All the talk of snow tires compelled me to drain the radiator of my 1966 auto 122 and refill it for the winter. In part, this was an overdue little repair to replace the thermostat as well. When I was still in CA, the 122 ran hot pretty much all of the time. My mechanic (Bruce Ackerman) looked at it and said it might be the thermostat, but could also be a poorly reading temp gauge and didn't seem too worried. Even when "overheating" I never had steam out of the radiator (but did many 90 degree days stuck in traffic with the heater full blast just to be safe).

This morning it was 32 degrees and driving to the grocery store with the heat on (before the thermostat replacement) brought me into the 3/5 temp range (perfectly normal for this car since I've had it). This afternoon I drained the radiator and replaced the thermostat. Before refilling I also opened the tap on the block, but no liquid came out (me: surprised). I refilled it all through radiator cap, ran the engine for a bit, filled a bit more--but it didn't seem like quite as much went in as came out (me: worried). Again opened the engine tap, nothing. Decided to drain it down and take the thermostat housing off (I let it cool) to check if the block had coolant (it did) and the thermostat was still open. Drove to the same grocery store and it seemed like it was running little bit hotter (3/4 plus range). Coolant level did not go down during the trip.

Any ideas? Am I overreacting?