heater blows cold air

feel the heater core hoses with the car warmed up, is one hose hotnone one or both hoses hot? post back what you find.

were you getting heat before you replaced teh thermostat?

No heat before ,replaced the stat and cap, 1996 ford escort wagan, I fill tthe rad with coolant, start the engine with cap off it blew lots of coolant out the top,
300,000 km.

both heater hoses are cold and they were cold even before I put the Stat and cap, I can drive the car for 3 or 4 miles and the guage stays to the lowest position, also the top rad hose gets warm and sort of hard to squeeze

when you replaced the thermostat, did you bleed the system of air? also your heater control valve may be no longer functioning explaining whyy the hoses are both cold.

How do you bleed the system of air?

the easiest way is to put the car up on jack stands, remove the radiator cap and let the car run, and slowly add coolant untill it is full.

this works because the heater core is the highest part of the coolant system, and that is where the air bubbles go, by putting up the front end it makes the radiator fill hole the highest point and hte air purges out.

1996 ford escort, 1.9 ci., 200,000 km., new rad cap and thermostat, .... when I filled the rad with coolant and started the engine it blew the coolant out off the Rad.... I than filled the rad again with the engine off, top rad, hose hot... the in heater hose Hot.. the out heater hose cold.. I drove the car for 5 miles and let idle for 10 minutes,.... dash gauge shows normal, still cold air out off the heater. could it be a head gasket ? or water pump ? or plugged radiator/heater core?