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Chrysler kid thats very interesting. The argument about how many steam tubes to run is never ending but all would agree you dont want any air in your cooling system. Do you have a link to the burping procedure you use?
Chrysler kid thats very interesting. The argument about how many steam tubes to run is never ending but all would agree you dont want any air in your cooling system. Do you have a link to the burping procedure you use?
I'll do a write up in a few days, I need to get the reinforced silicon hoses from home depot so they last longer and look better. Kinda had to make do with the adapter and hoses I had laying around
Basically I had to use a left over upper radiator hose in the opening for the cap with a funnel on the end of it to get the highest point to be the funnel to burp out the air.
The coolant cross over hose was the worse, I had to raise and lower it and move the line to get the air bubbles back in the radiator where they could come out the funnel.
It took about 5 minutes for the system to purge. The first couple of minutes for the big bubbles, after that the cross over hose had lots of tiny bubbles being pushed through with the coolant on its own. After that 5 minute period that hose was just solid coolant
I had the front end raised in the air, with Jack stands under the k member to angle the engine so that air was forced to come out to the highest point and not get stuck in the back of the heads
Last edited by chrysler kid; 04-10-2017 at 10:50 AM.
I'll do a write up in a few days for everything including the reinforced clear tubing you get from the home improvement store. It's typically called spa hose for use on a hot tub. I need to get the reinforced clear hoses from home depot to get rid of the blue hose on the adapter.
The spa hose is commonly used in the turbo import community for breather and catch can setups, I've seen full radiator hoses done in them as well though I think that's a little drastic
Basically
Raise the vehicle so that the engine is angled up. This forces air to naturally come out of the highest point at the front cross over pipe.
With the cap off use a large funnel, or radiator cap adapter, and fill the funnel to a high level so that it is clearly the highest point in the cooling system.
Turn the heater on and start the car. The engine needs to get to operating temperature and the thermostat needs to open. Once the thermostat opens you will get a burp of air out of the radiator cap into your funnel, and the level of the coolant will fall once that air bubble is burped out of the cap.
After the large burp of coolant you will still want to squeeze the upper and lower hoses, and let the fans cycle on and off 3 times to indicate the thermostat has opened and closed 3 times to remove the coolant
With the clear hose I was immediately able to tell when the system was completely removed of air. I had to finesse that cross over hose to move the air bubbles to the radiator to come out of the cap.
Once the largest bubbles and pockets were gone I saw a steady stream of very small bubbles for about 3-4 minutes going from the cross over hose into the radiator. After that 3-4 minutes the hose was filled with solid coolant.
Properly burped the system uses the cross over as an outlet for hose coolant to go into the radiator.
Air in the line and it's a steam tube that collects the hottest coolant from the engine.
Example of air bubbles causing a "steam pipe"
On a stock fbody with the hose connected to the throttle body the throttle body itself should get really freaking hot if the car has been properly burped. The brass fitting on the size adapter on the clear hose was scalding hot to the touch
I've never been burned by a stock fbody throttle body, so I would bet from the factory these cars came with a huge air bubble at the throttle body, because there's no way you could purge air out of the throttle body being higher than the radiator cap. So stock the fbody used the throttle body as the steam pipe. Not very effecient
So my first statement wasn't correct, it's a steam pipe. I'm guessing the emissions guys at gm said the tb needs to be heated and the routing was turned up to the throttle body and it became an afterthought after engine design during production .
My write up of burping the system
Last edited by chrysler kid; 04-10-2017 at 04:42 PM.
Oddly I have never been successful at burping my 99 Z28 in this manner. My 01 Z28 this worked no issues but my 99 Z28 does strange things. When I leave the cap off - nothing happens for awhile until it warms up and the thermostat opens..and thats when all hell breaks loose.. it turns into a fricken Geysers ..it will SHOOT coolant up past the hood, all over the driveway and it becomes uncontrollable and dangerous. I have to shut it off and it would have lost about half its coolant as well. I would go at it for 20 + minutes but get the same results throughout even while squeezing the upper radiator hose (which in most cases remained bone cold).. What I was eventually forced to do was top off the radiator, cap it, drive it for about 15 minutes until the low coolant light came on, return home, wait for it to cool down, top it off again, cap it.. drive it for another 15 minutes until the low coolant light came on, repeat process until the coolant level stayed high.
Oddly I have never been successful at burping my 99 Z28 in this manner. My 01 Z28 this worked no issues but my 99 Z28 does strange things. When I leave the cap off - nothing happens for awhile until it warms up and the thermostat opens..and thats when all hell breaks loose.. it turns into a fricken Geysers ..it will SHOOT coolant up past the hood, all over the driveway and it becomes uncontrollable and dangerous. I have to shut it off and it would have lost about half its coolant as well. I would go at it for 20 + minutes but get the same results throughout even while squeezing the upper radiator hose (which in most cases remained bone cold).. What I was eventually forced to do was top off the radiator, cap it, drive it for about 15 minutes until the low coolant light came on, return home, wait for it to cool down, top it off again, cap it.. drive it for another 15 minutes until the low coolant light came on, repeat process until the coolant level stayed high.
The only reason it would be shooting coolant out of the system, is that the system is pressurized in another place. I've burped many cars and pressure tested many cars, and the only shooting of coolant happens after the system is fully pressurized and looses pressure in a quick manner.
My suggestion is to rent a cooling system pressure tester (mt-300 at autozone) and pressure test your system.
Also make sure you have the engine on an extreme incline as you fill the system with the funnel method.
Also a valid question would be to ensure you are using the correct one piece design thermostat. The thermostat needs to have a tiny little hole in it, and that hole needs to be installed at the top of the rotation at 12 o clock. If that little hole which usually has a small metal peg in it does not rattle a little bit when you squeeze the lower hose, the thermostat needs to be replaced. If you're running a new water pump design with a separate housing and thermostat the thermostat needs to be clocked correctly
My hunch is that, the thermostat is not clocked in the correct position, or the bleed hole is clogged. Squeeze the lower hose and listen for the bleeder to rattle
All I have ever done to bleed the system was to remove the radiator cap, let it idle and warm up. T-stat opens and you see the level quickly drop out of site and a solid flow from the crossover port squirting into the radiator just under the radiator cap begins, inside the radiator.
I immediately top it off as soon as I see the level drop......that crossover port keeps squirting a solid stream of coolant. Then after a short period while the hot and coolant swap positions and the tstat closes......the crossover port flow into the radiator almost stops, it basically does stop, but little dribbles usually keep coming out. Not bubbles, just coolant.
I wait until the t-stat opens again.....as soon as it does the crossover port again starts squirting a solid stream again and the level usually drops again....but not out of sight. I top it off again.
I do it until the level does not drop at all........then I'm done.
Yeah thats what I usually do as well and have never had any problems. I didn't realize there was such a debate about coolant cross over pipes until it was brought up
Yeah thats what I usually do as well and have never had any problems. I didn't realize there was such a debate about coolant cross over pipes until it was brought up
Yea, these coolant systems are made to sound much more difficult than they are.
The only reason it would be shooting coolant out of the system, is that the system is pressurized in another place. I've burped many cars and pressure tested many cars, and the only shooting of coolant happens after the system is fully pressurized and looses pressure in a quick manner.
My suggestion is to rent a cooling system pressure tester (mt-300 at autozone) and pressure test your system.
Also make sure you have the engine on an extreme incline as you fill the system with the funnel method.
Also a valid question would be to ensure you are using the correct one piece design thermostat. The thermostat needs to have a tiny little hole in it, and that hole needs to be installed at the top of the rotation at 12 o clock. If that little hole which usually has a small metal peg in it does not rattle a little bit when you squeeze the lower hose, the thermostat needs to be replaced. If you're running a new water pump design with a separate housing and thermostat the thermostat needs to be clocked correctly
My hunch is that, the thermostat is not clocked in the correct position, or the bleed hole is clogged. Squeeze the lower hose and listen for the bleeder to rattle
I need to check into that because honestly I can't remember. My water pump is about a year old from Autozone. The Thermostat has been replaced twice within a 3 year period and I can almost swear that its the design where the thermostat and the housing are built into each other but I can't remember for sure.
Alright. Got my ebay radiator yesterday. Welded an bung on it for my coolant crossover/steam tubes. Installing it now. Did the radiator hoses seem too loose to you? I feel like mine are. I checked your pics and your using the quick clamps that the car uses from the factory. With the hose and the quick clamp installed I can pull the radiator hose off. This doesnt seem right to me. Do you have any leaks?
Well my hoses are original but not in terrible shape though I do plan on going with a nice silicone set sometime. So that could be part of it. They just dont fit real snug on the new radiator. Not a big deal I just went out and bought new hose clamps.
Just updating my experience so far. I drove it on an almost 400 mile round trip last weekend and its doing fine with no leaks. I even sat in traffic for an 1 and a half waiting to get into the dragstrip. Here are a few pictures of the radiator installed in my car.
Your engine bay looks awesome! Makes me want to do the engine harness mod.
I've put about 900 miles on my car so far and it's been flawless. I am debating on removing the 160 degree tstat and going back to the stock one, my car under 50 degrees really hates to be cold. It still runs fine, but with the solid motor mounts I can feel how sensitive the cold engine is to throttle
04-10-2017, 03:30 AM
