Just bought a '91 318i with a few known issues. One of them was that the car wouldn't ever heat up, especially in cold weather. I figured the thermostat was the culprit and sure enough when I got it out the spring was busted and it was letting everything through. When I replaced it the aluminum housing was leaking so I had to clean it up and re-seal the gasket, but now the thing won't flow at all. The top hose to the rad. is hot and the bottom one is cool. Everything else was working fine...I've bled the system, topped off, the heater is blowing plenty hot, but can't figure out why the tstat won't open. Is that little channel in the aluminum housing the way for hot coolant to get to the cold side to open the tstat? Also the radiator is hot and cold in different spots, specifically the top is hot, but when you slide your hand down it gets cold. This makes me question the rad. but everything was working fine just a couple of days ago. Now it overheats instead of running cool and I'm a bit perplexed. Thoughts?

Ooop--sorry, wrong forum

Wrong forum, try the non-M E30...