20 years and its back

[BigH]

after 20 years in a barn I have finshed the v6 tax mot all done well nearly done lol whats the best way to sort an air lock in the cooling system on the 2.8 been told to get the car up on ramps and bleed it that way ?

[340truck]

Same as a pinto - boil it up, take the cap off and let it blow all the coolant out, then fill it up again. Works for me.

[gilley576]

Pretty much ^^^^^, fill from rad cap, then the expansion tank, and run the engine with expansion tank cap off, if the level goes down, top up, cap on, run till up to temp, the CAREFULLY, with a thick cloth or towel take the expansion tank cap off, let it boil over, then top up with boiling water.......

Also Leaving the heaters running on high while you do this helps.

[Terra-Kotta]

People always say "make sure the heaters on" but this really only applied to cars such as the mini which had a tap blocking water flow to the matrix. On modern cars the flows blocked by a flap that swings over the matrix so I can't see how the heater being on or off makes any difference whatsoever.

[rich_jc]

It won't to bleeding the system Glyn, but I guess it will aid in stopping the system boiling over before you get chance to fill it up to the top??

Rich

[BigH]

no joy so had the rad re cond new water pump thermostat ect hope this helps ??

[Sonic]

When I first got my 2.8i it had airlock. That time we took the rad cap off and ran it, while squeezing the bottom hose till it blew a lot of water and the airlock out.

If I'm filling the rad up, I normally just get the bottom rad hose a few squeezes to make sure the air's out. I've never had a problem since.

[pbar]

One of the manuals (Haynes I think) recommends to fill the rad slowly and to disconnect the heater inlet hose at the elbow on the block as you refill the rad. And as the coolant starts to flow out of the elbow push the hose back on. That's how I do it, seems ok. Some cars have a bleed nipple at that area instead, including some Capri's apparently.