I'm working on a 1995 Plymouth Voyager with a 3.0L engine. It is having overheating issues. I've replace the radiator recently(before she put in the pepper corn). I have removed the thermostat. I have flowed water both directions through the heater core and no found no clog. The system is allowed to come up to temp and I have high pressure on both upper and lower radiator hoses. I removed the thermostat housing and started the engine and the flow coming out of the this area is poor. Today I disassembled the front to get to the water pump thinking the pump was bad but it looks fine. What a freakin pain that was.
No milky oil No white smoke
Any help is appreciated.

 

Hey! Was there just a leak? Pepper works,don't get me wrong:but its only taking care of the symptom,not the problem! A full flush and pressure test is in order,I am sure you will
find the issue(s)-Now is a good time to put one's cooling system in order anyway!
step66

 

The over flow container has a scuff that leaks. It was over heating before I put in a new radiator. I did a flush then.

 

-Was it really peppercorns or just black pepper? If it was the corns...you have a clogged system!

 

The trick is ground pepper not pepper corns. A raw egg works also. Both must be small leaks and not a big gash in the rad but they do indeed work until the proper fix can be done.

 

While you have the old water pump off put a new one in. You might be surprised. The pump blades can wear on a well used pump and you might not see a difference until it is sitting next to a new one. I would also replace the rad cap. If the pressure is not right it will overheat and the cap is often overlooked. I would also put a thermostat back in if you have not already done so and fill it up with new coolant.

You may want to get a compression test done before you throw more parts at it. You can have a bad head gasket that bleeds cylinder gases into the coolant and not have milky oil, oil in the coolant or white smoke.

 

Thanks for all the responses. I've replace the water pump and timing belt. I've come to the conclusion that the head gasket is letting coolant into the middle cylinder on the front side. I pulled the plug wire for this cylinder off at the distributor and the engine does not experience any change. It is not idling well. I removed the plug and it looked wet.
Although I do not see any white smoke to speak of, I feel this is the problem. I've watched many videos of this type of problem on youtube and I'm planning on trying the Blue Devil product. I'm choosing this route because this vehicle is a POS and anymore cash thrown into this vehicle would be a waste. I've just got to torque the bolt on the harmonic balancer and flush the system before I move on the the Blue Devil treatment. I'll post the results when finished.

 

Ok treatment Blue Devil in and I'm thinkin it did the trick. Of other problems: I found a bad injector, so that explains rough idle and a totally blocked up egr valve. After unpluging the egr and assembling everything it is running better but I still need an injector. The stores did not have one today so I'll finish the post once that is installed.