i have a 1987 suzuki samurai with 1.3 lt rebuilt motor within last 2000 miles. i am having major overheating problems it started a month ago. i had bubbles in the raditor and had to refill every couple of hours while driving so i replaced the head gasket i still had bubbles in the radiator so i checked the thermostat (should of done that first ) it was stuck open it was a fail safe model 160 deg. i live in florida so i thought that would help. i replaced it with a stock sammy thermostat from napa and it overheated and boiled all the water out of the radiator. pulled it out and it wasnt opening threw that in the garbage and borrowed my buddy's thermostat i knew his worked his was a 192 deg. it now runs about half the way up the temp gauge alot higher than it used to but no bubbles in the radiator, then after driving it for 2 days it started overheating i pulled over and the radiator is blowing hot air everywhere no cold spots and it was new about 2 months ago but it is a aluminum radiator. well please help i hope i got all the information you need if not ask i need to fix it by the morning or im walking to work love my sammy so much i sold my other truck and made this my daily driver

Do you have a clutch fan or an electric fan?

electric fan switched with the ignition

You could always pull thermostat and run a open system to see if it is the termostat giveing you problems or the riadeator you just wont have any heat.

Sorry for spelling for got to hit spell check...LOL

A good way to get the air out of the cooling system, is pull thermostat housing and fill radiator lets the block fill and burps the system.

who did the rebuild, you or someone else? if not you then are you sure there is not a blockage within the motor? to find out one way might be to drain your whole cooling system pull off the thermostat housing and then put a water hose in the radiator, slowly start to fill it with water see if it is going through also check to see if the water pump is working right it really sounds to me like there is a blockage or bad pump GOOD LUCK let us know what you find out   

sorry foor the delay on getting back to you guys but i think i figured it out it has worked since last night no problems i installed the 4th thermostat a 160 deg failsafe and it now sits where it is supposed to just below the second bar on temp gauge so i think i hat three bad thermostats i knew there wasnt a blockage because with the first thermostat stuck wide open it would empty the system in about 20 seconds when i pulled the top hose it was pumping way to much

but how often should i have to top my system up on a new motor i rebuilt myself so i know it was done right. and there are no coolant leeks i can find the pipe out of the back of the water pump was pretty rusted but i couldnt find a replacement so i had to reuse it. even though it is rusty i don't think it leaks

but how often should i have to top my system up on a new motor i rebuilt myself so i know it was done right. and there are no coolant leeks i can find the pipe out of the back of the water pump was pretty rusted but i couldnt find a replacement so i had to reuse it. even though it is rusty i don't think it leaks

If you have the coolant resevior hooked up, then you should never have to top off the coolant system.....unless it is leaking somewhere.

sorry foor the delay on getting back to you guys but i think i figured it out it has worked since last night no problems i installed the 4th thermostat a 160 deg failsafe and it now sits where it is supposed to just below the second bar on temp gauge so i think i hat three bad thermostats i knew there wasnt a blockage because with the first thermostat stuck wide open it would empty the system in about 20 seconds when i pulled the top hose it was pumping way to much

but how often should i have to top my system up on a new motor i rebuilt myself so i know it was done right. and there are no coolant leeks i can find the pipe out of the back of the water pump was pretty rusted but i couldnt find a replacement so i had to reuse it. even though it is rusty i don't think it leaks

If you need random 1.3 related parts Ive got them!!

If you still have overheating problems after this, (which it sounds like you've got it fixed already, but just in case you don't...  You may have a cracked block.  It just doesn't seem like you would get three bad thermostats in a row.  You may have, but a cracked block could cause air to get pushed into the cooling system, push the coolant out, and cause an overheating problem.  Again, hope this isn't the case, but I've seen it happen before