little background: it's an 82 S about 110k miles, bone stock except it's got a 3 row radiator from Rotary Performance.

I did a flush and fill word for word like the Haynes manual said to. When I ran water through the heater hose, plenty came out of the engine drain hole and lower radiator pipe.

My problem is when filling the radiator (everything's hooked up) I only put in about 1.5 gallons, should be 2.5 right?. I started the car, let it warm up (choke went in), and revved it a few times. The personal heater control switch was all the way to hot. I got bubbles, went down a little, but then the level came back up. All the gauges read normal. I had it up on jacks so I thought that would make all the air pockets come out.

I can't drive it just yet, but do you all think that would help getting it all out? I don't believe that 1 gallon can be missing from trapped from air bubbles. I did this about 2 months ago when I put in the new radiator, and everything went by the book. Also during that time, I changed the thermostat (Mazda) and hoses. I had to drain it again because I didn't put enough sealant on the t-stat gasket, so it green stuff was oozing out. I got a new gasket and put the stuff on all sides like peanut butter now.

 

ur not gonna get all of it out, also when u changed the thermostat are u sure u put it in the right way, if u put it in backwards it wont open and let the coolant circulate.just some thoughts.

 

wow, quick response.

yeah, I put it in with the pin on top.

 

yeah i try to help,hmmm, when u flushed it the water flowed freely, like it dint show any signs of cloggs or anything?

 

yes. Not a lot of gunk came out, it went from green to clear in about 5 seconds. However, it did take maybe 20 seconds more or less for water to come out of the engine drain, although I didn't turn the hose on all the way. Did that for at least 15 minutes.

 

yeah, hows ur water pump??

 

Good question, how do i check that? I know the car has never over heated, I can put a wrench on the fan bolt and turn it with little effort, the belt's good, nothing drips from it, and when I was running the engine after the flush, I can see the coolant moving. Is there any other test short of taking it out?

 

the only thing i can think of is to get ur system pressure tested, i dont know exactly how u test a water pump but im sure someone here does.just wait for some smart guy to come around.yeah but if the waterpump doesnt leakand it turns fairly easy i guess its ok, but the way u described everything else i cant see aythingelse wrong with the cooling system. anyways theres my advice, now wait and see wat other peeps think.

 

cool, I appreciate the help.

 

Update: I took it for a long drive, nothing weird happens. The coolant level didn't go down a lot, temp stayed pretty cool, didn't go above 1/3 on the gauge. So, I assume that not all of the water from the flush got drained out, probably giving me a 70/30 mixture. But almost one whole gallon staying there??

 

If you had the front end jacked up, you didn't get all of the coolant out of the block, and you did remove the block drain plug I take it. draining from the lower radiator hose leaves some in the bottom of the rad, as opposed to the rad drain plug, and the heater core may still be holding some if you didn't move the heater controls to heat to open the valve.

The FSM says capacity is 10 qts/2-1/2 gal., but I don't think I have ever managed to get a full 2 gals. in one yet. Close but not quite 2.