Radiator and water levels

[mb802]

Hello chaps, I'm a relatively new TVR S owner having had my monza red motor for about 3 months and have found these threads invaluable. However, I'm afraid I've got a rather simple question that no-one else seems ignorant enough to have asked yet when I search for it:

To what level should I be filling the radiator?!? The thermo guage had been rocketing to the red after a matter of minutes and discovered the hoses were fairly gunged up. After draining a few litres of rusty water, flushing the system and replacing with lots of coolant, the trusty S now burbles happily at 90 degrees even when stuck in traffic. However, I can only assume I've filled it to the right point (about an inch from the cap). Is that right?

Also, I discovered a hose that was plugged at one end by a screw-in bolt kept in place by a jubilee ring. What is this for? Should it be blocked with the bolt? I removed the bolt while i was refilling the radiator - having assumed it was for bleeding the system and screwed it back in when I was done, it didn't seem to make any difference either way.. Any guidance would be very much appreciated!

[spludge]

About an inch from the neck of the swirlpot sounds about right, thats where mine settles after filling.

You'll have to trace the other end of that blocked hose to work out what thats for, the only bleed point I'm aware of is the valve on top of the radiator.

K

[S3Swiss]

Do you have an expansion tank still? Maybe someone removed it and blanked off the hose to it? Is it the hose from the very top of the swirl pot (the tall cylinder with the rad cap on)? When you have sorted what the hose is, you'll have to ask which way round the pressure caps go That usually gets the debate going (see numerous old threads via the search tool!)

[Jed-S]

My car used to run ok and when cold the water level was about an inch below the top of the swirlpot. Since I've fitted a new pressure cap to the swirlpot it now sucks coolant from the expansion tank properly and when cold the coolant is always level with the top of the swirlpot.
For the cost of a cap (under £4 - QH part FC53) it would be worth replacing.

[jimed]

Mine is per the one above - ie - the swirl pot is full and it sucks back. It won't do that unless you have the correct cap on the swirl pot as it enables the sucking back which a standard type cap does not. Mine has the pressure cap on the swirl pot and the blank cap on the header tank and it works fine for me although others have them the other way round and it works OK for them as well (thinks though - is the header tank pressure tested to 15psi which is the cap release pressure?? If not the cap should be on the swirl pot which I think is the more usual way?). One thing though is that the cap on the swirl pot doesn't seal completely as it is a metal to metal contact (I used to wonder why I always had to put a little bit of water in the swirl pot to top it up); I got a bit of old tyre rubber from an inner tube and made a gasket which sits between the cap and swirl pot top and it now doesn't use any water to speak of.
You do need to sort out the blanked off hose though as there shouldn't be one; the header tank is the small hose off the top of the swirl pot. If that is the one that's blanked you need the header tank. If its not that one let us know where its from etc and someone will have a look and see what it should be ..
Jim

[mb802]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys - I'm going to have to get back under the bonnet and if it still doesn't make sense will try to post a pic of what's going on.

[bil]

my s3 is the same as Jimed and Jed-s.