78 Alfetta Sedan overheating

["Ted Williams" <tedw@domain.elided>]

Hello all,

I finished replacing the cracked intake manifold a couple of weeks ago, and
had decided to try and take the Sedan to the smoggers. I figured it wasn't
running too bad, and knew someone that would do a pretest for me. The idea
being, if it would pass great, if not...I would just go ahead and get it
tuned as soon as possible. Anyhow...

2 Miles out of town the temp light came on. I checked the gauge and saw that
the temp was a bit over the 175 it usually ran. I quickly looked for a place
to pull over (on highway 1) where I could park the car without too many
people seeing it (its still not licensed in CA). Well, I ALMOST made it into
a parking lot at Cowell State Beach.....almost meaning, the car died driving
up the driveway to the dirt parking lot!

There wasn't a lot of traffic, so I decided to just pop the hood to see what
was up. This is funny, because I honestly shouldn't be messing with cars,
since I seem to have a knack for doing more damage than anything to them.

There was a slight hissing noise coming from the throttle bodies, and I
noticed some condensation as well. That was the only odd thing I saw
actually. I had originally thought that I hadn't put enough coolant in the
car from having drained it a couple weeks ago. I started the car and moved
it into the lot, it drove fine.

I had warmed the car up when I finished my prior repair...and it didn't have
this problem. I didn't have the air cleaner on the car however. I put that
back on last night. I don't see any reason why the air cleaner would be
having anything to do with the cooling system though....?

Upon starting the car again, I noticed some hissing sounds coming from the
throttle bodies, along the gasket to the intake manifold....so I'm thinking
I must have messed something up in my repair job. The only other thing I can
think of is that I got a bad thermostat. I had just replaced it with one I
got from Alfa Parts. The new thermostat is different than the one that came
out of the car. It is a one piece deal that bolts right onto the housing, if
that makes sense.

Anyone have any suggestions (besides putting myself and this car out of our
misery)? I don't know where to begin diagnosing the problem, but it never
did this BEFORE I worked on it...so I am more that positive that I have
something to do with this new issue.

Thanks,

Ted
HMB, CA
*&*%# Up 78 Afletta Sedan
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