Cooling system

[Classic Chim]

Predominantly for later cars with expansion bottle high up on the wing.
Refilling the water system from bone dry including heater matrix which was empty.
I have raised the nose of the car high and slowly filled the system.
Firstly until water flows from rad bleed screw and then nipped up and then carrying on until water flows from inlet manifold bleed hose and again nipped up and at all times kept water in swirl pot at the top of the bottle.
I’ve not put anything in expansion tank but assume I should fill it say 1/4 full to start with.
So far so good.
This went well and took say 10 mins as I was filling slowly.
My simple question is will this have filled the heater matrix ok doing it like this.
I have only put about 9.5 litres of coolant in?
I now need to carry on filling the system when engines started and burp out any air so hopefully this will complete filling the system at the same time and when no more air burbles out and water level is constant I can nip up swirl pot bung.
Wait and watch temp gauge until fans kick in and off a few times. let cool down and check swirl pot and expansion tank level.
Has anyone got tips to add feel free.
Thanks.

Edited by Classic Chim on Friday 26th March 23:53

Edited by Classic Chim on Friday 26th March 23:54

[Steve_D]

Find a plastic funnel that will 'screw' into the swirl pot. Keeping this topped up whilst the system burps itself will allow the level to rise and fall as the air works through. As the engine warms you can start running it at a high fast idle which will help get the air moving.

Steve

[Classic Chim]

Thanks Steve.
I hope your well sir.

[Penelope Stopit]

Big coke bottle with the bottom cut off with a modified top (tape or rubber hose adapted to suit) to fit into the chosen filling point, brim the bottle, this gives plenty of pressure that helps shift any air

[s p a c e m a n]

I found out that you can screw one of those pointy hoselock plastic hose end things directly into the top of the swirl pot. If you push down onto it hard enough the threads cut into the hose end and then you can just pressurise the whole system once the thermostat is open, saves jacking the car up at weird angles and all that crap.

[Penelope Stopit]

s p a c e m a n said:

I found out that you can screw one of those pointy hoselock plastic hose end things directly into the top of the swirl pot. If you push down onto it hard enough the threads cut into the hose end and then you can just pressurise the whole system once the thermostat is open, saves jacking the car up at weird angles and all that crap.

Is it ok to pressure supply cold water through a hot system?

[s p a c e m a n]

You're not filling a hot system up with cold water, you're just using some cold water to pressurise the system and get any air locks out. You can sit there jacking the car up and revving it or you can, once you've filled most of the system up, pressurise it with a hose and quickly go around checking the bleed points for air. You don't need to be opening the tap all the way and chucking litres in and I normally start off the process by just filling with straight undiluted coolant and then using ionised water, a bit of cold tap water isn't going to kill it.

[Penelope Stopit]

Gathered that you didn't mean fill the system with cold water. With you mentioning "thermostat open", thought to myself what's stopping the cold water going through the system and mixing with the hot water in it

Thank you for the explanation, think I've got it now

The 3 bar or whatever cold water pressure is used for bleeding by pressurising the hot water already in the system without mixing much with it

I like it and will be using this method next time when bleeding a system with a high mounted heater matrix

Is there a warranty that comes with your method just in case?

[Classic Chim]

s p a c e m a n said:

You're not filling a hot system up with cold water, you're just using some cold water to pressurise the system and get any air locks out. You can sit there jacking the car up and revving it or you can, once you've filled most of the system up, pressurise it with a hose and quickly go around checking the bleed points for air. You don't need to be opening the tap all the way and chucking litres in and I normally start off the process by just filling with straight undiluted coolant and then using ionised water, a bit of cold tap water isn't going to kill it.

Yeah I get this. Basically force most the air out long before you even fire it up.

It’s why an extension tube from your inlet vent pipe to your filling jug is used by the pro’s as a way to do this as it warms up I suppose. Burps itself mostly and keeps the water circulating especially at the top of the engine where air is often trapped.