air pocket?

[sgull]

Okay then I'm going for it. Thanks a lot. I'll post back let you know how it went. Hope the heater hose comes off the nipple fairly easily, without my having to cut it, but probably that's too much to hope for.

 

[JC 97]

There is an easy way to get air out of the cooling system.Take your floor jack and raise up the front of the vehicle as high as the jack lifts. With the rad. cap off start and run the engine until the thermostat opens. The top of the radiator is now the high point and the air will expel out of the top of the rad. Top off the coolant when you are done. If you have air in the system you'll know. Place a pan under the rad. because it can get messy. Air will be pushing out coolant.

 

[sgull]

Adsm08 would you care comment please on the method JC 97 suggests above? Should that method work also to release any/all trapped air in the system?

 

[sgull]

I tried jacking up the front of the vehicle as high as I could get it with a floor jack and with the radiator cap off started and ran the engine until the thermostat opened. I let it run for about 25 minutes or so. The level never went down to where I could add any of my remaining coolant. Then I did the same thing while parked nose up on a steep hill (at an even higher angle than when I had the front jacked up). Still, the level never went down to where I could add any of my remaining coolant. So that method didn't work for me at all.

So I tried the other method. I removed one of the heater hoses from where it connects to the heater core, put a funnel on it and poured the coolant into the funnel/hose. Almost immediately coolant began running steadily out of the heater core nipple from where I removed the hose. I went ahead and poured all my remaining coolant into the funnel/hose, and all of it came running out the heater core nipple (I captured all of it in a bucket). So I'm still left with the same amount of my remaining coolant which I can't get the level down for the system to accept. So neither method worked for me.

Any further advice/comments appreciated. thanks

 

[JC 97]

If it is not overheating and seems as though you have no air pockets why are you worried about what coolant you have left over? If your rad is full and you have the proper level in your overflow tank and no other issues quit beating yourself up over what coolant you have left. The method I described is what I learned back in '89 when I was wrenching full time.

 

[sgull]

If it is not overheating and seems as though you have no air pockets why are you worried about what coolant you have left over? If your rad is full and you have the proper level in your overflow tank and no other issues quit beating yourself up over what coolant you have left. The method I described is what I learned back in '89 when I was wrenching full time.

Yes that method was also recommended to me by another experienced person also, and I am not questioning/doubting its effectiveness as a good method that should work to expel any trapped air. I am having no issues (heat works great, no erratic behavior of the temp gauge, no indications of overheating), the rad is full and proper level in the overflow tank. Only reason I am beating myself up over what coolant is left is because it is almost half a gallon and it definitely was in there before so seems logical it should all go back in, unless there's a significant air pocket remaining in the system.
Anyway, I decided since for now since there's no issues best I can do is just keep an eye on the level over time as I drive it around and if it ever goes down on its own I'll add the remaining as I can. Weird though.

Thanks