Bleeding the cooling system

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Drew99GT

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Man, I've had a heckuva a day today trying to purge the air out of my Corolla's cooling system after changing the thermostat. It has no bleeder valve. Normally I fill the system to within a few inches of the top of the radiator, start the engine, turn the heater on, and wait until the thermostat opens, then top off the system, shut the engine off, let it cool, and top it off. Today, before I could get to it, the whole [censored] thing overflowed with scolding coolant blowing out everywhere. That's never happened before. I let it cool, cleaned everything up, topped it off, and went for a drive. No heat. GREAT. So I let it cool off again, started the engine with the rad cap off, topped it off to within an inch of being full and as soon as it started to overflow, I stuck the cap on. By that point, I still had no heat and the thermostat still wasn't open. I finally got the air bubble out of the heater core and went for a longer drive to get the stat to open and am waiting for it to cool off again so I can top it off.

How do you guys normally bleed the cooling system when there is no bleeder valve? The Stant Superstat I installed has no joggle valve like the OEM style thermostats. Do any of you guys drill a tiny hole in the thermostat so air can get past it when you refill the system? I think that was the problem today.
 
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Do any of you guys drill a tiny hole in the thermostat so air can get past it when you refill the system?


That is exactly what I do and it works like a charm.
 
I have always drilled a small hole at both the high and low positions (if not already there} in any t-stat I have installed for that reason as well as retaining some (albeit small) flow at all times. As far as I know it has never worked against me.
 
I just inspected the Motorad stat I took out and the joggle valve is in fact a 1 way valve. When filling the system, it allows coolant/air to go against the outlet of the thermostat, but when the engine is running and flow is towards the inlet of the stat, the jiggle valve closes. That way it allows air to bleed through, but no coolant to flow past the thermostat when it's closed and the engine is running.
 
The Stant thermostat uses a V cut into the piston instead of a jiggle valve. Inever run them w/o a cap because they blow up. Leave the cap on. Run it @ 2000 rpm untill the cap opens then shut it off.

Recheck and fill it after it has cooled off.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Run it @ 2000 rpm untill the cap opens then shut it off.



You mean run it until the thermostat opens?

Thanks for the info about the Stant thermostats Chris.
cheers3.gif
 
Ya my bad. 4 days with the flu will do that. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Just leave the cap on, run it till the top hose gets hot. If it doesn't after a few minutes shut it off anyway. Recheck it and fill as necessary after it has cooled.
 
Ouch. Hope you get better soon Chris.

On my Corolla, it has the cooling system design where the thermostat is on the inlet side of the engine. Would that affect how I burp the system? It's hard to tell when the thermostat actually opens.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: beast3300

This works great on alot of cars.

funnel

lil-24610_w.jpg

I got 2 of those. Really neet idea that works. I never have figured out what cars the largest fitting and nut fit on though.
blush.gif



The black plastic one? That fits older GM's with pressurized overflow bottles. Examples 92-98 Grand AM.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Ya but mine won't fit those. It's loose and wobbly. 1/2 inch of clearance or more when I use it so I gave up LOL.


Maybe they fixed it. I broke down and got one a few months ago.

This is the best. click link
 
This will sometimes work.Since the air in the system will usually go to the highest point,jack up the front of the car and run it till it gets warm.Let cool and take of the cap and check the coolant level and add if needed.You may need to run it again and do the same.

This should help.
 
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