Happy 4th to all!
Thanks FavoriteMystaque for the comprehensive response.
A little additional information has come to light.
The car has 100K on it. A few months ago the water pump was replaced. Don't know the circumstances but it was done from above, which based on reading here, is the hard way.
Last night I attempted to bleed the system, since there was nothing else I could do.
I opened the cap on the reservoir and topped it up. Idled the engine. After a few minutes, lots of bubbles entering the reservoir (I assume the thermostat opened???). After a couple of minutes, no more bubbles! Based on this I'm assuming the systen was NOT bled when the hose was replaced last week.
Oil levels were fine with no sign of moisture on the oil filler cap.
Anyhow, while this was happening, I ran the heater. Outside air temp was about 90Deg so I was having a hard time determining if the heater was working or just blowing outside air. Son assures me heater normally works really well, so maybe this was ambient.
Son also says fans work, with the "second" fan kicking in when it "gets hot". Whether they work exactly when they should, I'm not sure.
I'm going to drive it about 5 miles today to see how that goes. If it goes well, will replace the water with coolant and off we go. If it continues to overheat, I guess we'll do the water pump and t/stat (justin case).
One more question, what is the best way to flush the system? There is Bars Leak in the Rad.
