Can't get the coolant back in

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v8burbling

New Member
Posts
24
Hi all,
My first post here, be glad of some advice.
The RR is an 1973 2-door with a high-compression 3.5l V8.

Just had my radiator recored. Flushed the system from the top hose with hosepipe, seemed to go through a bit slow but ran clear eventually. Flushed from the bottom hose but it wouldn't come back out the top hose, only from the induction manifold hose. Is that normal due to the stat being closed ?

Secondly, when I tried to refill, I put 4.5litres of water into the rad in accordance with the workshop manual. Then it says "add 6 litres of coolant". As no other instruction, I continued to add this via the radiator but I can only get 1.25litres in. So now only 5.75litres in, whereas the system is supposed to contain 11 litres. Do I have a blockage, or am I supposed to add the 6 litres via the expansion tank or something ?
I did have the heater HOT valve open during filling and I did squeeze the top hose to expel air.

Thanks, Matt
 
Best thing is to premix the coolant and water fill through expansion tank until coolant appears in it, burp the hoses by squeezing them and continue to fill until level in expansion tank is reached. Start engine and continue to fill burping hoses until level is reached.
 
In my '88 classic, I found it easier to raise the front of the vehicle up so the rad is the highest point, and take out the brass radiator top plug, and fill through the expansion tank as in Wammers example....

The reason for raising the vehicle is to ensure all air is expelled easier through the highest point in the system....

I can't remember when the change over was, but my '93 Classic had a filler point mounted nice and high in the system to make bleeding the system easier.
 
Thanks chaps,
I am also replacing the expansion tank with one from an autojumble as the pipe fractured on mine. The replacement is full of soil / general muck / paint etc. I've tried rinsing with hot water but not cutting it.
Any recommendations on something I can get the insides clean with, that won't upset the engine block / radiator if there's traces of it left ?
 
give it a good blast with an airline too, the used drity header tank I mean.

Re the coolant,Like the other have said, fill it as much as you can and let it run right up to temp with the cap off.

I can run 72 2 door for ages like that , I normally wach the oil temp guage for a true reading of the engine actually being up to temp all over.

then put the cap on and leave it shut overnight , the vacuum as it cools will draw any air bubbles out to the header tank in that time. then top up the next day.

I will send you an invite for our 3 door rrc owners group. welcome!
 
Thanks Fett,
The thing that concerns me is that I have done this drain and refill before, many years ago before the car was laid up for repairs and I don't recall having any trouble with getting all the coolant back in. I think I just poured it all in through the radiator filler. I didn't remove the engine block drain plugs but could there really be 6 litres trapped in there that won't drain with the rad bottom hose off ?

A new question following work this week is what has happened to my thermostat bypass hose, I don't appear to have one fitted :confused:. The thermostat housing has the long necked tube coming out for the bypass hose but nothing is fitted there. This wasn't casuing a leak though. Were these blanked off for some reason ? Also , where should the other end of the bypass hose connect to ?

The "3-door group" sounds interesting.
 
Hi Wammers, Impressed that you built that plane entirely from drawings. Must be very light but doesn't it go all wrinkly in the rain ? ;)
 
Seriously though, respect for doing that. Building a plane is impressive stuff, scratchbuilding even more so. How does something like that get tested. Presume you can't do much else other than a fast taxi run and then take off and hope it handles well ? Awesome stuff. Well done.
 
v8burbling said:
Seriously though, respect for doing that. Building a plane is impressive stuff, scratchbuilding even more so. How does something like that get tested. Presume you can't do much else other than a fast taxi run and then take off and hope it handles well ? Awesome stuff. Well done.
Click to expand...

it dont fly though :p
 
v8burbling said:
Thanks Fett,
The thing that concerns me is that I have done this drain and refill before, many years ago before the car was laid up for repairs and I don't recall having any trouble with getting all the coolant back in. I think I just poured it all in through the radiator filler. I didn't remove the engine block drain plugs but could there really be 6 litres trapped in there that won't drain with the rad bottom hose off ?

A new question following work this week is what has happened to my thermostat bypass hose, I don't appear to have one fitted :confused:. The thermostat housing has the long necked tube coming out for the bypass hose but nothing is fitted there. This wasn't casuing a leak though. Were these blanked off for some reason ? Also , where should the other end of the bypass hose connect to ?




The "3-door group" sounds interesting.
Click to expand...

Hard to say as mine has a genuine suffix be replacment engine with very low miles on it so my drain taps both opened with my fingers (I was surprised) and quite a lot did drain out.

have a look in my albums on my profile page and see what my engine bay looks like- that should tell you if yours is set up normally
I have sent you the invite to the group, post any questions on there as there are 17 of us with 2 doors now well 18 including you now :D
 
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