RedDragoN750

heater core flushed. system bone dry. bleeder closed, i blow in reservoir and nothing, air tight. bleeder open, dump in cooloant, wait to drain through, dump more, wait, nothing. start up car heater on high fan on medium, revs around 2000. nothing, nothing. all hell breaks loose. fans turn on, not a whole lot happening on the bleeder screw end of things but reservoir bubbling over like no-ones business. not really foaming at bleeder, but i think i got it closed when a bit of liquid was coming out. but now I've gone through 8 litres of water, 4 litres of coolant (I have no idea how much is on the floor of my garage, but I'd guess a fair bit) and my reservoir is nearly dry, also the heater wasn't blowing hot air, just luke warm. this is nuts! what the hell is goin on?

4Driver4

I bleed the car cold. I fill the tank with coolant and use a special cap with a hole in it to pressure the coolant tank. Then I crack the bleeders and flush the air out.

DaveInSaltLake

If I take my time I run the engine til it reaches operating temps and keep filling the reservoir.

Then I let it cool for a couple hours, refill the reservoir, and repeat.

Then a good hard run on the freeway generally burps another bit of air out of the system.

I'll have to look into making a cap with a nipple on it like 4 describes. That sounds pretty slick.

austinado16

If you had the fans cycling, you were close.

I'd top off the coolant tank, close that bleeder up top and go for a short drive. Stop every few minutes and just crack the cap open enough to relieve the pressure.

When you get back home, let it sit for a half hour or so, top it up again, put the cap back on and see how it does just sitting there running.

You should have cycling fans and a heater blowing very hot air on a low speed.

If it's not getting any better, consider having the steam from the coolant tank sniffed for exhaust gasses buy a shop with an exhaust gas analyzer.....because you probably have blown head gaskets.

RedDragoN750

This just doesn't make sense, I've been through nearly 12 litres of fluid, I have no more coolant or distilled water, and the reservoir is bone dry. And how do you tell if it's bled properly or not? And yes the fans were cycling.

austinado16

If the fans are cycling, you know you have good circulation and that both sides of the radiator are the same tempurature. That's the big hurdle right there.

Now do as I suggested in my previous post and see what happens.

If you have blown headgaskets that are pushing hot combustion gases into the cooling system you'll know soon enough.

Go get the steam sniffed.

RedDragoN750

Other than getting the steam sniffed are there any tell-tale signs of blown head gasket?

austinado16

Get the steam sniffed.

78westfalia

Why couldn't you do the same thing with a vacuum? I have a device that connects to the tank, you pull a vacuum (usually 25-30lbs), then put a hose into your coolant bottle. The vacuum then sucks the coolant into the system. When there's no more vacuum, the system is full with no air.

austinado16

Why? Because this normally doesn't take that much effort.