Few things to fix, New and ongoing issue Options

[kagemidnight]

I got my car back with a new 5sfe motor swapped in last week. I have a few kinks that I need to figure out though. First thing is, sometimes my car doesn't start or even turn over. I was told that the battery and alternator are both good but I have a bad terminal on the battery. This seems like an easy fix however, I want to make sure that it is actually the terminals and not something else. I can get it to start without popping the hood and making sure the terminal is snug on the battery, I just pop the clutch in and out a few times and it will usually start up.
Second problem is something that I just noticed today. My car was idling for a few minutes while I ran into a parts store, when I got back in I noticed that the temp was almost all the way up at the H. The second I start to drive the temp drops back down to normal. I somehow had a puncture in the top of my radiator cap so I replaced it thinking it had something to do with that, new cap,coolant is fine and it still idles hot. I took the vacuum hose off my intake and put a breather filter where it goes into the engine last night, could this be what is causing it? Please let me know, I would really appreciate it.
thanks.

This post has been edited by kagemidnight: Oct 13, 2009 - 11:49 AM

[kagemidnight]

ok so it started with a bad t-stat or something else that caused it to overheat while idling? Because of the overheating a few times the gasket warped and blew? Hopefully I will be able to fix this, although the simple fact of not having a way to get around is almost as bad as the money I will have to spend on it. I'll replace the thermostat since that appears to be the start of this whole problem, replace the head gasket and I should be in clear water for now? About the hesitation while driving, was this due to a loss of compression and will be fixed when I replace the head gasket? Sorry for all the questions, realizing now that I need to ask about absolutely everything before I go ahead and jump into a project.

if he didn't replace the old gasket when taking the valve cover off, would this eventually cause the head gasket to go?

This post has been edited by kagemidnight: Oct 15, 2009 - 12:58 PM