Today my dad and I were flushing the radiator out on my SS, and when I start the car to let it idle the engine gets hot. Why is it doing this? Also when I shut it off I can hear bubbles in the radiator. And every other time I start the car to idle it's taking longer for it to get hot. Please tell me I didn't screw something up. Thanks for the help.

Joel

 

Air in the system? Did you leave the radiator cap off, wait for the tstat to open, then keep filling until it overflowed?

 

Yeah I kept the car running and the tstat would kick on, and the fluid would go down so I would keep putting more in. I kept filling the radiator it I though it was pretty much full and the jug was empty. Are these symptoms normal though? I havn't screwed anything up have I?

 

I'd wait until the car is completely cool, then check the overflow dipstick, then take the cap off or radiator and make sure it's full.

 

make shure the overflow has fluid in it the when it warms up leave the overflow cap off and gently squezz the top rad hose and that should "burp" the air out. my old lx 5.0 did that and it worked

 

you have air in the system. it takes awhile to get all the air out. Just have to keep it running and keep putting in water as it goes down, also as the other fellow mentioned, squeeze your rad hoses to help push some of the bubbles out.

ski

 

You still have air. I find that once the thermostat opens, I'll rev the motor up to 2k RPM for 20 second intervals with the rad cap off. Having the water pump spinning a little faster helps burp the system better, and keep toping up the rad level.

 

LS1s don't have a bleeder screw like the V6s? It's right by the thermostat on my V6. I don't think my LS1 has it, but I just got it a month ago. I guess it's a different system. I recently flushed mine and I know it's not nearly full as there is nothing in the overflow tank. Temps seem fine.

 

I'll tell you how to get the air out, but first please let me vent.
I just went through having the intake manifold gasket replaced on my 2K Venture Van 3.4 engine, 62K mi on it, bought it from a soccer mom so always serviced her vehicle and treaded it right. When I began researching the many yeras GM continued to put that sorry gasket material in the 3.4 & 3.1 engine from 1996 to mid 2003 knowing FULL well they were building engines and installing a defective intake manifold gasket it really blew my mind. I wonder how many hundreds of thousand of vehicles if not millions they built with those engines that had to have the gasket replaced at great expense to the owners. Fortunately the Honda dealer I bought mine from is a straight up dealership and they paid half and I paid half, $288. bucks is a lot to a senior citizen semi retired. The independent garage that did the repair said they have done as many as three a week and be glad ours leaked outside because if coolant had leaked in the oil and I hadn't caught it in time I could have wiped out the bearings and had to do a rebui9ld to the tune of $2,000. I went to se the local Mr Goodwrench said they couldn't find the TSB. We have always been a Ford or Honda family and I guarantee THIS IS THE FIRST AND LAST VEHICLE WE WILL EVER OWN. http://www.noln.net/features/feature3.html

To get the air out, park it on front up on a sort'a steep hill at a 45 degree angle with the radiator cap on the high side so the bubble will seek the high side and go out the cap. Run it with the heater valve on wide open and race the engine some and keep adding water until it is full the cap it up. Fill the reservior overfull so when it overheats turn it off and let it sit, when it's hot the trapped air will expell through the overfill tube then when it cools off it will suck water back into the radiator. For what it's worth, I flushed my system ten times and refilled it with the Universal Anti-Freeze Coolant. No more DEATH COOL for this old Dude.

 

sorry to hear u had bad luck but every manufacturer has its problems just like this so its kind of ignorant to say since u had bad luck with one particular vehicle ur only going to buy honda and ford stuff.

anyways, yeah as stated above... just keep filling and squeeze that hose a lil. u will be rid of the air in no time.

 

Did you get it figured out? I had to burp my system about 5 times before it all came out, and one time I had to jack the passenger side up while parked on a hill (my driveway) to get the air to come out.

 

Try the trick on installuniversity.com where you disconnect the hose going to the throttle body - this removes a lot of air when adding coolant slowly.