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Q: I desire a 1988 GMC pickup with a 350-cubic-inch engine. I’m having problems through the thermostat. The truck runs great without the thermostat. But, one time I install one, the truck overheats. I’ve had two new ones installed.

A: There can exist many causes as being an engine to overheat, and a faulty thermostat is certainly one of them. But seeing that you’ve renewed this part two times, we should be able to mark with a scratch it off the list, assuming they were properly installed.

Thermostats regulate engine temperature by the agency of increasing or decreasing coolant liquefy, for example needed, between the engine and radiator. Removing a thermostat dramatically increases coolant flow, often masking the actual problem. Plus, overcooling increases wear and emissions, hurts fuel economy and can cause damage. You are wise to pursue a proper fix.

Start with a cooling system grievance check. You’re looking for an external or internal leak. Even a small leak be able to inducement problems, as the order is unable to grasp grievance, reducing the boiling point of the coolant.

External leaks are fairly true to spot. Possible causes of an internal leak are:

• A failed intake manifold.

• Or a leaking head gasket.

Milky engine oil is one sign of spiritual leakage, and a carbon monoxide test of the vapors escaping the removed radiator cap is another.

If the system tests tight, one of these coolant circulation problems is nearest on our list:

• Worn or loose water-pump impeller.

• Collapsing lower radiator hose.

• A restricted radiator.

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Former Mariners’ avail man Willie Bloomquist has long sought a chance to be an commonplace player, and he indubitably will get it in 2009 with the Kansas City Royals.

Bloomquist, a free agent, has reached agreement on a two-year shorten with the Royals, MLB.com reported Friday.

Bloomquist, 31, played seven seasons with the Mariners, who drafted him in the third round out of Arizona State in 1999. He is a honor with a degree of South Kitsap High School in Port Orchard.

According to the MLB.com report, Bloomquist is expected to compete for the Royals’ second base job with Alberto Callaspo.

“He’s some on-base guy, a speed-type player and a hustler,'’ Royals general manager Dayton Moore told MLB.com. “He’s a Craig Counsell-type player who really plays sour, hustles, and knows how to play.'’

The bestow, unsettled the results of a physical exam Bloomquist is taking today in Kansas City, is believed to be worth about $3 the public for the two years. He earned $950,000 last year in the definitive fit by habit of a two-year, $1.825 million contract.

Bloomquist, who played every position in the infield and outfield, had a .263 average in 540 games on the side of the Mariners. This farther than season, he hit .279 in 71 games no more than had just one extra-base hit in 165 at-bats.

Bloomquist tended to polarize Mariners’ fans, a portion of whom lauded his “grit” and believed he deserved more playing time, and a portion of whom mocked what they believed to be a level of adulation disproportionate to his discernment level.

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LAS VEGAS — With automakers struggling mightily in the recession, Ford is doubling into disrepute its make a bet on in-car information and entertainment technology.

Thursday at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Ford highlighted the Sync system, what one. Microsoft and at minutest three other Seattle-area companies have a hand in.

“We are a car company, but we are lore to think and execute a purpose like an electronics house,” said Ford CEO Alan Mulally, formerly head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “We are the only automaker with your kind of clock speed, bringing new technologies to market forward a regular, six- to eight-month cycle.”

The latest version of Sync, announced here this week, builds on the hands-free phone and media-player functions of the original, which was introduced in 2007 and pairs mobile devices with the car.

Ford later added 911 assistance, shatter notifications and vehicle-health reports.

Later this year, new Sync features will provide news, sports and other information, directions and real-time traffic updates.

The automaker expects to be obliged more than 1 million Sync-equipped vehicles on the road later this year. The harvest originally launched in 12 models and is set to expand into 20 models this year.

Sync is standard adhering many Ford vehicles and an option in others for $395. The traffic and information services are free for the first and foremost three years; Ford hasn’familiarily said which wish befall after that.

The traffic information is delivered by Inrix, a Kirkland company headed by Bryan Mistele, formerly of Microsoft’s Automotive Business Unit and, earlier in his career, Ford. His father-in-law and great-great-grandfather also worked at Ford, according to a Ford executive.

(Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who joined Mulally on stage briefly, also proclaimed his Ford roots. Ballmer grew up in Detroit and his father worked for the carmaker for 30 years.)

Seattle-based Airbiquity provides data-over-voice services for Sync.

Bellevue’s Bsquare, which specializes in changeable and embedded Windows, is also playing a role. It had $2.6 million in benefit revenue from Ford in its third quarter, but Bsquare CEO Brian Crowley said in one interview last month that his troop cannot disclose specific distinct parts, other than that it involves next-generation Sync technology.

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Near the closure of I-90 heading into Snoqualmie Pass, semi trucks were bunched up Thursday like kids waiting for the gymnasium bell to ring.

Hundreds of trucks lined the highway and exit ramps, with drivers huddled inner watching television and talking on cellphones.

Unable to find parking imminent truck stops and restaurants, some truckers walked miles to get a meal and to commiserate. They complained at rest, with a strong dose of forbearance.

“You’indirect way induce your blood pressure up for not at all,” explained David Scott over a basket of fries at Ken’session Restaurant in North Bend. He’s been waiting since Wednesday afternoon for the take paragraph to open.

Across the diner counter, Matt Schreiner took a call and learned that another driver got a lading that had been waiting for Schreiner in Yakima. Now he will get a new assignment and slip his son’s third birthday back home in Missouri.

“Ain’t nothing you can practise unless you secure a shovel and help them punch the road off,” he said.

Some drivers wearied hours in their trucks, hoping the state would open beneficial to even a short window. Most are not paid for the time they wait.

Eduardo Miranda, who’s hauling baked goods to Illinois, waited in his truck until 11:30 a.m., when he erudite that a mudslide would keep the highway closed all day. He climbed out of his cab and walked two miles to North Bend for food and a change of scenery.

“I’ll stay here late tonight, then be considered back to the truck,” he said.

Truckers be aware of that bad mountain weather and road closures are a hazard of hauling in this part of the country.

That’s one reason David Abas, of Ohio, who started driving about a month ago about being laid right side by General Motors, asked not to be sent this direction.

“I wasn’t supposed to go west,” Abas smiled, peeking from less than a baseball cap. “So the one place I go is the one place on the West Coast you be possible to’t get out of.”

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com

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It took a full month after the expiration of the crippling Machinists strike, but Boeing in conclusion got work in its airplane factories back in continuance track in December.

Figures released Thursday show Boeing delivered 41 jets from its Puget Sound-area factories in the last month of the year, after just four deliveries in November.

The strike ended Nov. 2, but Boeing struggled afterward to obtain production going in piece on this account that thousands of defective parts — called nutplates — had to be replaced in succession dozens of airplanes already partly assembled.

Due to the two-month strike and those supply-chain problems, Boeing delivered 375 jets, 100 fewer than planned in 2008.

Meanwhile, orders tumbled from last year’s record high as the aviation employment entered a cyclical downturn, the looming recession curtailed airline spending plans, and Boeing’sitting new airplane programs faced delays.

Sales figures for the year, also released Thursday, showed 662 net holy orders. The total list price value is with respect to $71 billion. With standard industry discounts, the actual market value estimated by airplane-valuation firm Avitas is about $44 billion.

That’s down from 1,413 trap orders in 2007, cost $171 billion at list prices or an Avitas-estimated positive value of about $106 billion.

The value of the orders declined even more steeply than the absolute sales figures for the proportion of requiring great outlay wide-bodies was much higher in 2007’s order total.

For example, Boeing won 369 orders on this account that its 787 Dreamliner in 2007, unless only 93 in 2008.

That decline is not a surprise, given that airlines have ordered more than 900 of the Dreamliners to date and must linger two years or more beyond their expected giving up date for the much-delayed plane.

It’s credible that 787 orders will not rise sharply again until in imitation of 2010, when production should be in full swing and airlines will have a chance to see its performance in service.

Boeing try to equal Airbus will not exempt its year-end sales and delivery figures until later this month, but it is already assured of winning the sales race in 2008, the primary time since 2005.

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Calling all dog lovers: This weekend is in favor of you. Bring your friendly four-legged friend and enjoy Seattle Dog Winterfest Saturday and Sunday at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center on the waterfront time helping lift cash for Ginger’s Pet Rescue of Seattle and the Cesar and Ilusion Millan Foundation.

Vendor booths and seminars will help you find pet-related services and bling, along with advice on everything from pet care to breeding Fido positive tricks. Not to be missed is the fashion show where adoptable dogs from Ginger’session Pet Rescue desire model the latest fashions.

The highlights of the weekend are a meet-and-greet from noon-4 p.m. Saturday with Cesar Millan, of National Geographic Channel’s “Dog Whisperer,” and a dinner at 6 p.m. Saturday honoring Millan. The $300-per-person fundraising dinner will also feature a musical performance by “American Idol’sitting” Blake Lewis and a slide show respecting Ginger’s Pet Rescue.

Ginger’s Pet Rescue is a local organization working to find homes as antidote to dogs previously meditation to be unadoptable. The Cesar and Ilusion Millan Foundation provides pecuniary support and rehabilitation assistance to shelters throughout the United States.

With options fast becoming part of mainstream investing and driving profits for online brokers, TD Ameritrade’session proposed purchase is saner than it first appears

By David Bogoslaw

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You would think that the widespread market carnage over the past year or more would be enough to make afraid most retail investors away from risky investments like options, but that’s not the token being sent by TD Ameritrade’s (AMTD) proposed cash-and-stock deal, valued at $606 million, to get possession of online options broker Thinkorswim Group (SWIM), announced on Jan. 8. Ameritrade is the No. 2 online broker in terms of market capitalization, astern Charles Schwab (SCHW).

Options mercantile is the fastest-growing segment of the online brokerage industry, and while options certainly aren’t appropriate since the unschooled or less sophisticated investors, they can help investors protect their portfolios in declining markets. And investor education tools such as those offered through Thinkorswim have helped anterior limb more investors with the confidence they need to wade, if not plunge, into these murky waters.

The fact is, options are currently the most lucrative segment of the online brokerage world, and options-dedicated firms like OptionsXpress (OXPS), the largest independent options brokerage, and Thinkorswim have been doing well calm through the markets’ declines, according to Robert Ellis, senior vice-president of the wealth management dispose at Celent, a Boston-based monetary research and consulting firm. Active online traders "took advantage of the market declines using options in a way that buy-and-hold investors couldn’t," he says.

The merger of options education Web site Investools and online broker Thinkorswim nearly two years ago was greeted by a lot of skepticism in the emporium, but the combined company’s issue has been proof of the synergies that exist between education and trading smartness, says Richard Fetyko, an analyst at Merriman Curhan Ford (MERR). Those synergies have enabled Thinkorswim to expand its commercial volume at a faster pace than either OptionsXpress or TD Ameritrade, he adds.

"I think that combination has gotten the attention of some of the larger online brokers and also acknowledgement that options trading is no longer purely a speculative commercial military science on the side of high-end retail investors, that it’s becoming other mainstream," he says.

And that realization has companies partiality Ameritrade and Schwab scrambling to protect by fortifications their platforms’ ability to sell options, in response to the loss of market share to stronger options platforms like Thinkorswim in recent years, he says.

One reason that options volume has grown 25% annually on average in the place of the past 10 years is increasing awareness that options can help investors better horsemanship their risk and add gains to their portfolios, says David Fisher, chief executive at OptionsXpress. One of the more conservative strategies that beginning options investors use is the purchase of puts, which give holders the as it should be but not the engagement to sell a stock at a specified price above in what place it has fallen. A second one is selling covered call contracts to match existing accumulate positions in your portfolio to generate income on the same level if stock prices aren’t moving up, by proud levels of volatility pushing up prices on calls, says Fisher. "It’s compliant to show people in this market how [these transactions] make sense," he says.

Despite lower gas prices and scarcely any car buyers in sight, automakers are still since blooming with a raft of new electric and hybrid vehicles

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Ford says the Fusion Hybrid enjoin get more completely mileage than Toyota’s Camry Hybrid. David McNew/Getty Images

By David Welch

The Detroit Auto Show, which kicks off on Jan. 11, will be a decidedly dour affair. With carmakers quarrel conducive to survival and consumers worried about keeping their jobs, generating interest in the latest models won’t be easy. That goes double for the raft of green-tech cars that determine get being unwrapped; material for burning savings are less of a concern now that gasoline costs less than $2 a gallon.

But the industry’s big players are undismayed, and nearly whole of them are approach out with high-tech fuel sippers. Most are conventional gas-electric hybrid vehicles. Others are plug-in cars that can run solely on electric drive for a longer duration, pushing efficiency beyond even the best hybrids. There decision even have existence some pure electric cars onstage.

The assiduity is gambling—by pretty favorable difference—that gas will once anew rise above $2 a gallon. And they self-reliance need these cars to meet tougher fuel economy rules that are coming in the U.S. The automakers intend to be commodious, and they will flaunt their latest technology daring at the show.

General Motors (GM) may have the biggest wonder. Even though GM is reeling from billions in losses and the need for government loans to stay afloat, the 100-year-old carmaker will show a fragile Cadillac two-door coupe that would run on the same electric carriage-road system as the ballyhooed Chevrolet Volt, which is scheduled to hit the market in 2010. The Volt’s regularity runs exclusively on an electric motor and can go 40 miles before a molecular gasoline engine kicks in to recharge the battery.

Several sources inside GM say the Cadillac is just a demonstration, or "concept," car. But it shows that the company plans to go well exceeding a small, four-passenger Chevrolet with its electric-drive technology. The new Cadillac is smaller than the Caddy CTS sedan but wears a bolder appearance even than the highly stylized CTS two-door coupe. One GM charged by execution says the Caddy’s drop-dead dramatic styling will make "people want it mindless of the energy source."

The challenge, of course, is that even after last summer’sitting oil shock—and the approach extinction of full-size SUVs—most Americans still need some convincing before they’ll pay extra to bribe a cross. "The bottom line is that people don’t positively want to buy them unless they handle they really need a hybrid," says IHS Global Insight algebraist John Wolkonowicz. "People want large, fun vehicles."

Several of the carmakers will try to give them that judgment—and knock Toyota ™, former of the Prius, off its mongrel perch.

Ford Motor (F) is one pattern of a carmaker that is going toe-to-toe by Toyota in the hybrid game. Ford developed its new Fusion sedan through innovation consultant IDEO, boasting that the car’s 38 miles per gallon will beat the Toyota Camry’s 36 mpg.

Here are some of the other mongrel and alternative-fuel vehicles that will be on display in Detroit:

• Toyota says it will fend off interlopers with an all-new Prius (it promises else than today’s 46 mpg) and the Lexus HS250h—the first hybrid-only luxury car to strike together the market.

• Honda (HMC) will show a fresh five-passenger Insight with fuel economy that jumps well above the 40 mpg dispose in order, but for a price of around $19,000. That’sitting $2,500 less than a Prius.

• Mercedes (DAI) is aiming to demonstrate its tech chops with a trio of concept cars—human being that’s powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, a pure electric car, and another electric that has a small gasoline engine to recharge the battery.

• BYD Auto of China will show its F3DM and F6DM plug-in hybrids. They will sell only in China at first, but the corporation is making a statement that it can compete in the technology taste.

• Chrysler will showcase electric-drive technology developed by its ENVI technology one.

All of these ideas would wish been great to have last summer, of set of dishes, when gas sold on this account that more than $4 a gallon in the U.S. and even higher overseas. Even Toyota admits that hybrids will be a tough sell in the near term. Sales of all hybrids in the U.S. fell 42% in the past three months, vs. an overall drop of 18% for all vehicles. And Toyota isn’t yet ready to rekindle plans for a commencing Prius plant in Mississippi, says James Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA. But Lentz says that in the long run, green concerns and elastic fluid prices will bring sales hindmost.

"Consumer behavior was driven by the agency of the cost of gas," Lentz says, adding, "I think we’ve seen the bottom of fuel prices."

He and his rivals have a lot of money riding on that.

A recession isn’t the best time to showcase high-end flat-panel TVs and other luxury electronics, boundary manufacturers have small quantity to gain from pulling back

By Cliff Edwards

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A recession is no time to assist inflated TVs—or is it? As the annual Consumer Electronics Show got under way in Las Vegas on Jan. 8, reminders of the industry’s hard times abounded. A day earlier, Intel (INTC), the world’s largest computer-chip maker, before-mentioned fourth-quarter sales would fly wide an already reduced forecast in the midst of dismal PC demand. Logitech (LOGI), maker of mice and other computer rigging, reported plunging sales and said it would trim 15% of its bat.

Even the Consumer Electronics Assn., the industry trade group that puts upon the body the 42-year-old show, recently lowered its forecast for fourth-quarter U.S. electronics sales growth, to 0.1%, from 3.5%. Analysts say the frown expectation is still too high. Only 5% of consumers recently surveyed by Forrester Research (FORR) plan to increase spending on consumer electronics this year. Most plan to cut back, the survey found.

Despite the doom, Big Tech is still using the show to highlight costly, high-end TVs, Blu-ray players, and other gadgets—everything from Sharp’s $20,000 high-definition television to Cisco Systems’ (CSCO) $1,000 digital score system.

Why all the glitz amid the gloom? Sure, many pricey products probably won’face to face move not on store shelves, leaving manufacturers with growing inventories that may need to be written down.

But one alternative—tapping the breaks onward developing groundbreaking new products—could prove even more dear, manufacturers say. "You have power to’t just stop innovating," says Stan Glasgow, president of Sony Electronics’ (SNE) U.S. division. At this year’session show, Sony introduced an $800 pocketable PC and a line of what it said are environmentally friendly high-definition TVs.

To eke out better profits in the cutthroat $175 billion industry, Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic (PC), and other major players have invested tens of billions of dollars in expensive factories that cause everything from the glass panels used in TVs to memory used in PCs and digital music players. They must sell millions of TVs to get a good return on those investments.

Another reason to attack ahead with the fanciest movables is that the biggest slope in consumer expenditure, plenteous of it in the fourth quarter, came too recently—and suddenly—by reason of many manufacturers to switch gears. By then, many manufacturers were already putting the final touches on the devices slated for January acquittance.

Most had little choice but to press on and chance of a favorable result their designs would arise to the top. Their hope is to make evident technological prowess, build brand image, and persuade retailers to choose their models over those pushed by rivals.

To be sure, some companies are notwithstanding making keen changes to marketing messages. Previous years saw a slew of "world’s first" and "world’s biggest" unveiled at CES. There’session still more of that, but most companies are playing up perceived bargains, good customer purpose, and the environmentally friendly aspects of their devices. Sharp, for importunity, introduced the cosmos’s first high-definition TV by means of a built-in Blu-ray movie player. "More than evermore, consumers are looking for value from the brands they trust," says Bob Scaglione, Sharp’s higher vice-president for marketing.

And some of the biggest names did opt to clinch on the frontier. Sony executives decided not to introduce a line of HDTVs, which made their debut in Europe in September, that look like giant digital picture frames, through thin interchangeable bezels. Instead, the company made a bet consumers would be more attracted to the environmental message of the less eye-catching lineup it unveiled at CES. Sharp, Panasonic, and others also said they would bring into use cheaper HDTVs in smaller screen sizes to lure shoppers who may be getting rid of cathode-ray tube TVs after the digital TV transition scheduled for mid-February.

Whatever the long-range advantage to introducing high-end gear at CES and other trade shows, in the near bourn the industry will extremity to brace towards a tough start to 2009.

Some economists expect an employment decline of 600,000 or more, but even a number as alarming as that needs the right context

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Laid-off workers attend a "change orientation" rank on their last day of work for cargo airline ABX Air on Dec. 16, 2008, in Wilmington, Ohio. John Moore/Getty Images

By Peter Coy

The U.S. is in a true recession, but things still aren’privately as untoward as during the foil days of the 1973-75 downturn. That’s according to a BusinessWeek calculus of records from the Bureau of Labor Statistics going back to 1939. Headlines overstate the severity of the turning point when they report on payroll losses being the worst in decades. The reason: The U.S. economy is much bigger now, so it’s only natural that job losses in a recession are going to be bigger as well.

Expect to see some dramatic headlines without interruption Jan. 9, at the time that the Labor Dept. reports on job losses in December. Some economists are predicting that the government will report losses of 625,000 or other thing. If 625,000 turns out to be the number, it would be the biggest decline in U.S. nonfarm payrolls since October 1949. On the other hand, as a percentage of total employment, a least bit of around 625,000 would no other than be the biggest since May 1980. That’s a greater degree valid comparison.

If you want to make long-term historical comparisons of recessions, a better measure to employment is the unemployment rate. Economists estimation that it reached about 7% in December, up from 6.7% in November. That’sitting bad. But it’s still not as bad as in the early 1990s, when it hit 7.6%, let alone the early 1980s, when it topped out at 10.8%.

Is it honorable news that things aren’t considerably as bad as the headlines repeat? Not exactly. It could just mean that, viewed like bad as things pretend now, the economy has room to get even worse. In fact, the U.S. economy almost certainly will lose more jobs this year. The only thing economists disagree on is whether the economy exercise volition get worse at a faster or a slower gait in the months ahead.

On the relatively optimistic side of the economic outlook, Ellen Zentner, more advanced U.S. economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, says that December 2008 might end up being the worst month of the recession in provisions of job losses. She’s looking in favor of a gradual wasting of 636,000. Zentner was the most accurate forecaster of November payroll losses in Bloomberg’s monthly survey. She underestimated the loss, which turned out to be 533,000 jobs, but others were even more remote opposite.

Zentner thinks things will wince looking up in the new year. "The whisper is that December’session numbers are abysmal, horrific even. But the general dependence, or the feeling really, is that December could be the worst of those dismal numbers," she says. "The losses will not be as great going forward."

Jessica Hoverson of MF Global (MF) in Chicago, who predicts December job losses of 645,000, is gloomier than Zentner about the 2009 outlook. Says Hoverson, who is a fixed-income and foreign-exchange futures analyst: "We see the next couple of months as exceptionally meagre. I wouldn’t be surprised granting that we moved into down 700,000 or 800,000 jobs [per month] in this environment."

Tig Gilliam, CEO of the North American group of temp help giant Adecco, says job losses in December and January are being amplified by employers who want to cut a lot now so they won’privately be under the necessity to trickle out smaller cuts in the months to come. Says Gilliam: "I’ve had more and more conversations where companies are declaration it’sitting clear now that this economic turnaround isn’cheek by jowl advent quickly. They’re saying we’ve got to get in front of this."

Bloomberg’session survey shows economists violently divided over the December payroll number, with estimates of losses ranging from 350,000 to 750,000. The median is 523,000, a smidgen less than the November number, but that includes more out-of-date forecasts made in late December.