"did you loosen the thermostat housing to bleed air out?" Ooooh, now Scott feels like a moron. You can probably guess what he forgot to do, right?

So far today, after what I wrote up in the orignal post, above, the car has gone 28 miles to work with my wife, sat 8 hours, restarted just fine. Temp came up to normal in about the right amount of time. The ONLY hiccup, if it even was one, was that about 1 minute after the temp gauge settled straight up (normal for this car) it spiked about 1 to 2 needle widths above that, then came right down to normal again. My guess was it was the tstat opening, which we never notice because we are now paying extra close attention to the gauge. Or maybe another bubble escaping because Scott forgot to use his brain when he refilled the cooling system.

Since I have to drain the coolant and replace it all anyway, as routine maint., that will give me a chance to do it right, with the tstat housing loosened.

Scott will read the FAQ on coolant change and refill this time. Oooooh, Scott's brain hurts.
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Scott Cook - 1991 745T, 1985 RX-7 GSL-SE, 1986 Toyota Tercel (Don't laugh, it is reliable, faithful AND gets 41 mpg!)