And just like the children's book, "If you Give A Mouse A Cookie", I had to do something else to the car since it was up on jackstands. I decided to flush and refill the cooolant. I had replaced it in 2003 or so, but the car didn't go anywhere - maybe 200 miles since then? So I let everything drain from the radiator petcock over night. It was pristine and green though only tested to be about -10 degrees for antifreeze effectiveness on the hydrometer. I got 15-1/2 quarts out in to the catch basin. I am now in my second day of attempting to burp the system of all the excess air. I only got around 14 quarts back in. I have been refilling it via the heater core valve line. (It's a 93, remember?) But I still had a bunch of air in the system on startup and the gauge went to about 210 before I shut it off. No heat out of the heater core. I let it cool down and the then was able to put another half a quart in. I started it and it hung around 195. (Still too hot for this car). The next day I used a tall funnel (about 18' tall, so the coolant going in was higher than any portion of the cooling system.
Those crazy heater core lines are not the highest point in the cooling system. The feed and return hoses drop down behind the engine and then rise up higher then the heater core inlets in order to reach the thermostat housing at the back of the block. I even tried lowering the back of the car to ground level in order to get the radiator higher. Not sufficient. I was able to get more coolant in today for a total of around 15-1/4 quarts. (Capacaity is 16 quarts). At least now the heater works and I can see the heat readings on my infrared heat gun. I test drove it and the temp was around 190 and I could see the needle fluctuate to 180 when the thermostat would open. There is still air in the upper radiator hose and you can hear it when you squeeze. I will let it cool down and try to add more tomorrow.
I do remember twenty years ago doing this and it also took several tries over several days to get it burped of all the air.
Last edited by njsteve; 11-22-2021 at 09:35 PM.
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