Can someone please explain this process to me? My motor was on the stand for months, (65 - 289), and may have this problem of trapped air. How do I fix it, and how do I verify I have done it correctly? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! THANKS!!!

 

No ideas?

 

Someone correct me if this is wrong.

Fill up the radiator to the top of the fins (not the neck), start the car with the rad. cap off, let it idle until the thermostat opens and you have good coolant flow, then top off and seal it up. If you don't have an overflow, the top off part means to the top of the fins again, or a little higher.

 

sounds good to me...make sure your heater is open too and you have to run it long enough to ensure the thermo opens fully.

double checkand top up again the next day after it has fully cooled down. If it seems very low the next day, repeat.

 

Aussie, I don't believe the 26 gallons of beer a year, based on the aussie's I've known, maybe closer to 150. j/k!

Sorry for the hi-jack, now back to our regularly scheduled programming ......

 

Educate me here... doesn't the heater core always have flow through it? It's a 65, and I know there is no valve for the heater like on 67-68 and up... the hoses run straight to the heater core and back...so this tells me the heater core is always seeing flow?

 

on your heater controls there is one for turning the heater on, one for temp and one for directing to the windshield inside (demisting).

the one that controls temp is opening the heater box a little or a lot to allow air into the cabin.

the one that turns the heater on is operatinga tap between the heater box and the firewall (on the inside of the car)...sono the heater does not necessarily have flow all the time.

Texas the guys i know who drink 150gals per year dont walk any further than from the Tv to the beer fridge or the can. Big blocks?

 

Fair enough. I know a couple of females (small ones at that) that can drink me under the table, though. And I weigh 250 lbs.

But, on my '66 the coolant is always flowing through the heater core though. The 3 cables simply operate air control doors. I just rebuilt it a few weeks ago.

 

I have heard of air locked blocks, but I always followed the procedure Texas said and have never had a problem. If you do not see coolant flow and your engine gets hot, then you have an air lock, but if you see things flow after the thermostat opens, you should be in good shape.

 

After installing the engine and cooling system add coolant to the radiator with the heater hose removed from the engine intake manifold.This will allow the trapped air out. When the coolant starts to come out, attach the heater hose and top up the coolant.

When you start the engine, the remaining trapped air (mostly in the heater hose) will burp out the radiator cap likely taking some coolant with it (overflow bottles are nice).

If your car is like mine and is always burping air out of the radiator cap and you have some steam coming out of the exhaust, you probably have a blown headgasket, or worse.