Help or guidance perhaps?

Posted similar questions on my "Fresh Meat" thread but no responses yet. ill keep it short and sweet here in hopes of faster response.

Model: B20000 LX
Year: 1986
Engine: 2.0

Problems: 1. Thermostat not working ( i think?) have new one to put in just in case. Anything special about replacing it?
2. Heater doesn't work. Temp knob just spun in circles, Removed knob tried grabbing metal piece it slid over and it fell behind dash....
3. Drove approximately 5-10 miles in it in traffic, temp guage never went above half. While at Napa (buying gasket head tester), i noticed antifreeze leaking looked like from bottom hose area. Top hose was very hard when i parked and checked it upon arriving to Napa.
4. Oil leak noticed on drip pan, looks like behind timing housing. what could that be? Water pump? Also another oil drip below the bottom radiator hose?


Plan of action: Replace Thermostat once engine cools, Clean up temp connector a little bit then reattach. Then test for head gasket leak. Then trace oil leak.

Anyone have any ideas about what i should be looking for in particular when leak checking and how costly is this gonna be? This is a beater 600.00 truck. I planned on putting a Navy Non-skid bed liner in it and painting it up a bit but if all these are going to be costly repairs then i may have to sell it or scrap it.

Any and all advise or guidance is wanted and appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Jason

If the oil leak is NOT above the timing cover, then you'll need to pull at minimum the timing covers. The suspects are the crankshaft oil seal or the oil pump.

The camshaft seal is higher up on the engine, and the camshaft seal is the same part number as the crankshaft seal. Also make sure that the oil leak is not coming from the distributor seal, or dripping down from the valve cover gasket.

Lower seal, behind timing cover, lower pulley and timing pulley. Solution is to replace seal, timing belt, tensioner and idler pulley, and water pump as a unit, as they run together as a unit and that is proper maintenance.

Thank you Cusser,

Should I get all the air out of it before use my little tester for exhaust gasses leaking into my radiator? I found traces of oil in the radiator and reservoir so I'm worried about a broken head gasket on top of all this as well.

Mazdatweaker, thank you as well for you timely response.

I do not trust my temp gauge, I noticed it not working when i was driving it home after purchasing it. After degreasing and cleaning this filthy thing up so I could trace leaks etc, I noticed the cable wasn't plugged into the thermostat. I had let the engine run prolly 15 min and it smelled a bit funny like antifreeze or possibly solvent residue burning off the engine from the cleaning process. When i popped the hood to make sure the temp gauge was plugged in I also checked the top rad hose and there was zero pressure in it. I dont know if there should be pressure in it or not after 15 min of run time but something overall didn't feel right about the truck in my gut.

As to all those parts required, is there a recommended site to order from that you guys use? Any parts i can jack off an 88 or 89 b2000 that will fit my truck? and finally what do you think this is looking like for cost to buy all these parts (estimate) im only looking to put tops of $400 into this thing if it will be to better its longevity.

Thank you.

You can see how bad it was in my photos below, I deep cleaned the entire thing just so I would be able to identify early what all needed to be done and assess whether I needed to get rid of it or fix myself and keep it. If I keep it I will repair all the rust and make her a decent ride again but if it

And thermostat nuts are rusted on there and ill start rounding off the nut if i use too much man on them, applied a bit of liquid wrench hoping that sinks in good enough to give me some leverage. might have to dremel them off.....to tight a space to try torching them
them

Use a good 6 pointed x 12mm socket with a four inch extension and a breaker bar and they should loosen. They aren't that tight.

lol right, not that tight...I was using a 12mm 6 point socket (Kobalt brand) but I don't have a 1/2in size socket set just a 1/4in and 3/4. My only breaker bar is 3/4 and my socket for the therm Nuts was 1/4.......I have a step down from 3/4 to 1/2 but no sockets for 1/2 tools lol

I do however have a stripped nut/bolt remover 1/2 socket set that I bought in VA to help my buddies brother take off his lugs (didn't fit his lugs). Used one of those sockets a step down and the big 3/4 breaker bar to finally get it off lol way too complicated and rust build up was the issue, I even had saturated them in liquid wrench for a day wasn't till I remembered this 1/2 sockets that I finally got it!

All that work and the truck never even had a therm in it to replace....

Well, 1986 was all B2000. 1987 had both B2000 and B2200, and '88 and later were B2200 (not including the B2600* engines here). I'm not exactly sure what is compatible, I would use the look up features on Autozone and O'Reilly sites, see if the 1989 part and the 1986 part have the exact part number.

Thanks. I have another question. I put the thermostat in raised the front end like you said let it it run a good thirty or so minutes made sure coolant was full. Etc.

No over heating, it is cold out though. I put one of those testers to check for exhaust fumes in the radiator on there and got nothing. Surprised.

I didn't see a lot of pressure in the rad hoses though and (I replaced cap let run for about 15 min) I revved the engine at the throttle and held the too radiator hose didn't feel a change in it at all. So would that definately be a water pump? I should be able to feel it circulate the coolant if I rev it right?

Also if I am correct about it not circulating the coolant than i wouldn't be able to get a good test for exhaust in radiator if it's not circulating to begin with correct?