how to bleed the air out of the cooling system? WITH FIX

[LOGIE]

Believe me i done a search and i know the answer is in here somewhere but all i could find was unanswered queries and wrong answers. Ive just fitted my new SRD radiator this morning and all i need to do is add the new coolant and bleed the air out..? Where is the bleed screw? i thought about just running the engine with the rad cap off for a while and the heater turned up full but there must be a way of doing this properly.. ie a screw to bleed the air out. anyone help?

 

thanks

Edited April 7, 2012 by LOGIE (see edit history)

[Andy-No-Knee]

There isnt a bleed screw. Hodge got a shiny gucci bit of kit from the US (see his Shiny Bits thread) to bleed his rad but in short it looks like a 2 ltr coke bottle with the wide base cut off and then the neck where the lid threads onto is then shoived into the neck of the rad. Fill the rad up and about an inch or so of the coke bottle and it will eventually run through. At least that is how memory serves.

[sdistc]

Another good tip is to park the car nose up on an incline (on axle stands is doable, but a bit risky - better to do on a hill) to keep the radiator fill at the highest point (with the inverted coke bottle full of water/coolant in the fill point), then while engine running and heater on full, keep squeezing the heater hoses to ensure removal of all air bubbles. Keep topping up the coke bottle until no more bubbles or change in level.

[LOGIE]

I just done what i said i was going to do in post #1 and it worked although it took a while (over half an hour) whilst topping up i never had a coke bottle so i just used a funnel:D Just a case of be patient and watch engine temp guage.

[Lee P]

The system is self bleeding. Have the car raised at the front slightly then fill through the rad.

 

This will take a while as the fluid will also fill the engine as well if needed. Keep topping up slowly until you can't fill anymore. Move the top hose up and down a bit and you will see the level drop and some bubbles come out. Also make sure the expansion bottle is also just over half full.

 

Repeat this till it won't take any more, stick the cap on then run the engine with the heater in the hot position.

 

Let the car get upto temp until the thermostat opens then turn it off.

 

Let it completely cool down recheck the levels, job done.

Edited April 7, 2012 by Lee P (see edit history)

[LOGIE]

The system is self bleeding. Have the car raised at the front slightly then fill through the rad.

 

This will take a while as the fluid will also fill the engine as well if needed. Keep topping up slowly until you can't fill anymore. Move the top hose up and down a bit and you will see the level drop and some bubbles come out. Also make sure the expansion bottle is also just over half full.

 

Repeat this till it won't take any more, stick the cap on then run the engine with the heater in the hot position.

 

Let the car get upto temp until the thermostat opens then turn it off.

 

Let it completely cool down recheck the levels, job done.

 

Thanks Lee, The radiator you sold me is working a treat.