Pinto Coolant System Bleeding

[Guest Boylesport]

Hello all

 

I'm new to the kit car scene and have just picked up an S7. Great car but wanted to do a few jobs to make sure it's good for summer.

 

It's recently had a new head gasket so I changed the coolant as it was a bit brown from where the gasket had gone previously.

 

I thought I had the system bled but is there any trick to getting them bled properly? I don't think the radiator top hose has any water in it yet. When I ran it up it was fine but I took it out for a drive and the needle went to zero and there was a lot of air in the system.

 

Any advice appreciated

[tractor]

let it tickover with the cap off but also depends on how its plumed up

[Andi]

Yup. Some Pintos are absolute swines for getting air locks out and others are fine.

Ive had the car jacked up at the front wheels and ran the engine with the cap off until it was proper hot.

[maccavvy]

^​​pics of the engine bay may help so we can see the plumbing set up

[theduck]

As Andi said, jack the front of the car up to get the rad cap above the height of the rest of the system.

[Guest Boylesport]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Sorry I forgot that picture may be handy, Ill get one and post it up.

 

The system runs a civic toyo sports rad and an expansion bottle up near the bulk head. It does have some copper pipe work plumbing near the exhaust manifold which comes out of the bottom hose and seems to go in to the inlet manifold? That pipework also has a bleed screw built in. I think jacking the car up may be a good suggestion.

[theduck]

The inlet manifold pipe would normally go to the water pump, but bottom rad hose works fine.

 

I run a similar rad on mine, jacking up the front will definitely help.

[Andi]

I know one chap who hoisted the front end up nearly vertical

[ozz]

Check the thermostat housing later ones had a bleed outlet blanked off with a rubber cap. Put a pipe on that an feed into a raised bottle with some coolant in it. Dont forget the bottle or garage ceiling will be sprayed ( dont ask me how I know)

[Snapperpaul]

Westfield/Caterham T piece in the hose from manifold to water pump, its generally the highest part of the system and as header tanks are Td into the lower coolant pipe to radiator are hard to bleed

[Guest Boylesport]

Thanks for the help guys, i managed to get it bled yesterday by jacking the rear up and leaving the header tank open. Few pumps of the top hose finally saw the temp gauge come back to life.

 

A few more jobs and it'll be ready for use.

[Guest Boylesport]

Finally got a picture to show you what type of cooling system it has

[tractor]

Looks like top of rad is highest point so raise front of car then bleed from top hose at rad it's a pain but doable

[cb750]

My rad has a bleed pipe welded in by the manufacture which goes back to the header tank. I've also fitted a bleed tee at the rear of the cooling system (the heater end), (heater? Wimp!). I have no problems bleeding the system.