got some questions

[thunt]

Ok got an 88 xr. Around 120k on it. Bought it a couple months ago as a winter car. Paid 560 bucks for it. This is my third one and has seemed to fight me pretty good. Motor that came in it had two dead cylinders. Car sat out side of my shop for a month or so til I came up with a game plan. So I pulled the motor, got a motor from a local merkur guy. Looked great inside. Put it together and in the car. Couldn't get the car to advance timing like its supposed to with the spout in. Finally after two days we figure out that the vam took a $#!%. Got a vam and bam timing. Set timing, put new aftermarket wheels, new tires, new brakes on it. Stripped the inside and power washed all the interior and the 25 years of age out of it. Came out great. Got a new radio in it, all the Windows clean and working, all the gauges working including an aftermarket boost gauge. Now the local I got the engine from said I could run around 17psi in stock vam and ecm. Been ripping it around and to me it wasn't fast at all. Mainly cause I build srt4s for a living. Totally different then this tempermental bitch. I have a 700+hp srt4 in my shop that is easier to work on then the merkur. Today I was going to the bank and not beating on the car at all and bam car starts running like $#!%. Come to find out the head gasket took a dump. So we pulled a long one tonight and for it fixed. Now is running great again. Except no heat. Haven't had heat at all with this new motor that was just put in. Iv flushed coolant swapped tstats back flushed the heater core and motor and nothing. My coolant lines are ran with out the heater control valve and iv deleted the oil cooler. I have my upper radiator hose to the radiator then the small hose to the top metal pipe running next to the valve cover then to a t which goes to the top of the heater core and to the bottom of the intake manifold. Then I have my lower rad hose going to the rad and the small one going to the bottom pipe next to the valve cover then to the bottom of the heater core. And of course the turbo return to the top pipe and the top pipe to the reservoir. What is wrong with my heat?if I let the car get warm and turn the heat on it'll be hot for a second then go cold. Every time. Please help.

[thebronze]

Sounds like a plugged heater core

[Mike McCreight]

If it's an aftermarket thermostat, it likely isn't sealing in the housing. Check to see if the upper hose stays cold until the engine is up to temp.

[thunt]

The upper hose gets hot with the motor on warm up. Those aftermarket tstats didn't sit well in the housing I did notice that.

[sabre]

i think that the heater core is one of the highest points in the cooling system, if you have not completely purged the system of air it could keep the core from getting hot coolant.