choinga

I'm hoping to get my car back together today after I get a few parts - first thing I'll need to do is vent the cooling system since I took the short tube off under the intake that goes back to the heater hose and leaked a cup or so of coolant.

I read the procedure on Clark's - he mentions using a pressure tester to get no more than 10PSI of pressure into the system and open the bleed screw and wait until coolant comes out.

I'm assuming you do the initial pressure testing/bleeding with the car off and then turn it on, get it to normal operating temp then blast the heat and re-vent if I'm reading his instructions properly?

If you need to add a bit of coolant at what point do you add it? Before you start the pressurization to bleed the system or after the system has been bled and you put the high vent screw back on?

Is it neccesary with a coolant pressure tester to raise the drivers side of the car to get the resivore higher than the engine block?

Is this the right kind of coolant pressure tester for this application?

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00946342000P

fbgh2o

No need for it to be hot. I never run the car before pressurizing the system.

Put the heater to full hot (although IIRC it defaults to open with no vacuum).

Jack the front end of the car high.

Open bleed screw and fill with coolant until a steady stream comes out. Close bleed screw. (I strongly advise that put something under the car to absorb the coolant that will run down onto the trays and out onto the floor - you will have spillage. I also put a rag under the bleed screw to absorb as much as possible).

Apply pressure with tester - the one you are showing should works.

Crack open the bleed screw wait for a stream of coolant to come out you should hear a hiss of air too.

Close bleed screw. Top up coolant. Repressurize. I normally do it 4 or 5 times.

I will also rebleed a day or two later to get the final air out of the system.

BE REALLY CAREFUL with the bleed screw torque... It's not hard to sheer the head (https://rennlist.com/forums/944-turb...olt-broke.html) You will probably want to keep a M8 x 12mm on hand just in case...

Would also suggest a bit of Water Wetter to the mix. Helps keep temperatures down.

choinga

Thanks Fergus.

So, I went over to O'Reily's Auto Parts and picked up (among other things) a coolant pressure testing system. You can rent it and get your money back, but it was $80 and I may just keep it for convenience. I loosened the screw a bit and then connected the testor and could barely get a half-pump into the system before coolant was streaming out. I don't have the car jacked up yet but judjing from that, maybe I don't need a bleed as bad as I thought.

I left the bleed screw open and poured in a bottle of wetter water and then hit it with the pressure tester again and then locked the screw up. I should have the rest of my parts in later today and will get the intake and such back on and get her running and see what happens. I'll probably get on the drive up stands I have and bleed it again with the block up high just to get any residiual air out of there.

Obviously you don't want to do it when the car is hot, but is it a good idea to get it up in the air and bleed it while it's running/warm first thing?