Hey,

Today i went about flushing the coolant out of my jc cosmo 13bt. The prob is that when i filled it back up the engine took only a few litres of water. The heater was open when i drained it.

I figured that i should turn the car on and let it run and wait for the termostat to open. It didnt seem to happen. However i noticed a few things while i was running the car. Maybee you can tell me what im doing wrong.
-There seems to be a fair bit of air in the system espcially in the top hose off the radiator (see picture).
-The add water dash light came on
-Squezzing the bottom radiator hose caused air bubles to come out the top of the radiator.
- also i noticed the hose coming off the top of the radiator is on a big slope, so that the only way water could get up there would be to somehow bleed the air out of the hose after i fill the radiator up. Even then the water would have to be sucked through (see picture)



What do i do?

Thanks
Smitch

 

Short answer is that your fill cap in the radiator is obviously lower than the high point of the cooling system. Water will run out of the cap before the system is full leaving a big air bubble right where the thermostat is. It's possible you could run the engine for a day and a half and never have the thermostat open because it's not being exposed to any coolant thus not reaching opening temp.

There are several ways around the situation. They all accomplish one thing though and that is to move the fill point higher than the rest of the system. By doing this you can use the water to force the air out of the system. Either raise the front of the car until the fill point is the highest point in the system. Looks like it's have to be pretty damn high to work. Or find a long funnel that you can seal to the fill point. These kits are a God send! http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lisle...spagenameZWDVW

 

that makes alot of sense...thanks

 

 

how long should it take for the thermostat to open from a cold start....it didnt seem to happen

 

Depends on many factors. If you have a temp gauge you should be able to see. The thermostat will open partially at a lower temp and then fully open later. Don't have the manuals in front of me so I can't quote an exact temp. If the engine is just running cool (cool ambient temps?) it might not open the thermostat fully without a load applied to it.