New to forums need help with coolant system bleeding/repair

[99rangerwv]

Hello all got two ranger station stickers on my back glass will post pics later but this site is awesome so far. Just had a question though on my cooling system. I bought dex cool orange coolant today 50/50 and prestone flush cleaner for radiator all in my price range. My question is that when i change out coolant and am at the bled step can i do this procedure without a spill free funnel? All the videos online use one but i am tight on money right now and have a few old regular cone funnels i can use or if anyone has another suggestion to bled the system with? First time doing this with my truck which has about 124000 on it and has limescale in the resevoir. Also going to clean thag with lime away cleaner. Thanks all any suggestions on bleeding is appreciated

 

[RonD]

Welcome to TRS

Burping air from the cooling system isn't all that hard.
Cooling systems are self burping, you just want to get most of the air out when refilling.

So regular funnel is fine.

Rad cap should be the high point in a cooling system, but often times heater hoses are
If you can park facing uphill or jack up the front it can help get extra air out, make rad the high point.

After filling as much as you can leave rad cap off, start engine and turn heat control to HOT, you can leave the fan off or turn it on, doesn't matter.

Engine should idle for 5 minutes or so before thermostat opens, you should see coolant drop at that point, refill to top and wait a bit more.
Raise and lower heater hoses during this time, this helps remove air blocks that can develop in the small hoses.
Check to make sure heater is blowing HOT, turn fan on.
If not see if you can move the heater hoses more or squeeze them to remove the air block.

If heater is still not hot, put rad cap on, topping up rad first.
Make sure overflow hose is connected and over flow tank is at the COLD level.

Go for a drive, up hill if possible.
This will usually push an air block out and into the rad, as engine heats up under load that air will be purged into the overflow tank.

The next morning check the overflow tank level, rad will suck coolant back in to replace any air as it cools, top it up to COLD mark.

 

[Rearanger]

I bought dex cool orange coolant today 50/50 and prestone flush cleaner for radiator...Also going to clean thag with lime away cleaner. Thanks all any suggestions

I used to do the self flush/clean method. It ends up being a huge wet hassle with disposal problems of used AF/cleaner. I would suggest to let a shop use their flush/clean machine (about $70) the first time then just drain the rad and refill with fresh 50/50 premix once per year. The Walmart 50/50 is 5 year and just as good as the higher priced stuff.

Since I've been doing this my system is like new from factory all the time. Be sure to drain and flush the overflow tank as well.

 

[adsm08]

Fill radiator with a regular funnel, leave the rad cap off, then remove one heater hose at the heater core and fill it through the hose until coolant comes out the heater core. Since the heater core is the highest point in the system that will push about 95% of the air out. The rest can usually be gotten by over-filling the overflow bottle a hair.

Do that, drive normally and if the temp gauge never pegs out check the coolant level after a week. If it does peg and then goes back to normal check and fill the coolant the next time you stop.