I had all water pump go bad so I changed it along with the thermostat with a well known name GATES. I flushed the radiator and it flowed fine. I then flushed the block with a garden hose before installing the thermostat. Installed the thermostat put new hoses on and then put in a cooling system cleaner. I ran it for a bit then let it sit for 3 days to soak. I then drained it and refilled 5 times till it was almost clear. Every thing looks good. I filled it with 50/50 coolant and started the bleeding process for ever till I consistently got hot air coming out of the dash... sounds good right.. one thing I notice is the temp gauge stays at half once it's warmed up and the fans go from low to high when it gets hot. BUT my lower radiator hose from the thermostat never gets warm. The top of the rad is hot to the touch along with the upper hose and the cross over hose. So to check if the thermostat is opening I unplug the fans and run it to see if the hose gets warm but it never does and the temp gauge never goes higher then half.. I'm not driving the car it's on stands so I'm not to sure if the new water pump is flowing or the thermostat is working. I'm guessing the water pump is working because I filled the overflow before restarting it and upon restart it sucks the coolant out.. any idea? Is it just not getting to 180 degrees maybe..