Hello.

First of all I would like to thank everyone who takes the time to make this site such a wealth of reliable information. I just finished my first complete motor rebuild on a 1995 Z28 A4 and it has been both fun and a great learning experience. It has been returned mostly to stock specifications and I have only run the new motor for about 10 minutes.

My question is... and not to be half-assed, but is there any way to successfully bleed the cooling system in my car without the stock heater hoses? The only bleeder I have on the car is on the water neck. This reverse flow cooling is bit of a mystery to me. The hoses were destroyed and seem both difficult to find and expensive. My budget and my trophy wife say that I need to stop spending, at least for a while. I have made a loop from the heater core inlet/outlets to bypass the heater core. I know the hose is higher than any other point in the cooling system, but is it possible to make this work good enough to break in the motor at least? Im scared of overheating my new motor and causing damage.

Any help would be appreciated!!

 

You'll get most of the air out with just the water neck bleeder, since you have no heater hoses. Just make sure you open it when you are filing up the radiator. You'll hear the air purge out the bleeder.