Good on ya mate! Now that the stat is back in you will find it warms up a lot quicker from cold. Heater will work better too.

 

Probably not a bad idea to flush the system some time and top up with new coolant.

 

Does she still rough rough first thing? Track down your manual when you can and start checking the obvious things. It doesn't cost any money to check if all systems are set correctly, just a little time.

 

Enjoy!

Edited November 18, 200916 yr by Dirk

Did it run hot?

No, I drove it to work and back today with no overheating issues. It also didn't start rough, but that can be an on and off thing.

 

The oil pressure and temperature both seemed pretty normal, oil is maybe a tiny bit low, but better than it usually is. The car had pretty substantial oil and coolant leaks before it actually started over heating, and I imagine both of those are still present.

 

For now, the car is driving better than usual and isn't overheating, so that works for me. My buddy came down from portland so he brought my manual, and I'll start looking through things when I get a chance.

Your overheating was probably due to the coolant leak - which only got worse over time and recently became intollerable apparently. The leak would cause the cooling system to never reach it's proper pressure - without the pressure the coolant would boil and boiling fluids don't propagate heat worth beans.

 

This is a good lesson to all those who immediately jump to the head gaskets when they see an engine overheat. There are a multitude of reasons that the cooling system can fail to control the temp properly. One of the most common is failing to acheive proper system pressure. A simple thing like a failed radiator cap that won't hold up to it's spec can cause some of the same symtoms as a bad head gasket.

 

GD