I went to re-fill the coolant loop on the kit tonight after repairing a failed hose and after a hours sodding about have very fully reminded myself that it is not self-bleeding!

Once its running its never been an issue, but last time i ended up jacking the rear up three foot, extending the filler two foot, and cracking off just about all the joints to get it air free. What a sod.

I have some knowlage of good/bad installations and im sure ive seen said but wondered if someone had a bit of a list of do's and dont to refresh myself.


Cheers in advance, Daniel.

I think it sets a new low for MS paint drawings, however, this is sketch of what i have.


-CVH engine with standard thermosat housing and top of engine
-Large 30-35mm hose out of stat, round 180 bend at C, and into rad, all at about bonnet level
-Small 8mm hose out of top of stat housing into top of header, shortish run,
-1/2 hose from stat housing to water pump (not shown) presumably would have been heater take off
-30mm hose out of bottom of rad, jointer, onto hose to pump, fairly smooth run but does go up and back down again (air lock?)
-1/2 hose Ts off former hose (hose is molded with 1/2inch take off) bit this has a bit of a kink in at A (not helping?) to bottom of header
-Bleed point at B which ive never really got any air out of an no longer really bother with. No bleed point on rad.



Symptoms are, nothing much happens till the stat opens, then all the water is pushed out of the header, steam everywhere.
If you then refill you get good flow out of 8mm hose into header, until it boils again and throws it all out for the second time.

The hoses are all fairly shot and as the zetec re-engine plan is on hold again for other reasons, im not against changing them.



Thoughts?


Daniel

how accurate is the drawing (lol) as far as the height of the radiator above the top hose goes?
and there's a kink in the bottom hose? ie goes up from the radiator, and back down to the engine?

move the top hose above the top of the radiator, so air can't collect in the top of the radiator, and try to re-route the bottom hose so its a good run up from the radiator to the engine, without going higher than the engine inlet.



Description

you kinda see, any air in the top of the radiator should find its way to the bleed hose to the heade, and in the bottom hose, should find its way through the block to the bleed hose.

Sounds like fair advice,.
- I'll have a go at moving the top hose up a bit and replacing the bottom hose with something more direct.
- Last time i recall resorting to lifting the rear end up 3ft, but don't have the warewithall to do that so easily now.

My other thought was to get around to changing the rad for a polo rad, which would then have a bleed point, so with a extension to the head tank would allow bleeding of that.


Daniel

What engine are you using? Sometimes it's possible to remove a temperature sensor to bleed a cooling system or if you have a heater pipe fit a bleed valve