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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Will_K" data-source="post: 30821" data-attributes="member: 7902">Alright... here's the vehicle history in brief.I acquired this car in February 2024 with blown head gasket and oil with obvious coolant in it. I replaced head gaskets with new steel head gaskets, water pump, coolant, radiator hoses, thermostat. Everything was fine until this winter when my daughter (for whom I bought the car) indicated it wasn't heating (she mostly drives to high school which is a 2 mile drive, and work which is about 4 miles, and soccer practice/games which can be more)... wasn't entirely obvious it was a serious problem. But it was starting to give overheating warning messages, coolant wasn't obviously low, but I decided I'd drive and concluded it might be time for a heater core. I decided I'd also replace the radiator while I had the system drained.Last weekend I finished reassembly after replacing the heater core and radiator and ran the vehicle for a test drive hoping I'd confirm everything was okay and send her on her way... I got some heat, but still got an overheat warning and heat wasn't more than slightly warm and went back to cold.At this point, I'm suspecting my thermostat was bad - guessing stuck closed. I didn't expect that as a possibility with under 2 years on the thermostat. The thermostat was an Advance auto Carquest part, 1 year warranty. I ordered a GM part to install this weekend.I usually fill with a vacuum fill system, I watched a video using a large funnel and the bleeder valve so I tried that last night while I'm waiting on parts. The system took on another half gallon of coolant. But still (running parked at 3500 rpm to get temperature up) the overheat warning came on and coolant went back up the funnel. Some metal flakes were apparent in the funnel.To my mind, it's possible the metal flakes may have been in the system as I hadn't flushed it previously, just drained. Is it possible that may have led to premature water pump failure and that's part of the problem? Is the thermostat consistent with what's happening? Is there anything else? (At this point I'm pretty much replacing all the mechanical components of the cooling system... radiator hoses were replaced 2 years ago)I suppose it's probably prudent for me to do a cooling system flush with the thermostat out to make sure all debris is cleaned out.</blockquote>

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