The Chrysler K-Car Club

Well, the wagon is back. I have invested $3000 into it so far. The head has been rebuilt, but I am still nervous about the cooling system. It will still need some more repairs over the next 12 months. The guy that owned it really abused it, but it is running really well right now. I might keep it a year and sell it and get another K-car. I will always keep the Dodge. My dream is to drive the wagon to Pennsylvania for National Chrysler Show, and make it our National K-Car Show. Here are my concerns about cooling:
1. Not overheating, but temp gauge doesn't always come down at the same point on the scale each time. Somtimes it comes darn well close to the line before it slowly comes down. I attempted to bleed the system this morning by running the car with the heater on and radiator cap off. I expected the coolant level to go down. Instead, it slowly oozed out of the cap, and l lost some coolant on the street. I am wondering if I have a 195 degree thermostat, when I really should have a drilled 180. I want to look into that after tommorrow's adventure. I am also a little concerned because I still get some moist air on my hand when I put my hand behind the exhaust pipe. This after the $1000 head job, cheapest on the west coast. Don't understand it. The car also idles too fast and high in park, but not in drive. The Check engine light system is not working at all. At least the car is running smoothly. I now have working a.c. with a compressor going out, but it is not very cold.
Slowly but surely I will get to each item. I have plenty of time to enjoy my new toy, assuming it doesn't overheat on me.

Hi Guy,

You really don't want to run the car with the radiator cap off since it will dump coolant out. The system is meant to operate under pressure of about 15 pounds to raise the boiling point. To get the air out you remove the plug on top of the thermostat housing as you fill the radiator, engine not running of course! When the coolant level reaches that point you replace the plug and continues to fill the radiator.

The engine check light not working may indicate a computer issue that is also effecting the engine idle speed.

The A/C systems I found are a bit marginal. I think they may be okay in the sedans but the interior volume of the wagon is more than they can handle. My 84 Aries wagon A/C was never very good. That was with the old R-12 refrigerant. I would suspect if converted to R-134A it wouldn't work well at all.

Some moisture on your hand at the exhaust pipe really doesn't mean anything in terms of the head gasket. It is just normal condensation.

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Water is a product of combustion, if you drive short trips 15 min or less the water usually condenses to a liquid and you need a new muffler tail pipe every year or two. If you always drive for 30 min and longer trips the water comes out as a hot vapor. The muffler tailpipe can last for 10 years.

Thankyou. It seems the coolant is still on the level, so I am think I am okay, except the temp gauge is scaring me. It sometimes comes a little close to the top before coming down. Also, I just discovered some wet carpeting, so I am wondering if I lost my heater hose. Also, when I floored the accelerator, the car suddenly attempted to stall and lost power. It was like there was a CLOG in the system. I do have a plugged converter. It cruised nicely at 75-80 coming home tonight. I have no working check engine light system, and I lot of things don't work properly.