Having trouble searching the topic.. not sure if I even have a problem though. I removed my carb to rebuild, as well as the intake to mod and port, and when I removed the manifold I drained all of the coolant out of the two passages. I later plugged them with freeze plugs. I didn't drain the rad, or disconnect anything else.

I just reinstalled the mani and carb, and after a little oil down the carb, she fired right up and ran. I added coolant and topped off the rad, but It seemed like I didn't add as much as I had lost. Well, I worked the upper rad hose to try and get air out, and it didn't seem like the coolant level was changing. I let the car run for 15-20 mins, but the temp gauge never left 0. I have a feeling that all my coolant is in the rad, and not in the coolant jackets. Doesn't the thermostat stay closed until the coolant in the jackets is warmed up?

Not sure what to do, any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Justin

 

The thermostat stays closed until the motor is up to temperature. I usually let the car idle in the driveway with the radiator cap off to operating temp and add more coolant as the bubbles work there way out.

 

Make sure you have the temp on the heater turned up so that coolant will be able to flow through the heater core, that helps too. If you think you have a ton of air in your system pull the longer, driver side, heater hose off, at the heater core. If coolant comes out you should be pretty much good to go, if no coolant comes out leave it off and fill the rad until coolant does come out, then put the heater hose back on and run it for a while. That ensures the majority of the air is out, once the t-stat opens up the level in the rad might drop a bit, but not much.