So i did not have this problem before, but I do now. I replaced the water pump, replaced the belt, tightened it all up, drove the car for a little bit and it started to overheat (red flashing light of imminent death). I have re-checked my work, and it seems to heat rather quickly. Also I noticed the interior heat never warms up. I did some reading on here and the only thing I found that may be the ticket to cool is "purging" the cooling system after refilling? I am at a loss on this one. any help would be great. Thanks!
-Brad

 

Did you filler back up? I'm not trying to be a smart a$$ but it sounds like you don't have enough coolant in the system.

 

Assuming the system is full. Air trapped in system, stopping coolant flow, I believe would cause this problem.

 

its fun to watch all that anti-freeze burble from the rad. into the engine after the thermostat opens up fully

 

Finally got it figured out. Thanks for the responses all. Plenty of coolant was in the system, however it was not reaching anything due to what I assume was air buildup. To remedy this I ended up finding an Echo manual that referenced bleeding the cooling system. So I gave that a shot by taking the cap off the radiator, turning the heat on high, started the car, and got under the front and on the back of the radiator I found 2 nylon hand screws (one is the drain) and loosened them until the air sound stopped and coolant came out. Works great now, drove 550 miles that night.

I have never heard of bleeding the cooling system yet, but low and behold it seemed to be the ticket. Hope this helps anyone else like myself who runs into this problem. For the record I had about 60k when the vehicle started to sound like a diesel at idle and 75k when the belt blew.

JCT: I was ecstatic to hear the bubbling sound as that meant it worked!

Thanks all again.
-Brad

 

systems that needs liquids to travel through piping will OFTEN require "air bleeding".

Just like re piping or piping a new house. My dad's a plumber and has to bleed the pipes in houses all the time. If not, the pipes knock and rattle to all holy hell and lose pressure.