tblazerdude
Member
- Dec 4, 2011
- 321
I can see this thread has gone in a lot of different directions but I wanted to reply to the original post. It is clear your thermostat needs to be replaced, and most have found here that it is worth your while to do the sensor at the same time. I see you mentioned you had done the "sea-foam" treatment. Was that the vacuum line method; With the smoke show? If so I see a potential problem forming here. When your thermostat is malfunctioning your engine will run "rich" (dumping excess fuel in order to increase combustion, and raise the temperature). This will eventually clog your catalytic converter. Doing the sea-foam "smoke show" has led many times to clogged catalytic converters. These two factors and the fact you mentioned the loss of power leads me to believe your catalytic converter has clogged, and should be replaced. You could have a simple "back pressure" test done at a local muffler shop for around $50 to confirm/deny the problem. Good luck.