98 Expedition - air in cooling system?

[Trav]

It comes with adapters sleeves that make it pretty much universal.
That's why I said drain the radiator first, it will also drain the bottle where you will pull the vacuum.

Tell me the i.d of your bottle neck and I will make sure it has an adapter that fits for sure.

Edit: They list German cars because that's what they specialize in.

 

[Fitz98]

It's 1-1/2" Inside Dimension.

 

[Trav]

The tool without adapters is about 27mm or just a ;little more than an inch up to about 45mm with the adapters so yes it will work on the expedition.

 

[Fitz98]

Thanks a lot, looks perfect for what I need.
I just made the purchase, seems like a good investment for this and other cars that will need coolant service soon.
Thanks for the recommendation and the link to a good deal.

 

[Trav]

Your welcome. Once you use this you will never be without one. I first used one years ago on MB diesels that were a pain to get the air out, did I say a real PITA! Vacuum filling took care of that, no problem whatsoever. No special funnels, bleeding, filling through hoses, burping and all that carry on.
Make sure the heater cores are open if they use a control valve so those will be filled also.

 

[Fitz98]

How do you open the heater core?
Fan control knob off temperature control knob on high?

 

[Trav]

Temp control knob. I believe your expedition uses a blend door so you wont have an issue but I will check tomorrow when I can get at a manual for it, do you have rear heat in this one?

 

[Fitz98]

Yes - Rear Heat

 

[Fitz98]

But rear heat did not seem to be working when I tested after new front heater core install.

 

[Trav]

This vehicle uses a blend door motor in the rear so vacuum and fill is no problem, coolant is circulating through the cores all the time. Once full vacuum is achieved continue vacuuming for a few min to insure the rear is totally under vacuum.

The blend motor gears are a weak spot on these, with the KOEO and door closed with no chimes turn the rear heat control knob cold to hot and you should hear the motor working, if you cant hear it have an assistant listen back there.
If its clicking the gears have stripped and you need a new blend door motor which is an easy enough job.

If you hear nothing then you need to check the wiring circuit.

 

[Fitz98]

Thanks again for the tool recommendation TRAV.
The tool worked great, just as described in the video.
I was able to pull a 25hg vacuum, but did notice a gradual drop down to about 21 over approx. 5 minutes.
I could not locate or identify a leak, so I pulled the vacuum back down again to 25 and easily filled the system.
I still have the noise from the heater core though.
Is it possible that the bottle cap would cause this if it was leaking (which would not identify with the vacuum test) or would the slow vacuum pressure drop be substantial enough to cause a problem?
There are no visible fluid leaks.

 

[Trav]

Its hard to say but generally if you loose a small amount of vacuum one of two things may be happening.

1) There is still air in the system somewhere when it burps the vacuum drops, the book I have doesn't show any vacuum or manual control valve in the cooling system but the books have been known to be less than 100% accurate.

Check the hoses going into the core front and rear for some sort of valve, it may be vacuum operated in which case use a hand held pump to open it or if cable operated in that case just open it.
Put it back under vacuum pull full vacuum and let it draw full vacuum for about 10 min, then allow it fill the system.

2) There is a slight air ingress. The next step for me once I noticed that would be to pressure test the system.
A bad cap on the bottle will prevent the system from building pressure but shouldn't allow air to enter the system.

 

[Fitz98]

Not sure if maybe I am chasing a ghost or not, now that I am sensitive to listening to the sound due to the repair I made.
I listened in my Suburban after shutting it down with heat on, same sound from it..but it recently had a water pump change, so maybe there is a problem in both vehicles?
Here is a dropbox link to a video of the sound. You may need to turn up your volume a little. The first sound was me shutting off the truck.
Is this normal?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6q4567ddy6fufmx/2018-01-10 15.53.28.mp4?dl=0

 

[Trav]

Was the a/c compressor running prior to shut down? Maybe set to defrost? Its common for the evap core to gurgle after shut down, some cars do make sounds when the engine is turned off that are usually harmless if there is no leak and there is heat I wouldn't worry about it.
Does the tank have pressure when its at operating temp? Use a mechanics stethoscope on the heater hoses and listen.