the Tech thread, but can anybody recommend a photo scanner? The inlaws probably have thousands of photos they want digitized.
Don’t forget time and tech abilities. My mom went through the same thing, and I just had her send them out to be professionally done. Cost about $150 and she got a couple of thumb drives back with the images. I figured it would have taken at least $100 in gear and a solid 10-15 hours to manually scan them in, whereas the pro had the auto-feeding and self-correcting gear that made it simple for them.