I had no heat in my escort either. A new thermostat, cooling system flush, new heater core, another new thermostat, ect. but nothing worked. Still only slightly warm air from the vents. The thermostat housing has a thermostat bypass in it. This bypass is always circulating coolant through your radiator. I plugged mine off with a thermostat gasket and now my car heats and blows hot air with no complications. Good luck.
There could be several things wrong with the system that the thermostat gauge is connected to. You could check to see if the gauge is working correctly. If the gauge works fine, then it could be the housing that the thermostat is mounted to. It could also be a faulty bypass valve near the thermostat which prevents the engine from heating up. Check these places to see what may be wrong with your escort.
My 2001 Nissan frontier 3.3 v6 engine is overheating. I changed the thermostat but it still overheats.
check or replace thermostat
check the radiator cap, needs to be 13psi at least, i believe. that was my issue with my old ford, the cap was shot
Check your spark plugs for water. they should all be light tan in color. If they are do a compression check, there should be no more then 10 lbs.differance between all the cyl.'s.
Check your connection with the fan on/off sensor. Should be located somewhere on the thermostat housing. Sometimes if there is no signal, the fan will stay on (failsafe). Could also be the sensor
I would be thinking it is a head gasket.
You should check your Toyota Tacoma's owners manual. There should be a diagram for the location of your thermostat.
Check the thermostat first. I had an intermittent overheating problem on my 02 for almost a year, changed the thermostat and it never happened again. If that doesn't work, secondly I would check the water pump.
First check the water level. Low level will not get to the heater core. Change the thermostat. If you recently changed the thermostat, bleed the coolant system.
U take the thermostat out, get a pot of water, put the thermostat in it and start it to boiling. When the water reaches the temp that the thermostat is designed to operate at it should open , if not , it is defective
If the engine is taking a long time to warm up or the gauge registers low heat the thermostat probably is stuck open and needs to be replaced. If the engine runs hot check the temperature of the upper radiator hose. If it's not hot the thermostat is stuck closed and should be replaced. If the upper hose is hot it means the thermostat is open and working. Cooling problem could be restricted radiator.