Hey everybody, quick question. I just dropped a new engine into my 04 Cavalier, (2.2 eco out of an 03), but it won't come up to operating temp, it sits below 100 degrees and never gets warm. I'm quite stumped, I put my thermostat in, water pump is flowing, got plenty of coolant in, but still no warm up. Any ideas!? Thanks!


"it's only a cavalier, right?...I mean it's not fast or anything, is it?" -famous last words-

1-bad thermostat(Stuck open)

2-Does it blow hot air? If it does, then its a bad temp sensor.

3-I don't know if its possible, but could you have hooked up anything in the cooling system wrong forcing coolant to stay cooler?

4-What was the temp rating on the thermostat you put in?

I put a new thermostat in and this time when I fired it up the the check engine light didn't come on, and the temp came up a little bit, bout 125 to be exact. After allowing it to run for about 15 minutes it did start to put out some warm air. Dunno the full diagnosis yet, the rear brake came apart now, stupid thing, lol. So anyway, thanks for the help, I'll be back if it doesn't work this time!


"it's only a cavalier, right?...I mean it's not fast or anything, is it?" -famous last words-

One last thing I just thought of was a nice air bubblu in the system. You may need to run it for a bit to try and get the air out.

Awesome, that's what I'm starting to think as well, it's coming up to about 107 now and then as I hit the highway it drops down to 100 even and won't come up unless it's been running a looooong time, thanks for all the help man, I really appreciate it!


"it's only a cavalier, right?...I mean it's not fast or anything, is it?" -famous last words-