cooling problem from hell, part duex!

[fiveohpatrol]

almost positive its overheating, its the only guage acting up, also when it does it its not putting out hardly any heat through the heater, this problem is odd, because i just went down and let it run again with the cap off and put a little more coolant in and then drove it and it was fine! maybe i hadnt gotten the whole air pocket out the 1st time ? i dont know, im gonna drive it again in an hour or two and see what happens, oh yah and when i had the cap off i could see little flakes in my coolant, probably time for a new radiator right?

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88 Notchback 5.0, 3.73's, Explorer intake, pulleys, Crane 1.7's, BBK headers, off-road H-pipe, flowmasters, subframe connectors, 65mm TB, shift kit, March ram air kit, motorsport wires, MSD coil, upper and lower control arms, 155lph fuel pump, cheap 2800 stall, Crane Adj.FPR, best time- 13.99@99.75, not yet tested times after rocker and intake install