I tend to agree about the fan, I'm thinking it's air bound but I won't be able to do anything with the car until Wednesday. The engine is brand new from GM, not a reman, which means the water pump is too. If,,,, it comes down to it I'll take the water pump out of the old engine, which only has about 3,000 miles on it, and put it in the new engine.

 

Change the fan first.

 

Is it possible the heater got hooked up backwards or otherwise incorrectly? Have you tried driving with the heat on to see if it is filled?

I agree, circulation.

A few years ago we went for a couple of months with this problem; it turned out the expert mechanic didn't bother to look into the radiator holes. They don't put caps on them they are inserted plugs. Could even be on the engine side.

Is coolant going back and forth to the expansion/recovery tank? Has the coolant level under the pressure cap been looked at?

Checking the flow is kind of iffy, the water doesn't flow that fast it looks pretty calm when it is flowing. Water pumps have been known to be bad out of the box, the impeller could be loose..

 

The temp went up when I put the heater on full blast.
Anything could be possible so far as the hoses go. I don't remember seeing any plugs. I'll ask my friend if he checked for them.
Coolant is flowing in and out of the new expansion tank.
I'm going to jack up the right front of the car and try and burp any air that may be trapped in the system. I have to wait until at least Wednesday to work on it.

Thank you for the information.

 

Heater core has 2 different sized hoses, so hard to mix them up. If you hear gurgling in the dash area behind the radio , you have air in the system

 

I don't hear gurgling but the previous owner put a loud exhaust system on on. Plus, my hearing is pretty bad... I'll have someone with good hearing listen to it.